I have no idea what I could possibly title this entry.

At around 5 pm on December 26 we had a house fire in our new home.  "New" in the sense that we moved in on November 1.  The house was built in 1989.

We are devastated.  Overcome.  Overwhelmed.  Shell-shocked.  But we are OK.  Chris, Kyle & I were home but all got out of the house unharmed.  Chris had the wherewith-all to grab the car keys and move both cars out of the driveway where they surely would've been damaged.  Our neighbor may have saved our house by calling 911 before we even knew we had a problem - he saw the flames on our garage before we smelled the smoke upstairs.  It was around 5 pm, and the smoke detectors never warned us.  It hurts to think what could have happened if the time was 10 or 11 hours later.  We ran from the house and could see the reflection of the flames in the neighbor's window across the street.  We could already hear the sirens but it seemed to take hours for the fire engines to arrive.  In reality it was only minutes.  It took more than 2 hours for the fire department to completely extinguish the fire, which apparently started in the garage and continued on to destroy Kyle's bedroom directly above.  The cause is still under investigation, although the fire department is satisfied that it was caused by cold fireplace ash that had been disposed of in an outdoor garbage can just outside of the garage door.  The jury is still out, but in the end it doesn't matter.  We have been hit by a tragedy and the cause in the end will be inconsequential.

We are OK.  At the end of our long evening of observing the fire department work strenuously to save our house, the fire chief asked if we needed the services of the Red Cross.  We were able to decline.  I can't imagine the total desperation of the family who needs such resources after such a horrible calamity.  Because we have homeowner's insurance we have been given a place to stay.  Because we have our children close by we have been surrounded by care & love.  Because we have the finances we can shop for needed clothing and a replacement computer to get us by.  Our straights could be so much more dire and the fact humbles us to no end.  And by the way, thank God for the Red Cross.  And neighbors who call 911 and bring you tea.  And county fire departments who put out fires.  And children who show up just to hug you and tell you that they love you, and who insist that you sleep in their comfy spare room instead of the cold hotel room.  And hold you up when you are watching your house burn and tell you everything is going to be OK.  Because it is.  Going to be OK.

We'll be in temporary housing again, for the next 6 to 12 months.  We have some challenging days & weeks ahead of us.

But we are OK.  We really are.