Yep, you guess it, our house caught fire on Wednesday (well, maybe you didn’t guess it). Jared and I were about to take Steph to a music practice, we were going to leave four children home (Lachlan is 14). We got a knock on the door, Steph answered it, and it was our neighbour, saying “you have a fire in your back yard” and then he ran off. We went out back, I couldn’t see anything, until I saw our neighbour at the side of our house, yelling. Oh man, our house was on fire! In slow motion, I thought “our house is gone, there is no way that is going to be put out”. For a brief 5 seconds we all ran in weird directions, Jared said, “where’s a bucket, where’s a bucket?” I went back inside, called the Fire Brigade, got the children to go outside and across the rd for safety. Cassandra was in the bathroom, so Lachlan ran and got her, and took her outside. I remembered that I had a fire hydrant in Jared’s car, so I got that, and stood near the flames. I knew it was a long shot, the flames were too the trees. I sprayed…I may as well have used a water pistol! Pathetic. The water pressure for our house was also pathetic, I almost laughed at Jared’s pathetic hose. Thankfully our neighbour was trying to get the fire out too, and his hose was good. The fire was almost under control by the time the fire engine got here. Our neighbour was really upset, he had accidently started it, by pouring petrol down his drive, it rolled into our pilot light of our hot water system, and kaboom!!
I am so thankful, a child wasn’t in there getting a bike. The entrance to under the house is there also, I had Alycia under there, just the day before….well, you can think too much can’t you? We have 7 bikes there (thankfully not my new one that I picked up just the day before), three scooters, a carpod, an eletric mower, and a number of other things. Yes, they are only things. Cassandra took only half an hour to say “yay, we get a new bike!”, pff! Of course we have insurance, but our neighbour doesn’t. It is heart wrenching to think about it. The insurance guy said that they would go after him. So maybe we won’t get new bikes, but we do need to fix our house. This will not be pleasant. We want to do, what is fitting for a Christian family. It will be another test for us.
On a brighter note, it was Cassandra’s 6th birthday the day before. The 19th. We had some visitors to help us celebrate with us. This is Cassandra coming back from a special time with Daddy to see her table set for her.
I got her some things that she could do. Painting and sewing. 
Now, back to the fire. Can you see my Jared? He has some soot on his face, he was brave with his pathetic hose. I couldn’t believe how quickly the electicians, and plumbers arrived. We had to go and stay in a motel, because our sewage hoses had melted. Jared told everyone not to use the toilet, but someone (and no one is admitting to it), went. So there was a lovely little/not so little package for the plumber to find. Oh, really, we are not so inconsiderate….Jared buried it 😀 Life with kiddies, it keeps you on your toes eh? We got back on Wednesday, and Jared’s parents have arrived for a few days for Christmas. The smokey BBQ smell has lessened already. Did I say that the firemen put two holes in our walls to check for safety of the walls? Now I am waiting for a scream from either Stephanie or the in-laws to say that there is a possum or a rat on their bed….shudder…..
In all this I can say that God is great. How much more valuable is praise during set backs and trials. granted I have felt a little alone, with many emotions going on in my heart. I can still laugh. In fact when our house was burning and I was out the front with the children, Stephanie and I burst into laughter when we heard the smoke alarm in our kitchen go off. you see, it goes off every time we make toast, and here was our house in flames, and it took 10 min to go off, go figure.
Now I am writing this a week later, but I think we then went to Wangarrata. We walked around and did a little bit of shopping. We came home and then went swimming in the river Ovens. Jared dropped myself and Camden and Cassandra off, he went and got tea ready and then picked us up. Cool hey? Jared actually cooked a BBQ, the first night, and then we ate the meat for 4 nights with fresh salads. I loved the river. I was adventurous enough to let the kiddies go down the slide and jump off the spring board into deep water. I can’t show you a picture, because they are on my phone, and I haven’t figured out how to get them off it yet.
