The Moving Blues, part 2

Monday, 4/21, was when everything changed. After Cara went to bed, I sat down for what felt like the first time all weekend. I had gotten boxes unpacked, clothes laid out for the week, lunches made, everything was returning to normal.

Our friend Cal came over to help Chance install the washer/dryer and the water line to our fridge. They went back and forth to Lowes, tinkered in our laundry room and had to figure out how to hook up our modern appliances to an old house--plug adapters and other things were necessary. They were busy at work, and I was on the couch watching TV at about 10:30 p.m. when an alarm went off--not the smoke alarm, but one in our electrical closet with the A/C unit and hot water heater.

My first reaction was to make the noise stop to not wake the baby. Chance ran from the laundry room to the middle of the house and the closet, and opened the door. When he did, 3-foot flames came shooting out at him. He yelled, ripped his shirt off to try to beat the fire back and we came running. I think I said, "Oh my gosh oh my gosh" over and over again. Cal, in his calm, take-charge attitude that probably saved all of us-literally, immediately called the fire department and gas company to have them come out and turn the gas off. He said to me twice, "Paige, I'd get the kid out," so I had to run past the flaming closet, grab Cara out of her bed, run back past the flaming closet with her in my arms and run out the door and across the street. I literally had my shoes and pjs on, and I didn't even grab my phone--Chance did. But in that moment, she was all that mattered.

We ran across the street, and I started screaming about finding Po, who had just come home that day. I had this moment of quiet, and as I was clutching Cara, the thought that ran through my head was, "I'm about to watch my house explode," and I sat waiting for it to happen. In all seriousness, I pictured what that would be like. It was terrifying. My prayer out loud over and over was, "Lord protect our house and keep us safe. Protect our house and keep us safe." The fire department first responders came after about 2 minutes, but it felt like an hour. We live around the corner from the police/fire department, thankfully. Once the gas had been turned off, the fire died down to the pilot light, so all the crew had to do was blow the light out. But they had to hack a hole in the wall to make sure it hadn't spread, they brought in giant fans to blow the smoke out, we still couldn't find Po, so many different officers gave us different pieces of information, and I was so overwhelmed.

They told us we could go back inside to pack some things, but that our house was not safe to live in. And since the hot water heater had caught fire, it was leaking, and if we didn't rig something to catch the water, it would flood our house, to add insult to injury. We walked through the house, grabbing things we would need for that night and the next few days. Cal was so amazing and sweet to us. He talked to officers with a clear head, helped us find Po (he went to hide under a low piece of furniture when the loud noises started), played with Cara while we packed, kept us from falling to pieces emotionally, called Lindsey, who got their guest room ready and gave us towels and shower stuff. We showed up at 1 a.m. with the 3 of us plus Po, his box, and a suitcase full of things, and she didn't bat an eye with a 5-month-old.

We barely slept that night, but were grateful for a safe, comfy bed. The next morning, we took Cara to school, met our insurance adjuster and her restoration contractor from Specialty Restoration. They went to work within an hour of meeting us and started to clean our ducts and repair the electrical closet. We checked into a hotel, and I went back to the doctor because I was still feeling sick from the weekend. Doctor said 60% stress, 40% sinus infection. :(

The contractor looked around the house with us, and diagnosed the issue as a perfect storm of accidental flukes. The water and electrical lines were ground together behind the washer/dryer. PLUS a copper pipe line touched a gas pipe AND a pipe going into the hot water heater had a leak, so when the pipe on one end of the house touched the gas, it sparked and made the heater pipe break free (and spit fire at Chance). It was an issue that couldn't have been seen in an inspection and couldn't have been predicted--just a freak accident. But he said that he'd seen this happen once before, and the house was no longer standing. Talk about sobering. For the longest time, I wasn't able to deal and process with that fact and the potential aftermath. To know that we could have had a very, very different ending to the one we have was pretty traumatic. I could not be anything but thankful to God for protecting us. He was gracious and merciful and answered every word of my prayer when we were standing outside on the street.

We took Tuesday off of work to deal with insurance, and then started back to normal life on Wednesday. I had to tell my story to everyone at school, so telling it a lot made it easier to process. We stayed at the Homewood Suites in town from Tuesday until Friday. We had a separate room to put Cara to sleep in, so we would have to turn in early in the other room, which was a blessing in disguise. We had forced rest and quiet for 3 straight nights, and we got lots of sleep in a comfy bed with free A/C. :) There was no tub, so Cara got a bath in the shower while standing up. Quite an adventure. She LOVED to ride in the "ellvator" multiple times a day, and was pretty much unfazed. There was lots of change in her life in just one short week, but she handled it like a champ. As long as we were together, she was OK.

We moved home on Friday night, and everything was a mess. The contractors had done a great job restoring things--cleaning ducts, fixing the wall, getting a new hot water heater, cleaning/repainting the electrical closet, cleaning the carpets, painting the hall, having an electrician re-ground the wires and inspect everything, and more. But the house was just as we'd left it 5 days before--food in the sink, dinner on the table, trash out, etc. The A/C had been off while they worked, so it was hot and stinky in the house. I also had to FIGHT with the gas company to get them to come out Friday night and turn it back on so we could have hot water--they wanted to set a date for Wednesday, 5 days from then. I had to pitch a (professional, respectful) fit, and they came to do it. Over the course of the weekend, we got things cleaned and resettled.

This whole ordeal was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. Feeling so close to losing everything, feeling so grateful for God's protection and provision. Dealing with the stress on so many levels for so many days really got to me, but we had so many friends, family and each other to help us deal. If this had to happen, at least nothing else was lost or ruined, and that we were all OK.

I'm impressed if you made it this far in reading our story, but I needed to document each detail and each way God protected us and answered our prayers. We are simply thankful.