And then our house burned down {A 'Thank You' To Everyone!}

The pic my mom texted me while we were on our way home!

Can you guess which one is our home? Well, if you haven't heard by now then I thought I would take a second to post about the last three days. While some really bad things have happened to our family some pretty good things have come our way as well.

On Wednesday Samantha & I got up in the morning, got the kids ready for the local church's Parent's Day Out, (Sam's mom is the director & the kids love it) & then we headed out the door at about 9:30am. As we jumped in the car, since the boys were supposed to be at church at 9:30 & we were just leaving, I realized I didn't have my watch or glasses on so I jumped out to run up stairs & grab them off my night stand by our bed. I remember putting on my glasses & stopping a second to fasten my watch while Steve the cat purred at my feet. If I would have realized the last glance down at him would have been the last & the last glance around the house at the boys rooms to make sure all the lights were off would be the last time I saw our home of over a year & a half I would have taken another second to really take it in but instead I stepped over Steve & jumped in the car. The boys were going to PDO at the church & since alone time during the summer is like gold we thought we would head to Oklahoma City to have an anniversary lunch(our anniversary was Thursday so we thought we would have lunch at our favorite pizza place while the kids were away). After stopping off at Target, eating lunch, & while hanging out looking around at Hobby Lobby I got a call from my grandfather, a retired firefighter who listens to the scanner 24/7, "What townhouse are you all? I think your house may be on fire!" Not freaking out we headed to the car & popped open my Police/Fire Scanner app on my iphone just in time for us to hear that they were in the attic between our house & the next one. My granddad, parents, & sister in law all now watching were on the phone with both of us trying to prepare us for what we were about to see. (Hence the text messaged pic my mom sent above!)

Shawnee Oklahoma Firefighters Doing Their Thang

Only two things really survived the fire:The first thing was a fireman grabbed our external hard drive that had everything backed up on it that we were working on at home instead of the studio. The other thing was a bit more amazing. As we watched our home burn to the ground a fireman asked us where the "important" stuff was, Sam keeps all the baby books & photos in a massive wooden chest at the end of our bed & seeing as the roof had already collapsed & seeing as you could tell they were walking on wooden beams because most of the floor was gone up stairs we thought it was gone. Then we watched as two firefighters picked something up upstairs (kinda easy to see when there is no roof, & carried it across where a wall used to divide two homes into our neighbors, down their stairs, & our their door. The chest was black & still pretty much on fire but they brought it over to us & popped the top to find all of our photos, though some a bit soggy or smokey, were all okay! Everything else in the house is gone.

Well, its been 48 hours & the reality of the situation has set in that we have nothing but we have each other & that's really everything! We joke & we laugh as much as possible because how can you feel sorry for yourself when you have so many people stepping up to help! Our family took us in & gave us a place to stay for the time being & our friends, family, coworkers, blog readers, & people we don't even know have just poured an unmeasurable amount of help into our laps! I'm sure most of you know Sunday Stilwell from Adventures In Extreme Parenthood & if you don't you should visit her site, she not only gave her support but harnessed the special needs community that we have become a part of via social networks & blogs. She set up a fund for my family that is still growing & at last check was just under $4000, she gave people info on what was going on with us, she distributed our kids sizes to people so that locals could drop things off to us. On top of Sunday our friends Jenn & Danial from 232 Studios dropped what they were doing & packed up everything to come be with us, organize drop off points with the help of the awesome Jordan Family, collected donations, & even brought their camera equipment so if we wanted they could shoot the wedding for us. Thankfully we have our screwed on right & after some "get your head right" time in the studio we will honor our commitment to our wedding clients who are getting married on Saturday, we will be at their wedding to document their big day!

I really can't even put into words how much the prayers, well wishes, & donations of all kinds big & small have meant to us! People from as close as down the street gave cloths & toys, people as far away as Austria & the UK gave money, & people from everywhere let us know we are not alone. It shows you that while you had a bad thing happen when you step back & look at the big picture, we are very lucky people! I don't know how I will thank all of you who helped but I will, by saying thing thank you to as many people personally as I can or by helping the next family that tragedy strikes as you all have helped us! Thank you everyone, I would have you all over for a drink but the chairs are ash & the roof caved in on the glasses! We will move on & be a better/stronger family for it.

If you feel that you can give to the fund that Sunday set up you can visit the donation link here. I'm sure I will blog a bit more about the whole thing, mainly about how a 9 year old kid with Autism handles his house burning down but I just wanted to get this out their to say thanks, we are okay, & thanks again!

Everyone Copes In Their Own Way!