Feeling Dazed and Confused

You know when your days starts off with you being woken up out of a dead sleep at 3 AM by flashing lights and people yelling out in front of your house in cannot be a good thing!!

Our neighbors, directly across the street from us, house was on fire early this morning! I woke up say flashing lights looked at the front window and FREAKED!! I ran to get Josh and the next thing I know we are out the front door and trying to make sense out of everything.

Our concern was if everyone was out of the house and accounted for! Heartache sat in when we realized the 61 year old father, Charlie, was asleep upstairs in the very room that balls of fire were rolling from. My heart sank! All we could do was watch and sit with the wife and her 30 something son as they tried to get a hold of his older brother and sister.

We consoled, we held them close, we prayed, we listened, we offered what we could (even if was a pair of shoes to the son who was running around barefooted or a leash to help contain one of their dogs). We congregated with neighbors on our entire block and shared tears and prayers hoping for the best but knowing in our heart of hearts Charlie was gone!

Apparently one neighbor was coming in from work at 3 AM and happened to notice smoke billowing out of the upstairs window. He banged on the doors and windows alerting the wife and son who had fallen asleep downstairs. They were dazed and not sure what to think - not until they got out on the street and looked up did they realize the horror before them! The son ran back in to get the dogs and he and another neighbor tried to get back in to get up the stairs to get to his father, but the smoke, heat, flames were to much and the retreated to the road just as the fire department arrived.

I sit here now typing this from my dining room and can see out my front picture window and the devastation and I am being constantly reminded that we have no assurance of our next breath. We need to live every moment like it might be the last that God gives us here on this cruel world we call home.

Life is too short to hold grudges, to worry about the little things, to not work out the hurts and heartaches! DON'T WAIT TILL TOMORROW, CAUSE YOU JUST NEVER NOW IF YOU WILL WAKE UP TOMORROW OR IF THAT LOVED ONE WILL STILL BE HERE!

My heart goes out to the Gibson family and to our community in the 6900 Block of Roe Street who witnessed this horrific ordeal this morning! You all are in my thoughts and prayers!