It was my little girl Jessie's 6th birthday party. We had just come back from the park and put all her new things into her bedroom. The kids were in the little pool in the front yard when I heard thunder. I called them in to change to dry clothes and was excited because I was night shift worker... thunderstorms meant we could take a nap without the kids thinking I was just ruining their day for me! I had took my shoes off, and turned the blankets down when there was a knock at the front door. I was surprised to see my old friend, Lynn, who had NEVER been to my house before. Now truthfully, I was excited to see her, but disappointed in my missed opportunity for a nap. We had been talking in the living room for about 20 minutes when lightening boomed down and I just knew it had hit just outside the door.
Within about 3 minutes, my kids started screaming.. and the next thing I knew they were running past us yelling fire. They ran straight out the front door the the neighbors back door screaming for them to call 911. ( here I must tell you.. from the time they were old enough to walk and talk, being a 911 dispatcher and me being a little paranoid, we had practiced fire drills... if you don't do that.. you should! )
When I stepped to the front of the hall I could not believe my eyes... the whole hall was in flames. Fire was every where and sparks were shooting out from the outlets behind my washer and dryer, the breaker box and the hallway light. Fire was literally rolling down the hall way like water being poured on the floor from a bucket. My smoke alarm beeped exactly twice before being melted off the wall. I grabbed the phone and called 911, screamed for Lynn to go make sure the kids did not come back in, and while talking to the 911 operator, dumped the clothes out of a laundry basket and started literally throwing pictures from off the walls into it. It took about 2 minutes from the time I saw the fire in the hallway until it was over the top of my head in the living room. I grabbed one last picture and ran out the front door just as the glass from the windows bedside it exploded all over me.
My children were outside in the neighbors yard terrified and I realised that my car parked rite in front of the doors for unloading birthday presents couldn't be moved. ( I'd left my purse with the keys inside.) I went to my kids, held my daughter while she cried uncontrollably, and my son while he sat silently and watched telling them through fake smile that everything was fine. It just meant we get to get all new things.
Again I have to tell you here.. I was very young. It had taken me years to buy that trailer. We had lived in rat holes and old trailer parks for several years and I had slowly moved my way up. We had only lived there 6 months then. It was the first place my kids had had their own bedrooms, our first washer and dryer, microwave, T.V. and furniture that matched. It was our castle. Watching it go.. and without insurance... was the hardest thing. My Son, 4 at the time and a procrastinator by nature, hadn't finished getting dressed and was in nothing but a t-shirt sitting bare-bottomed in my arms. He started crying too when he realised that his talking Barney was still inside. It took about 8 minutes for everything we owned to be swallowed by fire.
The story is far from over.. but I'll end this here by just saying... we were a pitiful site.. the three of us. Me standing there with a laundry basket full of pictures, and sad birthday girl with no presents left, and a naked bottomed 4 year old. But at that very minute, surrounded by neighbors, firemen, and newspaper people tons strangers... I realised 2 very important things. One.. is that had my friend not of stopped by for the first time ever on a whim... we would have been asleep. And 2... not one of us had a scratch or a singed hair on our head.
Lessons learned..
God works in some very mysterious ways.
He gives us nothing we can't handle.
I am blessed.
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