Smoky!!

Well, we've had quite an adventure the last 24 hours.  I've cried and laughed and cried some more and then got down on my knees and thanked the Lord over and over again.  I am sitting on my mom's couch in Mt. Pleasant as I write this. I have not mastered the whole 4:00 - 7:00pm rouine yet.  It seems that bathing the girls, Cora's 3rd nap, getting the girls ready for bed, nurse Cora, feed Cora baby food,  and prepare dinner/set table all need to be done AT THE SAME TIME!!!  So I multi task.  And I am the queen of it. And yesterday my multitasking almost burned my home down and even worse could have harmed my girls, namely my Sophia.  Here goes... Ava and Sophia were bathed and just playing in the tub.  I was about to get them out and decided to go turn the burner on to heat up the potatoes.  Then I got them out, lotioned up, and put their pj's on.  Cora screamed the entire time I did this b/c she did not nap or eat well yesterday.  Needless to say, it was stressful.  So the girls scurried off to go play and I picked Cora up out of the swing and nursed her in my bedroom then played with her for a bit.  THen I heard Sophia crying her "I'm hurt" cry.  So I put Cora down and turned the corner.  I will not forget what I saw.  Sophia was coming out of the kitchen and it appeared that my stove/microwave area was on fire.  The flames were nearing the ceiling and thick, suffocating smoke had completely filled my home in a matter of seconds.  I could see the one foot of "clean" air near the floor.  I hit the fire panic button, grabbed my 3 girls and ran out of our house screaming my neighbors name.  (I had seen her go home earlier and knew that she was there.)  She met me outside in her pj's and grabbed my girls while I called 911.  They sent 3 firetrucks, a police car, and an ambulance.  And then my ENTIRE neighborhood came ouside to watch as  sat on my front steps defeated, scared, crying, asking myself "what if" questions.  It was not a pretty sight. 

I was most assured  by the fire show I had witnessed and the seemingly long 3 minutes it took the fire dept to get to my home toppled with the excessively high winds yesterday, that my house was a goner and I was going to have a front row seat watching it dissipate.  But God had other plans and His protection and faithfulness covered my family and home yesterday.  The firemen got the stove fire out and it didn't even spread to the oil I had sitting in a pan next to it.  See,  I turned on the wrong burner in my dazed and absent minded state of multi tasking.  The burner I accidently turned on had a plastic cover to a skillet sitting on top.  They checked our attic and every inch of our home with a heat sensor.  They stayed for about an hour and a half and assured us that we were safe to stay in our home.  As we began to walk around our home, we found that soot is everywhere and in every room.  The fire restoration company came this morning and told us not to let the girls back in the house and we had to leave for about a week.  My sweet friend, Malissa, kept my girls for me for which I am so thankful.  Coby and I threw everything and anything that we might possibly need for the next 7 days. And now I sit here exhausted, but thankful.

I sat this morning at my Bible reading through a few Psalms weeping.  God protected my girls and me.  He kept Sophia from getting burned or from breathing much smoke.  And I still can't believe it, but there was no structural damage to our home.  We had sweet neighbors who watched the girls.  Our friends, the Mittels, brought us some dinner.  And then a couple of other families came over twice to check on us.  We are so blessed. 

I learned two lessons.  One is that next time there is some kind of emergency, I WILL NOT PANIC!!  My screaming and frantic unclear phone calls to 911 did not help!  And, I am now a recovering multi tasker.  Multi tasking is not a good thing when you have an almost 4 year old, a 2 year old, and a 7 month old.  Nope, no more for me.  I may not get half as much done during the day as I am used too and that is going to be okay with me.  My girls are worth more than that!  So tonight, my precious Lord, I praise you, my Protector, my Deliverer, my Restorer, the One Who Sees Me.  Yes, Lord, You are good!  And you do good, all the time!