The day our lives were forever changed

That was one week ago today. One week ago that my families whole world was flipped upside down.

It was a normal Wednesday, until I got a phone call from Mitch around 4:30 telling me he was outside of my work and that I needed to come outside and he would explain.  A million things ran through my head-something had happened to his mom or brother,or he had had real bad day at work, and it even crossed my mind that he might be surprising me with an impromptu date night, but none of the thoughts that ran through my head would start with "Your parents house is on fire..."

I immediately called mom and her voice on the other end said it all...this was not just a small grease fire, this was their entire lives, our lives, my entire childhood burning in front of their eyes. 

It became very clear to me then why Mitch had come to pick me up-he and my mom didn't want me to be by myself, driving, pregnant, when I heard the news. They were right. 

The emotions that came over me after hearing my mom's voice and learning that we had lost 4 of our 5 animals (our babies) and that the house was gone, are emotions that I won't ever be able to describe and will hopefully never again feel as long as I live.  Mitch couldn't drive that Jeep fast enough.  It was uncontrollable,  excruciating pain that I will never wish on anyone. 

As we pulled up to the house, there were so many fire trucks and neighbors standing outside.  They worked on putting the fire out for hours and even had to come back at one point to finish putting out a "hot spot" that continued to burn long after they left. 

My mom and brother were in the house, upstairs when the fire broke out and were "saved" by one of the "babies" we lost, Yuki, the kitten, who warned my brother that there was something funny going on downstairs. If they had waited 5 more minutes, the fire marshall said they would have been trapped and not able to get out.

We have seen in this last week alone the amazing love and support that people can show towards one another and are truly in awe.  We have received so many wonderful "gifts" and phone calls and texts that it is overwhelming in the amount of people that want to help when people need help the most. 

I personally can speak for my husband on this front. 
I have fallen in love with this man all over again for all he has done in the last week.  He has truly "taken one for the team" from rummaging through the house to find sentimental things that we wanted to salvage, to being by my dad's side so that he is not alone while he is at the house gathering things up, to arguing with the fire dept and forcing them to go back in to find our babies so that they could be laid to rest properly and all the while making sure that me and our baby girl have eaten, drank plenty of water and are resting.  He is my rock. I love you!


Below are pictures of what is left of my childhood home.

I struggled with the thought of whether or not to even write this post, but ultimately decided that this blog is for scrapbooking my life, our lives and the story simply wouldn't be complete without this in it. It has certainly changed our lives and will continue to change our lives as we begin to rebuild and start over with what we have left, especially our lives.

the kitchen

the breakfast nook

the laundry room

my parents bedroom

the spare bedroom (my old bedroom furniture)

my brothers room-this is where he was when Yuki started acting funny

the office-where my mom was sitting at her desk and the fire was on the other side of the wall

the attic that now looks into the front yard

back of the house-the fire supposedly started with the ceiling fan on the screened in porch and went into the kitchen and up through the attic

To say we are lucky sounds silly at this point, but we really are.  My family is alive and we were able to salvage some things-some clothes, pictures (granted many are burned or have some water damage, but are salvagable) jewelry, family heirlooms and such.  It could have been much worse.  Hopefully this experiece will open all of our eyes to what is really important in life and to better prioritize

I thank God every day that they were able to get out and I pray that those images in their minds that play over and over again are quickly erased from their memory and only good things are remembered from our home.