Never, never, never give up

  This blog has been a place for me to share mostly joyous and funny stories and pictures.  This post is to record a devastating event for our family.  On Thursday, January 28th we had a fire in our house.  The fire started at some point Thursday morning.  One of our neighbors saw fire and smoke and called 911 at 11:10 AM.  Another neighbor knew that Mike worked in the Allentown School District and was able to get a hold of him.  I had just sat down at my desk to eat my lunch when the phone rang.  It was Mike telling me that our house was on fire and to come home.  Saying I was in shock is an understatement.  I didn't know what to do but eventually got myself out to my car.  The drive from Nazareth to Coopersburg takes me 30 minutes - it was a very long 30 minutes.
 

  The firefighters were simply amazing.  When I arrived on the scene, they had already rescued Mraz and Pepper and had them safe in our neighbor's house.  Tinkerbelle was still missing.  The man who finally found her and brought her out to us looked so happy -- almost like Tink was HIS cat!

  Our fish tank was in the sunroom.  When the fire was finally put out, Mike asked if the tank had survived.  The firemen said they saw fish still swimming around.  That then led to a rescue mission to get the fish tank out.  They put the tank on Cam and Allie's snow sled and slid it down the hill to our neighbor's house.  This effort was so wonderful -- and entertaining -- during that awful span of time.  Unfortunately the fish did not make it but we are so appreciative of the effort that was made to save them. 

The fire investigator told us that the chimney had cracks in it.  These cracks allowed hot air to continually dry out the material around the chimney.  The investigator said this could have been going on for the last two years and that the fire could have really started at any time during the last two years.  The fire started in the chimney and then quickly spread into the house.  It has destroyed the living room, dining room, kitchen, and arts and crafts room. 

I had my mother's snowman collection decorating the mantel.  I believe these are all gone. 

  

Dining room

The clock was my Grandmother Stanton's.  We are hopeful it can be repaired.  It is sitting on the table that Michael's father built for us.  The firemen cleaned the table off and got it covered with a tarp.  We are hopeful to have it back in shape soon.

The apple decoration was my mother's.  I was so relieved to see that I had something of hers left.

Arts and crafts room

It's very strange to see spots of normalcy in the middle of such destruction.

Very happy to see this cookie jar.  This was made by Mr. Overman (WVHS art teacher) and given to us by Mrs. Marilyn Dibble as a wedding present.

  Even though the destruction was held to the one part of the house, the smoke damage throughout the house is unbelievable.

This fan is halfway down the hallway.  It melted from the heat.  The fire chief said our bedroom (which is at the end of the hallway) was 109 degrees after the fire was put out.

  The basement was also affected by the water run-off from above.

The firemen also covered up my piano right away.  We're not sure about the shape it's in yet.

The water ran into Mike's part of the basement as well.  The beer gods were watching out for his bar as for some reason, the water ran all around it but not into it.  Looks like it's ok!

  The fire was also in the attic and thankfully was stopped before spreading throughout the entire house.  When I heard it had gone into the attic I instantly thought about all of my mother's Christmas decorations that have brought me so much comfort over the last few years.  Michael went up into the attic today to see what was left.  I was brought to tears when he handed these to me....these are the tree toppers that my mother and I had many adventures in getting while in the Big Apple.  Knowing that these will be on the top of our Christmas trees for years to come makes all of this much more bearable.

It is truly amazing that this picture survived.  It's a painting that Rebecca Rhodes painted for me after my mother had died.  It's little Cam standing in front of Uncle Matty.  It was on the lowest shelf next to the wood stove. 

 The love and support that we have received over the last four days is staggering.  I know I would be missing someone and something if I attempted to list everything so I won't try.  Just know that all of you are amazing people and my family is feeling the love.

 As always, I believe my mother was looking over us.  This fire could have started at any moment during the last two years but it started when we were all out of the house, early enough in the day to give the firemen plenty of daylight to get everything that needed to be done finished, on a Thursday which gave us one work day to get all of the appropriate people lined up through our insurance company to begin the reconstruction, and then two days for Michael and me to get some things figured out before heading back to work. 

 We will come back from this stronger than ever.  We will be using this experience to teach our children about resilience, thankfulness, and the strength of family and friends.  Thank you everyone.  We appreciate you all.