Family sticks together

It has been a long week here in Colorado. A week full of the most incredible blessings and seeing Gods hand very much at work. My mantra through it all has been " we are a family we stay together."

On mon at 2 pm I was driving home and saw the very distinct plume of smoke to our west. Ugh I knew this wasn't going to be good.

By tues ( I think it seems like a month now) we saw the smoke getting bigger and closer to highway 83. We had picked up our friends son ( the parents are on a mission trip in Uganda) and he was over playing. At that time things looked ok at their house. A few hours later I started to get an uneasy feeling and called their caretaker. We really needed to move their horses but their truck had a flat ugh. My sons wrestling coach was at our house when I went back to see if any of the vehicles there had a hitch. He immediately offered to go hitch up the trailer as well as move the horses. We drove over to their house arranging a place for them and fielding phone calls.

Can I just tell you by the time I rounded the house I almost laughed and praised Jesus. The village had arrived. I tell you people came from everywhere and I field another half dozen calls to their home to help. Now clearing out someone else's house can be interesting. We grabbed clothes for the boys and the requested light saver! Lacrosse sticks and a few toys. One dad tried fixing the truck tire while another video taped the house. Moms grabbed papers and teenage daughters looked in their daughters room for some treasures. Although the roads to the house were blocked people still came.

If you are going out of the country where would you put the most important items? In the safe!

I called hubby and it was determined it needed to go. Now we have huge immovable safes I have seen moved. I asked all the dad's to see if it could be moved. Sure enough the older son ( who was a rockstar) found a dolly and then everyone lifted it into the camper - along with some of the dads mounts.

We moved everything to our house since we are across the highway and a bit away. We can close off our front to ensure everything stayed safe.

However by Weds afternoon the winds started blowing the fire straight for our house. Unfortunately the horses were in our valley also. Can I tell you that the same coach came and moved the horses. Finding a spot for them about 40 minutes away, at a buddy of HIS. I was in tears when I found out. Kathy the amazing caretaker had friends come to help move some vehicles since we now had our friends 2 cars, their truck & camper (a dad had taken the truck, had the flat replaced & filled with gas ) our 3 cars and only 3 drivers & 7 kids at the house ugh.

Chris & I made the decision to leave and we packed up our cars - taking the hylander and the camper to the coach's neighborhood. Luckily we had all the littles papers organized in our safe so we only had chuck it in a bag.

Morgan helped pack ( luckily I now pair kids clothing into sets when I do laundry so they were easy). Kathy ( our friends caretaker) made arrangements for us to stay in a friends apt building with her & the boys.

Although we were only pre-evac we were afraid we couldn't get out of the house quick enough with all of our littles.

Thurs morning I got our noisy kids ready for their summer school and then I decided to head back to our house to feed chickens, check on things and take a shower. ( the apt is set up like a hostel with 1 women's bathroom on 1 floor and men's on the other). I felt bad occupying the shower besides I couldn't find the bathroom stuff.

Si barfs every time he gets in the car. Poor zoe keeps barking. It looked so nice and I thought I would just let them hang out at the house while I went & got the kids & took them swimming. Sure enough the winds started in again and I started getting texts. PANIC. How can I possibly NOT go get them when one dog belongs to our friends ugh. I called every person I could think of but they themselves were packing. Traffic on the interstate was terrible. As I approached the roads close to our house I saw the flashing lights. Heartbreak as I knew they would never let me in. BUT one blessing of having people come help that don't live here is I know the roads better lol. Now let me remind you I am driving our giant black sprinter. There is no sneaking with that thing lol. We made it to the house. Grabbed the dogs, some more clothes ( ok they were dirty ones but I figured I could do laundry and they were already matched lol).

The heartbreak was all of our houses were marked with the yellow police line tape. That more than anything made it real. We said goodbye. I again reiterated we are together the rest can be replaced.

So here we are waiting and trusting.