Braveheart

Well, the Boys are back in town and now back to reality. They had a great time and God definitely showed up in Colorado City ! A few times over the weekend I received a call from Gene because he wanted me to hear the worship music. He said it was just awesome! Aaron told me last night that it was a time that made him want to draw near to God and he also said he felt he did get closer to Him this weekend.
PRAISE YOU LORD!!!!

Last Monday on the 14th my little girl turned the big 7. We went to my parents house for dinner and celebration. After eating the delicious dinner my Mom prepared, it was cake and ice cream time. Then she opened her presents and we watched her squeal in excitement over each one.

Then came the real excitement.

One of our use your common sense rules in our home is don't play with anything that could cause one's home to go up in flames. Because my son must have been absent every day the school taught about fire safety he decided to open Alivia's new jar of fingernail polish remover with a lighter.

Nope, that's not a typo. A lighter.

At 14 years old when asked by his little sister to get the plastic cover off of the jar he did not:

A.) tear it open with his finger

B.) get a knife and poke a hole in the plastic

C.) tell her to go away like he normally does

NO instead my sweet. innocent, smart, very tall, size 14 shoe wearin', lip shavin' man-child grabbed the same lighter he used to light the candles that caused us all to start singing Happy Birthday to now get us to screaming FIRE!

Since my Grandparents get lost in my parent's neighborhood my Mom had left to lead them to a main road. My sister and I stayed behind and started cleaning up the kitchen. This was when we both told Aaron to stop doing what he was doing.

Too late. POOF! All of a sudden the jar with the warning FLAMMABLE was on fire.

Aaron quickly grabbed the jar and turned around to throw it into the sink behind him. When he did this though the fingernail polish remover splashed on the other counter which then started a stack of paper plates on fire which then started a roll of paper towels on fire.

All of this in my parents new home.

The reason my grandparents get lost is because for the last 32 years my parents lived in this very cozy, cute, 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, less than 800 square foot home that my sister and I grew up in.

This past March on my Dad's birthday, God blessed them with this spacious, beautiful, over 2,000 sq foot, 5 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom home. Or "castle" as the kids call it.

And here I was watching flames overtake every counter top in the castle's kitchen.

The next few moments there was as much adrenaline as there was fire in the kitchen.

My sister Michelle and I started yelling for my Dad to get out of the house who was upstairs with 7 kids putting them to bed .

Aaron the arsonist ran for the hills.

Alyssa sat unfazed in the living room while texting her friends.

And I.

Me, Myself and I.
My parents' firstborn, Gene's wife and mother of his 3 children, Grandma of 1, risked it all to stay and fight to save my parents new home.

My parents are remodeling their old house and getting ready to put it on the market. I had visions of them having to move back into the small home and I became determined to not leave (unlike my sister and son did) until the last flame was put out.

Ready to stop, drop and roll at any given moment I quickly started hitting the flames with a towel and throwing things into the sink filled with water.

Within moments I had saved the house people!

After I realized all was safe, I began to survey the damage. I stood amazed that the counter tops were fine.

All at once I was surrounded by family not asking if I was okay, but instead asking Aaron who briefly returned, what the heck he was thinking. My Dad never did see the fire as he was busy singing to their foster baby upstairs as I fought for my life. To make matters worse, when we tried explaining the out of control fire to him he said it was just a "fume fire" from the fingernail polish remover.

Whatever. If I had run outside with my sister and my son their home would've been gone. I refuse to let him minimize my heroic efforts!

Due to my quick actions though, the only thing lost in the fire was Amiyah's favorite bottle, a roll of paper towels, a stack of paper plates, Alivia's fingernail polish remover and Aaron's freedom.

Thank You Jesus!!!

Of course my Mom walked in as everything was calming down and we had to explain what had just happened. Aaron the arsonist was still in hiding and so without him we did our best to replay the events. That is when my sister shared with me that while she was outside Alivia was the only child that followed her and she began sobbing.

I was so touched. How sweet that she was scared for her brave mom.

Instead of letting me think that for too long though, my sister just had to pop the hero bubble I was in with these words: "Alivia was crying saying, what about my presents???"

So, in a nutshell...

My sister and son took off

My Dad & 6 of the 7 kids in his supervision do not respond properly to the word 'FIRE' being yelled

The only thing that moved on my oldest daughter was her texting thumbs

and

The fire was proof to me that Hannah Montana is more important to Alivia than I am.

Gene had gone home right after the last present was opened so he is still on my good list, but the rest of these people better not expect a thing from me at Christmas.

Well, except for my sister Michelle who will get the best Christmas gift ever from me because she grabbed this...

This afternoon Aaron, Alivia, Amiyah and I heading to Kansas City to spend the night at Kelley from Aroma of Joy's house. Rest assured Kelley that if Aaron gets crazy on us I will not jump ship! Aaron is leaving out of KC early Tuesday morning to spend 2 weeks in Florida with Gene's family and Kelley lives only 45 minutes from the airport instead of the 3 hours away that I live. What a blessing to see her again, meet her family and not have to get up and drive at 3 in the morning!

I have no spiritual application for this story to share with you, but I am convinced based on my heroic, laying down my life for others actions that the first words out of Jesus' mouth when He sees me face to face will surely be "Well done good and faithful servant!"

Not "it was just a fume fire!" Unlike my Dad, Jesus appreciates my heart of sacrifice!

~Many Blessings~

P.S. The beautiful bib Amiyah is wearing in the picture above was sent to Alyssa from my sweet friend Susan from Forever His after she was born. What a blessing and precious surprise that was! She also sent these darling little panties with her name monogrammed on the bottom. I'll have to post a picture of those too. Also, Amiyah rolled the other day! She's done it before, but I this time she really surprised herself by the sudden change of view. It was so sweet. Thank you again Susan!!

Don't forget to read chapters 4 & 5 for Yes to God Tuesday!