The Day Our House Burned Down and What Happened After (Part 4)

Saturday morning dawned. I hadn't slept again that night; Mom and Dad have a second bedroom with a double bed that for the first few nights that my oldest two boys slept in, and a pack and play for the baby in the same room. They also have a FROG (finished room over the garage), but there is only a double bed in there. Shawn slept up there for the first couple of nights while I slept on the couch in the living room. We wouldn't fit comfortably together in that small bed, and he needed his sleep more than I did; he was doing heavy work, after all.

Shawn and I woke up very early (if I really slept at all) and went to Home Depot to get respirators and gloves for people to use while in the house. When we got back at around 8am, there was already a car in front of our house. It was our pastor, ready to work. We hadn't even had breakfast, so we told him to come over to Mom and Dad's and eat with us.

When we were done (he'd already had breakfast, but came with us anyway) there were more people there. Honestly, I don't even know how many people came; I know of one special lady in particular that wrote this status that afternoon after she'd come to help for a bit:

"Okay folks: I just left the Johnson's home. The immediate need is for LOTS of people to come move EVERYTHING out of the house TODAY. Look at your own home and imagine if every single thing needed to be packed up and moved out by Monday morning. Also, they need boxes for packing. I suggest you wear work boots. I know it is a busy weekend with graduation, Annie's funeral and Father's Day...but just one hour would help tremendously."

Someone brought food that day (people actually brought food for a couple of weeks after; we had so much!) and there was so much, Mom and I took it down to the house, set up the picnic table outside and fed everyone that was there.

My best friend and her family came. I cannot tell you how much I love this lady. She sat with me, cried with me, and just loved me. This is what she had to say when she got home that evening:

"Just came from my friend, Tina Johnson's house...Sean helped with pulling stuff out of the house, I hung out with the kidlets and the momma's. I had a good look at what fire contained in a hallway can do to an entire house. So so so grateful that I still have my friends and their sweet little boys. It is nothing short of a miracle that this is so. God is good and stuff is just stuff."

My husband's brand new chair

The first pile of furnishings that had to be thrown out

My in-laws came that day, too. My father-in-law went down to the house and looked at it; I've never seen him cry, but Shawn said he did. That evening, they took us to the store and bought us shoes, clothes, underwear, everything. Some of the ladies that had come to help clean took clothes that had been in the dressers home with them to wash them. One lady in particular still makes me giggle; she sent me a text that night saying "you have a very impressive sock collection!"  I wrote back: "you should have seen it before Shawn made me pare it down to just TWO drawers instead of three!!" 

The next morning, my in-laws left, taking my oldest two boys home with them for the week. I needed to keep the baby; he kept me grounded. I had to have something/someone to take care of. It was Father's Day. We went to church that morning, put the baby in the nursery, and went in to worship. I remember just sobbing during the praise and worship time. It was a welcome release. After church, Shawn and I ran away. We just needed alone time, together.

Monday was coming, and the hardest work was about to begin.

Part 5 coming soon!

The Day Our House Burned Down and What Happened After (Part 3)

(This is the third installment of our house fire story. If you haven't read the beginning, you may want to go back to Part 1 and then Part 2 to catch up!)


So, here we were. A family of five, one child still in diapers, and we got out of the house with the clothes (PJ's) on our backs. One small blessing was that we had some dirty clothes in the garage waiting to go in the wash, and since the garage is on the other side of the house from the fire, they were fine. We did a small load at my parent's house. Mom handed us some money and told us to go to the store to get some basics: diapers, wipes, toothbrushes, and an outfit for each of the boys.

After a night of practically no sleep, Shawn and I found ourselves walking the aisles of Target, trying to figure out what we really needed. I remember he got a phone call from his boss while we were there, and I remember having a crying fit right there by the shampoo. He had to get off the phone and hold me til I stopped. (I'm tearing up just remembering this!)

It's weird; I only remember little snippets of things that went on over those couple of days after the fire. I remember walking through Target with Shawn, getting phone call after phone call from concerned friends and family, people stopping by to see what they could do to help, just lots of things happening in a very short amount of time. Friday was spent trying to figure out what to do next.

<Insert short rant here>

One thing you will hear me preach now is that if you are renting, PLEASE get renter's insurance!! We didn't have it. We lost everything. And we didn't have the money to replace everything. If we had just spent the tiny bit of money per month (I think it's maybe $13-$17 per month!) we could have replaced everything brand new. Furniture, electronics, clothing, EVERYTHING. Don't make the same mistake, spend the money. Trust me on this.

<end rant>

This is the fireplace that my Grandpa built. The fire was "contained" in the hallway to the right. They didn't say anything about smoke damage.

We were informed by the Homeowner's insurance agents (thankfully, my parents own the house and have excellent HOI) that since we didn't have renter's insurance, we had to clean out the house if we wanted to save anything. There was no way I was going to be able to do this; I was still pretty much in shock (and actually stayed that way for quite a while) and Shawn is only one person. This is where my church family stepped in.

The renovators told us that while we were in the house, because of the damage and the fumes, we should wear gloves and respirators. People asked how they could help, and we told them about cleaning out the house. Saturday morning dawned, and what happened next still bring tears to my eyes.

But I'll leave that for tomorrow; dinner needs to be made!

The Day Our House Burned Down and What Happened After (Part 2)

So yesterday, I told you the beginning of when our house went POOF.

Of course, I called 911 back.

Fire trucks came. Since we live in a rural area, they had to bring pump trucks, because we don't have fire hydrants. I had also called my parents, who live right across the field. They came, and we watched the firefighters work. After a little bit, the boys became grumpy, so Mom and I took them over to their house to let them go back to sleep.





Me and my boys, still in our pajamas; about 4am.

 

 

I got on Facebook and asked for prayer. A friend that is living in Pakistan called me to see if we were all right.  I took this picture from my mother's couch that morning:

 

That is my house, with 6 fire trucks in front of it. Shawn and my Dad were still there until the fire trucks left around 5am. The firefighters said that the fire was "contained to the hallway area", so I thought that meant things were better than they actually were.

You see, when Shawn went back into the house to find the fire, he found smoke coming from the attic access door. When he opened that door, as he was looking up, he saw more smoke coming from the closet door to his left. He opened the closet door and found the source. There was a blanket that had fallen onto a bare light bulb. We never turned that light on, but we had little children in the house. Somehow, that light had been turned on during the day, and it smoldered all that time. When he found the smoldering blanket, he pulled it out, stomped on it (with bare feet !!!!??!!) and thought it was out.

But it wasn't.

Since the firefighters said that the fire was contained, I thought "oh, ok. It's not so bad. We'll be back in there quick." I went over there to look at things (I was told not to, but I'm hard headed like that) because I just knew I was right.

What I saw made me melt into a puddle of goo.

My bookshelf; the bathroom is on the right

Looking into the burnt hallway from the living room

The attic access, um, hole (there used to be a door there)

This is the closet where the fire started

  We had a discussion with the insurance agents and the renovation people on the front porch of my house that day. We asked how long it would take for the house to be livable again. The renovation guys said 4 to 6 months.







The Day Our House Burned Down and What Happened After (Part 1)

June 15, 2012. That was the day. Well, actually, that was the morning. 2:30am, to be exact. That was when Shawn and I were awakened by the shrill, piercing screech of the smoke alarms in our home.

The weekend before had been our state's homeschooling convention; we try to use that weekend as a getaway weekend. We leave the kids with grandparents and have a date weekend. We are overloaded with information, participate in fabulous seminars for 3 days, listen to engaging speakers and just generally re-group. I LOVE our HS convention!! This particular weekend, I had gone to every one of Crystal Paine's seminars (she's the Money Saving Mom if you didn't know!), bought our curriculum for the next year and had a nice time with friends and my hubby.

The night before, Thursday evening, I had auditioned for our church's Praise and Worship team. I was nervous, to be sure. I mean, I did go to college for Music Education with a vocal concentration, so I can sing. I wanted to be on the P&W team for a long time, I just hadn't had a chance to audition. When I came home from the practice knowing I was accepted, I was so excited!

That night, my world was turned upside down.

The smoke alarms started going off, waking me up first. Shawn woke up soon after, and we both knew something was wrong. We stumbled around the smoke-filled house, trying to find a fire. We couldn't. There were no flames, only smoke, and lots of it. I felt the Lord speaking to me at that moment: "Get the kids. Get out of the house." Yes sir! I grabbed Elijah (who was 1 and a half at the time, still in diapers, a crib, and in his own room), and Shawn grabbed Noah and Aaron (7 and 3 at the time, and together in the same room), we got in the car and pulled it out of the garage. I then called 911 from my cell phone.

Because of where we live, just on the edge of one city, (and because I was using my cell phone) the 911 call was answered by the neighboring city, and had to be transferred. As I was calling, my sweet husband decided to go back in the house to look for the fire some more. I was telling the dispatcher we have a fire, don't know where it is, but there's smoke everywhere, etc., and then Shawn comes running back out saying "I found it! I found it! It's Ok!". When I relayed that to the dispatcher, she said that they still had to send someone out, and I was fine with that. I hung up the phone, we turned around to look at the house, and we literally saw it go:

Come back tomorrow for the next installment!

When Did the Word "Modest" Become a Lightening Rod for Controversy?

Browsing through Facebook this morning, I saw where a friend had "liked" an article Why I Choose To No Longer Wear Leggings, written by Veronica Partridge.  It sounded interesting, so I read it.

Ok, so she doesn't wear leggings as pants anymore, because she felt convicted. She felt that she shouldn't be dressing in a way that would make a man look lustfully at her. This was HER decision; she never said that no one else on planet Earth should ever wear leggings as pants, this was just something that she felt that she needed to change. I get it.

Then, apparently things blew up, and she was skewered for her decision (this was just one that I found.)  Not mine, not yours, hers. Some have come to her aid, like Matt Walsh, and I love what he says and how he says it. But he left out a little factor, that he may just not have considered.

You see, I am the mother of three boys. Three young men that their father and I are trying to raise to be Godly men, husbands and fathers themselves one day. Two of them are still young (4 and 6), but my oldest, at 10, is beginning the early stages of <shudder> puberty. Right now, it's just the sullen, sulky, grumpy, get my brothers away from me type of behavior. My husband has had "The Talk" with him, but at this point, the reaction was, "EW! That's gross Dad!!" and that was it.

I know, however, that the time will come when it won't be gross to him anymore. In this day and age where Victoria has no secrets left, I fear for him. I like how Matthew L. Jacobson  puts it in his post, Modesty in Modern Culture: Why Veronica is Right and Victoria is Wrong

If you know me, you know that I usually wear skirts. In fact, I really haven't worn pants (except for a couple of really cold days or just around the house) for about a year and a half to 2 years. Why do I wear skirts all the time? I have a few different reasons.

1. Let's face it. I have three boys. I don't have the opportunity to dress a little girl in frilly, pink stuff. Do I miss that? Maybe a little. I won't lie.

2. I have boys. Can you imagine the conversations that go on in this house on a daily basis? I mean, just the other day, my youngest told the oldest, "Hey! I just farted! Come smell my butt!!" *sigh* Yes, that is my life. I need something feminine, ya'll. I need to feel like a girl, and skirts do that for me.

3. I have BOYS (did I say that already?) I want to be a good example for them of a modest woman. Do you have to wear skirts all the time to be modest? Of course not. That is just my choice, for the reasons above.

Do I wear leggings? Yeppers! It gets cold out here, and I wear leggings under my skirts. Personally, I would never dream of not wearing something over my leggings; you just don't want to see that.

I know I can only control what I do. I can't control what someone else wears, or what someone else looks at. But, I can choose to do what I feel honors God and my husband. And while they are still young, I can protect my boys from images they shouldn't be seeing. But while I can't protect them forever, I can try to instill in them what it means to be modest, what is right and what is wrong, and pray for them to be Godly men.

I say this man and these boys are worth it.

Enough

Merry Christmas!!

Yeah, I know I'm a bit late. I've been a tad busy lately! Between Christmas functions, family visiting and sickness, we've had a very full Christmas season.

Now, here we are: 2015. I've been inundated with emails from bloggers (yes, I read a lot of different blogs!!) about organization, de-cluttering, etc. since just after Christmas. To be honest, these don't really apply to our life right now. I'm not saying that we don't have any clutter and I'm super organized, at all!! It's just that after our house fire a couple of years ago, we just don't have a lot of "stuff".

One day, I'll write a post about our fire. Today isn't that day. I want to write about being content. In this day of social media, it is so easy to look at your "friends" lives and decide that you aren't content with what you have. It's so easy to play the comparison game. You start to think that you aren't enough. What you have isn't enough.

What is enough?

Enough is having a warm place to sleep at night.

Enough is having food to feed your family (even if it is only bean burritos!)

Enough is looking into the eyes of your 4 year old as he looks up at you with love and says "Mommy, you are the greatest Mommy in the whole wide world."

We play the comparison game too much, friends. We all have our blessings, we all have our crosses to bear. Mine is different from yours. Doesn't make it better or worse; just different. And let's face it; we only post the "perfect" pictures on Facebook, don't we? I know I took a bunch of pictures this morning as my boys piled in my snuggly warm bed with me, only to deem them not fit for public scrutiny!

Well guess what? I'm getting off the comparison merry-go-round.

I have enough. I AM enough.

In the words of a song by Francesca Battistelli:

"I don't need my name in lights
I'm famous in my Father's eyes
Make no mistake
He knows my name
I'm not living for applause
I'm already so adored
It's all His stage
He knows my name!"

And I thank my Father every day for all that I have.