Deja Vu

The Monday before we left for France, Aaron and I had a FHE with the kids explaining all the nitty-gritty details of what will happen while we're gone and what we expected of them.  One of the girls asked, "but what if there's a fire again?"  What are the odds of that!  We assured them that wouldn't happen.  (link: The Fire in 2010)

Because of the fire two years ago, I hadn't been able or wanted to leave the kids.  It had been TWO years since I had been away from them.

The night before we left Paris for home we started getting texts from friends that there was a fire quickly approaching our neighborhood...again.  But this one was much closer than the last one.  The kids were being watched by Aaron's brother and his wife, and were gone for the day hiking.  They weren't allowed into the neighborhood to get any of our things, and spent the night with my SIL's mother.
  
Aaron and I felt strongly that our house would be OK, but once again my worry was for the kids and the emotions they would be experiencing.  I hated being away from them during such a scary time.  I  really wanted to be with them at a time they needed their momma the most.


These pictures were taken by friends and stolen by me off of facebook :)

    These were taken in our neighborhood:

Our neighborhood is on the left-side of this picture:

When we flew into town the evacuation had just been lifted so Aaron and I went straight home to check on it's condition.  The power was still out and there was a fine layer of dust (soot) on the surfaces, but not bad at all.  

We didn't spend much time at the house because we were so anxious to see the kids.  We met up with them at the high school where the red cross had set up an evacuation site.  I had never been more happy to see my kids!!!!  

Several friends asked Aaron and I not to leave town at the same time.  The Red Cross asked us to give them a heads up if we do.   Nice.

As far as I'm concerned, it'll be a very very long time before I leave them again.

And I have to add one more thing...Nathan and Emilee (who watched the kids) were awesome!  They not only dealt with a total of 8 kids, the fire and evacuation, but also took two trips into InstaCare.  One time for Kaeli, she had pneumonia, and the second time was for Sam's infected foot.  I bet they were exhausted!!!