A large round object hovered over my house very late at night, with lights all around it, that faded as I looked.

At approximately 3:00am,my son and a friend were sleeping on the screened -in back porch. Suddenly, my son came running into my bedroom and shook me awake, yelling "Mom, come look, there's something funny outside".  I got out of bed and went to the porch and looked outside above the house.  Above us I saw, about 50 to 80ft above us three rows of lights that seemed to outline a large craft.  As I watched for about 2 minutes, the lights slowly faded out. It was so weird, not even the crickets were chirping.  It was dead silent.  I never said much to anyone, but it seems that no-one but us saw it...at least I never heard anyone talk about it.  It wasn't until much later, when I read in a book (unfortunately I can't remember the name of it,) that a woman who chased these sightings down, mentioned that they could just fade away, but that it didn't mean they were gone.  When I read that, I felt more secure in my sighting.  I was afraid to say anything about it because people tend not to believe.  To this day, my son won't talk about it because when he woke up at 3:00am, he said he was standing up, and didn't remember getting to his feet.  It scared him to talk about it because he heard that these "people" kidnapp people.  His friend claims not to remember, but I know he does.  I have always wondered why they are so reluctant to talk about the incident. By the way they also told me that it was very bright until I got there, that's when it became dimmer.
Date of event is approximate.  PD