It's still difficult to believe...

Out neighbors home caught fire and burned down early on Tuesday morning. We were there for the whole thing. An eight year old girl didn't make it out of the house. It's been a hard week for us, having this tragedy happen so very close to our house. It's so sad that the little girl perished. Fire is so scary. Take time this week to make sure all of your smoke detectors are working and even put in an extra one. We were both having a little trouble dealing with it all on Tuesday...Me with having a child die right next door, and Dan with wondering if he should have disobeyed the officers and maybe tried to run into the home and save the girl. I know that Dan made the right decision, she had already passed from smoke inhalation. We are both much better now, I know that many of our church family were/are praying for us. Both Dan and I have peace about it all. :) I mean, we always had peace about it, but we were just a little freaked out for a day or 2. Thank you, to all of our friends who prayed for us and the children. God is so merciful that we were still awake and saw the fire early, that our home was not damaged, that our children are safe and sound. We have felt the healing of your prayers.

Well, we leave for our California vacation a week from tomorrow! We are SOOO excited! The children are counting down the days. Gabriel asks "how many night night days now?" Isaiah just knows that he's going to meet Micky Mouse. Josiah just knows that he gets to go on tons of rides. And well, that's the part I'm looking forward to also, all the fun rides! I just love rides, I'm a total kid about that. LOL Today I'm getting all of the rest of the laundry done in the house, so that tomorrow we can pack all of the bags. Dan has tomorrow off, so we will pick up the remaining grocery items (non-perishable) for the trip and any remaining clothing items. Maybe get some sun glasses for the kids at the dollar store. Deciding how much clothes to bring is the hardest part... should we find a laundrymat and wash our clothes or bring enough to not have to? Boys re-wear their jeans a few days or will they be all dirty and grimey? Should I bring my own iron or trust that our hotel will have a decent one. Ahhh...so many questions still needing to be answered. Poor Dan, can't stand all of these little mind boggling details but they can make or break a good trip. I hope the driving part isn't too horrendous. I'm anticipating that it won't be...but it just may. Well, off to rotate the laundry. Thank you again for your prayers.