FIRE!!!!!

Here is the scariest story of my life thus far....

I was doing laundry and when I came upstairs, I smelled smoke. I went and looked out the back door and saw a fire that had started at the base of the hill behind our house. I quickly grabbed Hadley, Brody, our laptop and my camera gear and got the heck out of the house! After I loaded everything into the car, I ran back inside (I was in no way calm, collected or composed) and I looked out the deck and the whole hill behind our house was totally in a huge blaze. So I got the heck out, called Sam to tell him that our house was probably going to burn down and cried like a huge, big baby.

So we spent all day today stuck in our car down the street from our house, with ashes falling from the sky, watching the helecopters dump water on the fire, wondering what was happening. We weren't allowed to go down the street or into our houses so when it came time to feed Hadley, I had to drive to the store and buy all new food for her. We seriously sat in the car all day long waiting for them to finish fighting the fire. IT SUCKED!!!! There were probably about 20 fire trucks in our neighborhood for the day. We just sat in our cars and waited to hear what had happened.

This is the report...

Our house was the only one on the street that actually caught fire. Our deck caught fire and thankfully the firemen were able to put it out before the rest of the house caught on fire. You can actually check out the video of our deck on fire here. The white house on the right is ours.
Pretty scary stuff!

So, here is the damage:

* The firemen tromped through our house, leaving our white carpets completley black with soot, mud and whatever else was on their shoes. Did I mention that our carpet used to be white? They have to be replaced because of the firemen, and also because of the smokey smell stuck inside the carpet. No bueno!

* A few windows in our house crakced from the heat of the fire

* Our deck needs to be replaced. Our BBQ grill (with a propane tank) was on the deck during the fire. I am so grateful that it didn't catch fire because our house probably would have exploded.

* A smoke stench that is in all of our clothes, drapes, and throughout the whole house. We had to stay at a hotel the night of the fire because we couldn't stand to even be in our house.

I am so grateful that our whole house didn't burn to the ground. Let me tell you, that was the scariest time of my life, running through my house thinking that I might not have a home later that day.

We know that the Lord was really watching out for us. Having to replace a few windows and carpet and a deck really isn't a big deal. I am just grateful that we were watched over and that our house is still standing!

Sam took a bunch of photos with his phone, we will have to post them later for all to see.