Fire!

On Sunday we had invited our good friends The Caswells over for dinner and a little football watching of course.  Right before they got here Ryan got a text from another friend here that they had just been evacuated because there was a fire in the front of the neighborhood!  I really didn't think much of it but not 15 minutes later and about 10 minutes after The C's got here the electricity went out and about 5 minutes later we got an email from the HOA that the ENTIRE neighborhood was being evacuated!  So after packing a few essentials and a small bag of important documents, computers, hard drives, and the wedding album and the dog and we were out the door. 

We had to drive right by the area where the fire was to get out of the neighborhood and I could not believe how bad it was.  Seeing the flames, smoke, and all the emergency vehicles made it real in a heartbeat.  My heart was in my stomach thinking about all the families and homes being affected.  It was really sad.

We ended up meeting up with The C's in the H.E.B. parking lot and feeding the kids a pizza that the pizza place was handing out and a plate of food from H.E.B.  It was amazing how fast and supportive the local companies were at taking care of the community.  H.E.B. had dog food, cat food, water for the animals, water bottles, food, and much more sitting out in front of the store for all the people to take and use for FREE!  After filling the kids bellies and collecting our thoughts we checked into an animal friendly hotel for the night by this time it was close to 10.  Needless to say Ryan and I didn't sleep much that night for trying to find out as much information as possible about the fire.

Monday morning we all headed out to have a wonderful breakfast at Kirby Lane.  Yummy!  From there The C's went to go back to the hotel and the Gillenwater's headed to The Huston's.  We needed some space and the kids were in need of a nap.  Rachel and Peter was kind enough to let us hang out with them and let the kids and dogs play.  We stayed the night there which was way more comfortable than 2 kids, 2 adults, and a dog in one small hotel room.

Tuesday after breakfast we headed out, we had heard that they were going to start letting residents back in at noon.  I don't think have ever been so excited to head home.  We were blessed that our house was not affected from the fire at all.  We did have to throw all the food out from our fridge and freezer but that is a small price to pay compared to all the families that have lots everything.  

Thank you to all our friends and family that reached out to us during that time to check on us.  We are truly blessed with some wonderful friends and family.  Our hearts go out all the families in our neighborhood and Central Texas that have lost their homes, you are in our prayers.  This whole experience definitely makes you step back take a look at what is important and what is not.