FIRE!!!

As I reflect upon the last 30 hours or so, my heart is filled with gratitude. Gratitude for my Almighty God that I love and serve. Gratitude for His grace and mercy that was showered upon me and my family through the hands and words of our church family and beloved friends. Gratitude for His hand of protection upon Matthew's parents' house and protection upon Matthew and Kevan and the crew of men that so lovingly and willingly sacrificed their safety, time, and sleep to keep watch over Mark and Cindy's home.

I'm sure all of you have heard of the fire that has swept Southern California by now, more specifically the fire that engulfed Yorba Linda, Brea, Anaheim Hills, Chino Hills and the Diamond Bar area. In the last 48 hours or so, the city that our family have called home has been marred and changed. The horrible flames consumed acres upon acres and destroyed homes, apartments and business complexes a like. The fire caused main freeways and highways to be closed, traffic to be backed up, and countless lives to be altered.

I was attending our annual district Womens' Retreat in Murietta Hot Springs this weekend. On Saturday afternoon, I found out that this catastrophic fire was threatening to swallow up the place that our family has celebrated countless number of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, 4th of July, and many other holidays and non-holidays. Our "Grand Central Station" was under attack and Mom and Dad are out of the country, in the Dominican Republic, visiting Rebekah! As my friend Heather and I crawled through heavy traffic to get home from Murietta via some round-about alternate routes (all major freeways leading to home were shut down and I didn't drive!), Matthew was barreling toward the flames with our children in attempts to assess the state of Mom and Dad's home. From what I understand, the road into Mom and Dad's house was blocked off to all. By God's timing, Matthew met up with Sarah (our friend from church, that was housesitting for Mom and Dad) and handed over the kids and told her to go someplace safe. He then proceeded to run to house, backwards, on blazing smoky horse trails, using his tee shirt as protection for his hair, nose, and mouth from the heat and the smoke. When he reached the house, he was welcomed by blazing fire all around the house -- on the slopes and ridges of the front and backyard. There was fire at the top of Mom and Dad's property, by the horses. The house directly above the property line was ablaze. Thick black smoke was pouring over Mom and Dad's house (later he found out that the smoke he saw was coming from the neighbors' house). The house at the bottom of their long driveway was completely overtaken by fire. The heat and the light that was produced by the flames was beyond comprehension. Matthew described what he saw as a horrible scene from a movie set.

After the initial shock and Kevan's (Matthew's sister, Bethany's husband) arrival, the guys raced through the house, attempting to rescue as many "irreplaceables" as possible and left the house -- fully expecting the home to be lost to the fire within minutes. Next, they went to Grandpa Norris and Grandma Betsy's place (Cindy's parents) in Yorba Linda, to evacuate them from their apartment to bring them to our house. Back at home, Sarah and the kids were watching the news, following the coverage of the fire.

Shortly after Matthew and Kevan returned with our grandparents, they saw Mom and Dad's house on TV, untouched by the fire, and decided to return in attempts to save more of Mom and Dad's valuables. On the way out, they providentially picked up Jim (another one our church friends that "just happened" to be able to drive all of Dad's classic cars that Matthew and Kevan were unable to drive and HUGE motorhome), as well as Mike (Matthew' cousin). When they got back to the house, Officer Chris Mak, the son of the neighbor 2 doors down, was on the roof, fighting off a fire that had just started on corner of the house. Kevan quickly joined him in knocking off roof tiles to extinguish the fire, brewing underneath the fireproof tiles. The guys quickly evacuated Dad's antique vehicles and the motorhome and went to work on the fires on the slopes. At one point, an ember started a fire in the attic of the Ranch House without anyone's notice. By the time someone saw the smoke pour out of the side of the attic, it was too late to escape with little damage. Kevan and Matthew worked heroically with garden hoses until two fire engines arrived on scene and doused the fire with their fire hose. There is now a great big mess throughout the structure and a very large and obvious 15 foot hole in the ceiling/roof of the the back bedroom of this beautiful 2 bedroom apartment, designed to house missionaries on furlow or passing through the area :(.

By the time I got home, Matthew and Kevan had assembled a crew of family and friends (Dan, Pete, Uncle Dave, and later Tom and Caps) and collected supplies with full intentions of saving Mom and Dad's house. These men kept watch overnight to put out any fires throughout the property and knock down any embers that were flying over from the fire that was consuming the next door neighbor's home. I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of hard work and the incredible fiery scene that the guys faced! The guys brought over some fire hoses -- essential for fighting fire!!! Matthew said that there were hoses everywhere, as if God was raining down hoses from heaven. He also commended Dad for loving hose bibs :), they used every one!

Back at the home front, Bethany and I were holding down the fort -- fielding calls and emails and texts as concerned families and friends communicated with us. We then catnapped on the couch, praying for our guys and keeping a vigilant eye on the news of the fire and the development of the windy conditions. We discussed our exit strategy, just in case we needed to evacuate all 5 of our sleeping children (ranging from 10 1/2 months to 9-year-old) and our elderly grandparents (they are in their 80's, and Grandpa has Parkinson's). We decided that we will need as much time as possible to even just get the people out of the house, much less any "stuff".

By 6am, we got news from the guys that things looked promising and that the threat of fire burning down Mom and Dad's house has past. Praise God!!! Bethany was able to delivered some breakfast to the guys and was able to see some of the damages caused by the fire. Most of the guys left around this time to go home to get ready for church or work. Matthew was intending on coming home to get ready for church and lead the Dominican Republic missions debrief meeting at 11am (they had just gotten back from the DR late Wednesday night, after 6 days of working hard in Monte Plata, where Rebekah is serving. http://dominicanupdates.blogspot.com/ if you want a flavor of the trip), but as he was leaving (around 8am) San Antonio was blocked again. The winds had shifted and the dangers were back - and Matthew turned back to the house. At about 10:30, Matthew left Kevan at the the house, to go to church for his meeting. When he returned at 1pm, Matthew had a hard time getting back up to the house, even with Kevan in full Sheriffs uniform (that's how they were able to get through the road block before)!

Our "Command Center" AKA home, quieted down a bit this afternoon. After lunch, Bethany and her kids went home to get cleaned up, take a nap, and get some clothes. While Abby napped and Isaac and Seth spent some quiet time reading, I jumped in the shower. Ahhh... the simple pleasures in life! All throughout the day, Grandpa and Grandma were asking about the status of their home, anxious to get back to their place for some peace and quiet :) As you can imagine, peace and quiet would not have been the description of our house for the last 2 days (5 little ones and Armageddon!). By 4:15pm, Brighton Gardens began to accept residents back into their facility. Around 5, Heather came over to watch my kids and to feed them dinner, as I set out to take our grandparents back home.

At about 7:00pm, I was delivered dinner to Matthew and Kevan. The roadblock temporarily lifted(!!!), allowing me to drive up San Antonio instead of hiking in and doing a quick hand-off at the blockade. What I saw along the way was breathtaking, even after seeing the pictures that Bethany had taken early in the morning! So many of the homes were 100% destroyed. The destructive power of the fire was incredible! I wasn't able to see very much in the dark, but Matthew pointed out all the different areas that were on fire when he first got there yesterday afternoon and he showed me the damages in the Ranch House. Matthew and Kevan had decided to spend one more night at the house when they heard that there were looters arrested in the neighborhood. They will again, take turns sleeping and keep watch to deter any unwelcomed intruders!

Now I am back home, the kids (all 5!!!) are asleep. I am exhausted and should take the advantage of this time to sleep too... but my heart is too full and my mind is racing, attempting to process all that has happened just within the last couple days. Thank you, all my prayer warriors for interceeding for us! Thank you, everyone that had a role in helping us survive these crazy last two days! Thank you, fire fighters, for your bravery and hard work! Thank you, police officers, for keeping the peace of the land and order even in a time of chaos and panic (even if you won't let me through to take care of the people that I love!). Word cannot describe the gratitude and thankfulness that I feel for the love that was showered upon us this weekend! The Lord gives and the Lord takes away... but in every case, the Lord is glorified! I don't know why He would chose to save one house and allow another to be destroyed, but all I know is... that He is Lord of All and that He is the Sovereign King and that His will is done whether we like it or not. May we always stand on His truth, lean on His grace and peace, and not waiver in disbelieve.

Soli Deo Gloria!