Sunday, October 21, 2007

Loading up the van

Wildfire season. It's here. Today is a red flag day as well as the next few days. We've heard reports through the day about the fire and its proximity to us. This time we have a warning so we did pack up some pictures, personal items, adoption papers, and legal papers/documents and loaded them all into the van.

Jared just called and said its an hour away from Ramona which is about a half-hour or so away from us. In the Cedar Fire of 2003 it started in Ramona area and raged through our property hours later. We evacuated about 3am with nothing, but a load of laundry for the boys.

We were gone for days. Stayed at someone's house who graciously opened their homes to fire victims.We had been told that our house burned back then. We were thankful we were able to have gotten all the children out and that we were together-alive. Some weren't so lucky. Some died escaping the flames in their cars. Some lost houses, animals, cars, everything.

It burned through our property, leaving its wake of destruction. Our barn, outside bathroom, toys, trailer, trees, power lines, etc. burned. Our house was standing, but our yard was devasted. We live on four acres and were very blessed that our home was still here.

I remember thinking what I should take with me. All I could think of was what I needed to wear. Did I have shoes, socks, underwear? For some reason I had Sarah run back into the house to grab our toothbrushes. Now my motto is, "Take what you can't buy." If you can buy clothes, leave 'em. If you can buy books, leave 'em. This time we're taking pictures, albums and negatives.

Hopefully we won't need to use them.

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