Our Story

At 2:45 am the morning of January 15th, 2009 our lives changed forever. Our 7 year old son Thomas came into our room asking, "Daddy, why is the house so smoky?" Ron jumped out of bed, and hit the floor running while shouting to me to get the kids and get out. He went towrd the front of our home crawling under the smoke that was rapdly filling the hallway.
I put Thomas on my bed and yelled for our two girls who were upstairs in the bedrroms that had been painted and moved into the previous Sunday. Shouting for them to get down and get out, get down and get out I turned to the bed to see a pool of light spotlighting the two boys. The girls burst into the doorway, coughing and I told them to get on the floor and crawl to the bedroom window.
Our 17 year old Alyssa yelled out,"what should I do?" I told her to get shoes for herself and me. I ran to the window, yanked on the frame that had been frozen shut a mere three days before and slid the window open. Instantly realizing that I had just unintenionally created an avenue of backdraft for the fire I quickly asked God to protect my husband who was in the path of the flames. At the same time, I was putting on shoes that my daughter had miraculously found in a bright closet and punching out the window screen. Alyssa (17) dove through the window and was followed closely by Susanna (10). I threw the boys to Alyssa and climbed through the window. The window slammed shut as I was climbing through, catching my leg. Alyssa and I together freed my leg and we each picked up a boy. We ran toward the front of the house up the steps of the deck and to the car. Ron came out the front door, went back in to get the keys and asked if there was anything else. "The puppy, get the puppy,"I screamed! H dashed back into the living room and grabbed the basket of the three week old puppy that we are providing foster care for jumped into the car and told me we'd have to drive to a neighbors house to call 911-the kitchen, where the phone was was in flames. We drove to a neighbors and I burst through their door screaming that our house was on fire-wihtin seconds Sam was on the phone, and Ron was on his way back to the house with Tom to see what was happening.
Sam made hot chocolate as we waited for the ambulance crew...Thomas asked, "Mommy, do you think God woke me up?" "Yes honey, absolutely, God woke you up to save us." "Mommy, that is really special."
Yes, Thomas that is very special...God used a seven year old boy to save the lives of his family. We were all safe, with no serious injuries and from the overflow of joy in our hearts came spontaneos songs of praise to our God who loves us so much, that he woke us and carried us through the flames away from certain destruction.

Many of you have asked if we were insured. Yes, we were. The adjuster will arrive on Tuesday to try to determine the cause of the fire.

Thank you for reading our story. I hope to add to it very soon!