So, as established in the last post,
we lived through the first three weeks. (I think, I don’t really remember, but
I’m still here.) Jeremie stayed home that third week, and we were looking
forward to settling in as our new little family of three. Little did we
know how crazy our lives were about get!
On Wednesday night, we finally put
the last touches on the nursery by hanging my “gallery wall”. (While I was
pregnant, J had ripped out the carpet and laid beautiful wood floors.) I sat in
my cozy nursery chair that night and just sighed with satisfaction. I
thought it was the most adorable nursery I had ever seen.
As if that night couldn't get any
better, our sweet friends Erin and Stephen brought us a mountain of food from
Zoe's. A good meal that I didn't have to prepare was worth gold. We
had a great time catching up them as we chowed down on chicken kabobs like
cavemen.
That week was REALLY cold, so the
next day, J built us a cozy fire and headed out to get a truckload more of
firewood for the winter. Now THIS is what I had been waiting for.....my
SWEET baby....taking a nap....by a warm fire.
So J returned home and started
unloading firewood while I was nursing Greyson. I noticed
smoke coming out of the little gas keyhole on our fireplace. (The
fireplace is wood burning but has a gas "igniter" to start the fire.)
I knew that just wasn't right and at the same time it hit me that it was
smelling particularly smokey in the house. I called J inside and he thought
maybe the fire was just dying down and I was smelling the ashes. So I headed
upstairs to get away from it and yelled to J that it smelled even worse
upstairs. At that point, I really felt like something was wrong. At
that moment, our neighbor started banging on our door and yelling that our
chimney was on fire. As J called 911, I ran out the house thinking:
"Is our house about to burn down? Is this gonna be our story?"
I headed over to the neighbors, and
from their second story loft, had a direct view of our chimney in flames.
Looking back, I wish I had taken a picture, but I was too upset to do it.
At that point, I had no idea how far the fire was gonna go....so I just started
praying.
Even though we live around the corner from the fire
department, it felt like YEARS until they got there. Finally, 4 fire trucks and
about 25 firemen pulled up and got to work! I snapped this pic from our
neighbor’s kitchen. Yeah, Mr. January through Mr. December were all there.
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I love how the MSU flag is still flying proudly! |
So from this window I watched these
guys with their masks, ladders and hoses climb up on the roof and shoot water
down our chimney. In the meantime, J came in and told me the fire had
spread to the attic so they were getting busy there too. After about 3 or 4
hours, the show was over and I was left in the foyer of my neighbor's house
still in my slippers with my 3 week old and a handful of stuff the firefighters
yanked out of the house that they figured was important.
Our other neighbor from across the
street was around while all this was going on, and had been through a terrible
house fire in the past. He offered for us to stay with him and his wife for a
couple nights and we agreed. Listen-these people took us in like their
own children. They fed us dinner, made us breakfast, helped us wash
and dry clothes, let us dump all our smoky stuff in their house, and loved
on Greyson while we needed to deal with house stuff. (And being a mama
herself-Brenda offered words of encouragement and hugs while I cried it
out a couple or seven times.) If you don't believe in God's presence and
provision....we need to talk! We are forever grateful for our sweet
Brenda and Ed.
Besides labor, that was truly
the longest day of my life. We stayed up till 1:00 a.m. washing and drying
clothes since what we had all smelled like smoke. We were both still sleep
deprived and I was nursing around the clock. At one point, around
12:30 that night, Jeremie and I were changing Greyson's diaper, he was screaming bloody
murder, and we looked at each other and were like "What just happened to
us." FINALLY, everyone got situated and we were able to put the day behind
us. Greyson slept in a ~100 year old heirloom crib that Brenda and
Ed had...we yanked the stuffed animals out and put it back into circulation!
The little bambino had not a clue what all was going on.
Let me interrupt and say that my
hubby was a ROCK through all this. He was calm as could be while the fire
was happening and went back to the smoky, dark, cold house several times that
night to fetch things I needed that I had forgotten about.
The next day we headed over to the
house to grab some clothes for the next couple days and the rest went with a
cleaning company. Let me just say, I was NOT prepared for what I
saw when I walked through the front door.
I was totally shocked. It looked
like a bomb had gone off. The water/foam spray that they had shot down the
chimney flooded the first floor, and what was sprayed in the attic caused the
ceilings to fall in. [ Lots of people are asking how the fire got started,
and the short answer is we really don't know. It could be a number of
things, but quite possibly the fact that a dry summer caused a crack in the
bricks and an ember got caught in that crack and just heated up.]
We spent the next hour being
followed around by the clothes company with trash
bags itemizing what was "911" (clothes we needed back in
the next 48 hours) and what was not anything we need in the next 4 months
vital. There was obviously no electricity at this point, and the house was
smelly, wet, dreary and freezing. I felt like I was holding myself together
pretty well until I went up to the nursery. Now-fortunately, the nursery was
one of the least damaged rooms-but it just looked so sad-and broke my heart to
remember just the night before I was rocking sweet Greyson up there. J made me
leave and after a small breakdown in the front yard I collected myself
again.
I can say that we were VERY
fortunate in the fact that we really didn't lose a lot of our belongings. Most
of the damage to the house was actually from the firefighters putting out the
fire. (Which we are totally grateful for.)
So the clothes cleaners actually
took anything textile related (rugs, sheets, curtains, etc.). Then an
electronic team came in and took TV's, computers, etc. THEN a few days later,
an actual moving company came and took EVERTHING else. Every pot, pan, picture
and book. Totally moved us out. Then the demolition started.
Meanwhile, me, Jeremie and our
newborn moved into the Residence Inn. I cringe as I even type the name Residence
Inn. Don't get me wrong-the place was very nice and the people were so sweet,
but 5 weeks in an efficiency hotel room with a newborn is was not a
party. This was our world for over a month.
I think what made it harder is that Greyson
was still too young to be out and about in public yet (for my comfort level), so
I did feel sorta isolated and closed in. But J was awesome about taking
care of him for a few hours while I would go run errands. (Boy going to the
grocery store has never been so exciting!) And while J went on a business trip
for a few days, CC (my mom) came to the rescue and flew out to spend that time
with us. Pretty sure her new grandson had a lot to do with it. : )
I was SO sad that we weren’t able to spend the holidays in
our home. I had daydreamed for months of decorating, hanging Greyson's stocking
on the mantel, and watching him stare at the Christmas tree. And what hurt more
was knowing that most of my Christmas decorations had been destroyed since they
were in the attic. Regardless, the
Residence Inn wasn’t gonna stop me from putting up a Christmas tree! We found
this pre-lit tabletop tree at Lowe’s and it might be the best $15 I’ve ever
spent. Greyson was obsessed with it and would stare at it and just kick his
legs!
And one night, we made ourselves some hot chocolate, loaded
G up in the car and rode around looking at Christmas lights. So that helped
spread the Christmas cheer.
But our favorite hotel pastime was this.
The bathroom was right next to this closet with a big
mirror, so I would put Greyson in front of it and he would stare at himself
long enough for me to get a shower and put makeup on. I also tried to make the
most of the dungeon hotel room by doing a couple of photo shoots with
Greyson. I tried the naked baby poses, which just earned me a bunch of pee in
my face. (HOW do newborn photographers do it?) So the next few times, we
covered Ole Faithful up and just used cute outfits. (Fortunately, we had a
professional photo shoot at 5 weeks old.) I have to admit, being in a small
room with no house to clean or chores to do really did help me to focus on
Greyson and learn about his habits.
More hotel fun:
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Greyson turned 1 month old! |
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Chatting with Dad |
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Ready for the Egg Bowl! (Apparently the Bulldogs were NOT.) |
I will fill in the blanks later, but now, we are comfy in a great little townhome just down the road from our house while it gets
rebuilt. (April is the projected move in date.) But let me just say, I was NOT
a pillar of strength through all this. Like I said on Facebook a couple months
ago: I am human and mourned over the fact that we didn’t get to settle into
our home with our new baby and darling nursery. But Greyson obviously couldn’t care
less and the fact that I don’t have a “gallery wall” in my makeshift nursery
has not stolen any of the JOY of being a new mom. And I’ve already learned so
much from this. I’ve learned that God can provide physical and emotional
strength beyond what I thought possible. (Isaiah 41:10) I’ve learned that I
probably valued my “stuff” more than I should and that I CAN survive with less
amenities! I have seen goodness and love pour out of others. Our friends,
neighbors, and some complete strangers have shown us graciousness by providing
lodging, meals, babysitting, and lots of prayers. And lastly, I’m learning from
others who are going through or have gone through MUCH harder circumstances and
still exhibit obedient faithfulness. A speaker at our church conference last
weekend said “Job had faith that couldn’t be shaken……because he was shaken.” So
here’s to learning from the bumps in the road and allowing it to draw us closer
to Christ!