House Fire (Part 2)

On Tuesday, Dec. 8th, 2009 we went to our house to get as many bags of clothing as we could. I was in my bedroom showing my husband the 3 baskets of clothes I needed to take with me. I was on the phone talking to a friend of mine who was inquiring as to how we were doing. I walked away and went into the bathroom and went to reach over to the bathroom counter where my jewelry box was to get my moms rings she had given me a long time ago. Just out of no-where I felt this pulling in my back and I tried to straighten back up and felt shooting pains go from my hip down my leg. Somehow, I either pulled a muscle or pinched a nerve. Either way I was in immediate pain. I made it out the house and to the laundry mat where one of my best friends was there to help us. We did 72 loads of laundry that day. The laundry owner/manager gave us a laundry card to do all our laundry! What a blessing!!!! We were so thankful for this kind expression of love. We will still have to determine what goes and what stays. A few of the coats took two washings to get most of the smoke out of them. Not sure if the smoke is out of it all or not. I have been hobbling around since then and can't do much!

You can only imagine that I would be asking, or thinking.. "What next"? Nope.... never say that... or something will come. In fact maybe it will anyway cause I never ask whats next and it comes anyway!!!!

Fire Restoration keeps calling and wants to get to the cleaning.... we are holding them back till we hear from our electrician who didn't show up this week like he was supposed to. We heard back from the Insurance Company today and they told us how much they were willing to give us to fix the house. Personally, it was the mortgage companies insurance company so why should WE have to hire a construction crew ourselves to fix it? I'm sure the mortgage company wants to continue to get paid. Just doesn't make sense. The amount they told us was way less than expected. So we will wait till our lawyer lets us know what to do. We are trying to do a "Quick Sale" where the insurance company gives the mortgage company the money they were going to give us in order to satisfy the debt. Then, we'll have to fix the house ourself. I think I'd rather have them pay it off and us struggle to fix it than them give us enough to put a bandaid on it and continue fixing a house that is going to continuously fall down. Well, we'll see.

In the meantime, I want to count all the blessings we have received. The main blessing is, my son was not in that room. I just thank G-d he wasn't. I thank G-d for all my friends who have called me to uplift my spirits... for the card one friend wrote to me that made me wanna cry (TeaSea) for my many friends who continue to call me and keep my spirit upbeat with good thoughts. For the ones who have sent gift cards to use at Walmart so we could continue to feed our family. Thanks to several friends who went to PayPal and sent us money through it that provided immediate help, and we sure needed it. But whether they sent money, or just said a prayer for us, they were all needed and very much appreciated!!!! We love you all and you don't know how much we appreciate you. It's been said so many times, "When you go through a crisis, you find out who your real friends are". Well.. I've heard you can count them on one hand. I thank G-d that isn't true for me.... I can't count them on both hands of mine for blessings come in various ways and they aren't measured by the value of the blessing in monetary value as all blessings are just that, BLESSINGS from above!!! G-d truly is awesome in all his ways. Though we again don't know why this tragedy befell us..... we do know G-d knew before it happened and he had already made provisions for us. We look to him in faith that we will continue to be provided for till we can get into our home or another one.

I must say I have great parents who have always been there for us. No matter how different we are, they took us in with no questions. Gave us a room and would feed us each day if we let them. It's hard enough for one family to make it much less take care of another but they have been great. Chris and I take turns with mom and dad on cooking dinner every day. It's working out great!

I meant to add.... I have this special friend who goes to a special church. I say special cause everytime I hear anything about this church, it's in a sentence, "I love my church family".  That's so special to hear since I was brought up in church all my life and never heard anyone say anything like that before. This church has been very giving and she certainly has been a great servant to her church family. When we needed my sons some clothes, she made sure to bring him some. The same night she heard.... her and her husband came to my parents house with clothes for both kids. I must say that she dressed them in better than they had to begin with :)  What a blessing from G-d. Then she heard we needed a tractor trailer..... (hold this thought a sec)!  Not sure I wrote about this in the first post but we called one man in town at the request of a friend and asked if he had a tractor trailer we could just use to put our stuff in once we cleaned it.... he said yes, for 1500.00. He said, I tell ya what.... charge the insurance company 2500.00 and you can make some money off of it. Wow.... we were shocked!!! We asked out of need.... we didn't have the money, so we just didn't call the second person who was mentioned by our friend. (back to my special friend). She told us she knew someone who had a tractor trailer and would call us back in a few minutes. Well within 20 minutes she called back with a contact person of someone who had a tractor trailer. Come to find out.... this person was the second person we were supposed to call about a trailer, at the request of our earlier friend. So that came full circle.... how about that for G-d working? Now you know HE was the one we was supposed to get the trailer from. So on Saturday Dec. 5th this nice man brought us the tractor trailer to use. He told us we could keep it as long as we wanted as it had not been used since he hauled stuff for the Katrina Victims. Oh what a blessing.... Oh what an awesome G-d we serve... Oh what awesome people G-d has put in our lives!! Oh what Trust has been built inside of us for just going through this and waiting on him.

Just a few things I have been pondering and thinking on..... I think when we get straight Chris and I will start doing some volunteer work for the American Red Cross. We only have one person in our county who has volunteered to help. What hope and love we can give to someone else in the first few hours of their own tragedy. We'd love to give back. 

I was cooking for a widow lady who was a dear friend of mine. I loved making her meals. I used to send meals to her mom and her family as well. When her mom died I was so sad. I knew them all my life and felt so close to them. So I still cooked for my widow friend. One day she died. It left such an empty feeling in my heart. Not just the fact that I couldn't see my friend anymore, but I wouldn't be taking those casseroles over to her anymore. I waited upon the L-rd to tell me who else to cook for but I never heard an answer. I now know it's not hard to find people in need. You just look around..... there is people hurting everywhere who would just love to have a card, or a phone call to uplift their spirits... just letting them know you are thinking of them.
One other thing I noticed.... of all the things I've been through in life.... cancer seemed to be the hardest... when my husband had it though, I was filled with lots of faith and G-d was with me just as he is now. I have noticed though that this time around that a hug from someone sure is valuable. I think this fire has left me feeling very emotionally drained and wondering now what more will happen to us. So the huggg..... hhhmmm .... I don't think you can put a value on a hug. I sure hope in the near future I can give those to others who are in need. And since I love to quilt.... I am thinking that if I got my family involved, well maybe we would have a quilt to give to the family who was burnt out. Who knows? I know this happened for a reason.

Another crazy side note.... (I told ya this family was different) If my husband and I would have stayed married from 1992 to today.... we would have been married 17 years today.  Yea, we divorced in 94...... married in 96 again.  Life has been a roller coaster ride but you can't say ... It's not been interesting!!! So.... with that said..... this part is another story. We've been married this time for 13 years!!! Wow what a ride!!! Wow, G-d sure has made us a family of strong faith in all the hard times!!

I'll update as I go. Sorry these post are long.