For those of you who haven’t heard, Wednesday afternoon we had a house fire. Since we live about 20 minutes from where I do clinicals, I texted Mom around 1:45 telling her I would be ready to be picked up in 15-30 minutes. When I hadn’t heard back about 20 minutes later, I called her. She said she was on her way and was about to hang up when I heard screaming and Mom yelled, “Everybody out!! Emily, I have to go!” I figured she was hurrying people outside to the car to come get me. About 15 minutes after that, a strange number called and when I answered it, Rachel was hysterically yelling, “Emily, you have to get a ride home! Please come home! Our house is on fire! Our house is burning down! I called 911 and the firemen are coming!” She just kept repeating for me to please get a ride home. Of course, I start to freak out. My hands are shaking as I dial several numbers, trying to get ahold of someone to come get me from the hospital and take me home. When I got ahold of one of my classmates, she said she was on her way. I sat down and just started crying. I checked Facebook to see if I could figure anything out. I saw that Mom had posted, “Our house is burning down.” I was a total mess. Although it really only took probably 20 minutes, it felt like I was waiting forever for my friend to come get me. All I knew was that our house was on fire and it had started in my room. I didn’t know how long it would take the firemen to get all the way to our house, whether all of our pets had gotten out, how bad the fire was, or how much of my home would be gone when I got home. I posted on Facebook to pray for my family, and the whole way home, I kept getting phone calls, texts, and messages on FB. I was so incredibly grateful for everyone’s support. When I got home, the firemen had the fire out and they were tossing all of my clothing out the window and onto the porch roof. I was relieved the fire was out, but I found out the fire had taken out the whole family closet (all 6 kids’s clothing) and it had gotten at least part of my room and our only working bathroom.
I guess Rachel and Elson heard a smoke detector and went to find out where it was and whether it was just out of batteries. When they opened the door to my room, they saw so much smoke, they went tearing downstairs yelling, “FIRE!!” Mom sent them outside and she and Nathan went upstairs to see if they could put it out (Dad was at work and Sarah and I were at school). When they saw it was too big, they ran back downstairs and Mom called 911 and sent Nathan outside. Then she ran in and out, grabbing our scrapbooks in case we lost the whole house. The kids flagged down a Frontier truck (local cable and internet) and the selfless man helped Mom get scrapbooks out.
Shortly after I got home, friends started showing up to be with us. I was amazed and overwhelmed when several members of my small group (a post about them is coming in the future) showed up. One of them had a house fire a couple of years ago, so knew to bring apples, bananas, pretzels, and bottled water. I am so thankful for them.
After the firemen left, we got to walk through the house. The downstairs has water and some smoke damage. The family closet is completely gone. The bathroom will have to basically be taken down to the studs and rebuilt. The ceiling of my bedroom is black and there’s a lot of smoke damage, but it doesn’t look like any flames actually made it in. We’re amazed at God’s provision. Almost all of my clothes are gone, but right underneath where they were hanging, there was a plastic bin with my spring clothes that survived. Also right underneath my clothes were 2 of my violins, including my first one. Though I will need new cases, neither violin has a speck of damage. Right under the window and right next to where the fire started, Sarah’s college records and most of the stuff in my memory boxes survived. My paperwork in my filing cabinet right next to my clothes, is only a tiny bit singed. Sarah’s computer, desk, and school books were all up against the wall between the closet and my bedroom, and sustained absolutely no damage, except for smelling pretty bad. 🙂
The night before the fire, it was so beautiful outside, I slept with my window open. When I was leaving for school around 6:00 the morning of the fire, I felt impressed to close the window. I tried to rationalize the feeling, but couldn’t, so I went ahead and closed it. After the fire was out, the firemen told us if the windows had been open upstairs, we would have lost the entire house. Oh, my goodness. On Tuesday, I didn’t have school so I made a list of everything I needed to accomplish, of which one of those things was cleaning my room. Instead, I had to take our new puppies to the vet and got essentially nothing done. I was so upset! If I had cleaned my room, every speck of my clothing and my current violin (which has a soft case and probably would have caught very quickly) would have been in my closet. Instead, my violin is fine and I still have a couple of outfits. I was at school, wearing my scrubs and white shoes, and had my stethoscope and wallet with me so none of that had any damage. I’m constantly in awe of God.
Yesterday, the insurance adjustor came and did a walk-through and took a statement, guys went through our house and took every speck of cloth that was salvageable, to be professionally cleaned and is supposed to be able to get some of it back by tomorrow night. Some guys came and set up fans to dry up the water and some air purifiers to get rid of the horrible smell. We’re not sure when the investigator is supposed to come figure out why the fire started, but “the cleaning ladies” are here today, starting to work their way through our house.
Yesterday was tough because we had to go through everything in the closet and start a list of things that will need to be replaced. But it was made a little bit easier by amazing friends who kept my younger siblings so they didn’t have to spend all day at the house, provided lunch, 2 different friends who have offered their houses for the last 2 nights, brought snacks, gave us money, provided clothing and bathroom supplies, and have given us moral support and prayers (and I’m sure I’m forgetting many more things ).
The song, “I Will Praise You in the Storm” came on the radio yesterday while I was on my way to the house. We have a long road ahead of us (they won’t even let us stay in the house for at least another 2-3 weeks), many difficult decisions, and a lot of emotions, but I pray that I can continue to praise Him and bring Him glory throughout all of it.
I will have to continue going to school, working on assignments, taking tests, and going to clinicals, so you can pray for the determination and energy for me to be able to work on the house and go to school. Also, since they’re going to have to redo my room, the bathroom, and the closet anyway, we’re going to have to decide how we want them decorated. Quite frankly, I don’t even want to think about it. I just want my bed and blankets back. 🙂 So you can pray for clear heads for all of us. My siblings could also use your prayers. They, especially Elson, lost a lot of security on Wednesday. Elson was absolutely terrified. Yesterday, when a friend gave him a couple of shirts and pairs of pants, he wrapped his arms around them and didn’t want to put them in a bag or put them down in the van. He just wanted to hold onto them. They’re afraid, now, of smoke detectors (a friend tested one last night, and the looks on their faces were of terror) and they’re afraid every house in which we sleep is going to start on fire. Thank you so much for thinking of us and praying for us. I’ll continue to update and post pictures as I’m able.
– The closet is where the fire started. We, sadly, didn’t get any before pictures of the family closet. It was absolutely amazing. There was enough room for all 6 kids’ clothes and shoes.
– Pictures of the closet after demolition has begun.
– and the bathroom after. We didn’t get many pictures before the cleaning ladies came because I think we were all still in shock. The dark circles you see in the “after” pictures are where the nails in the walls and ceilings were attracted to the heat and somehow came through the drywall and paint.
– My bedroom before 
– and after the fire. Again, not many good pictures.
– And after reconstruction was begun.
– This is the hole they put in the downstairs ceiling to help dry it out.
Our cats enjoyed keeping us company and the chickens were already eating the bugs on the walls
We had visitors that hung out in our “front yard.” Poor Daddy can’t even get away from chicken poop on the porch when we’re on vacation!
Rachel used to be in gymnastics – Can you tell??
Mom and Nathan fed the goats
Fruit Worthy 