The Fire-Part 4-The little blessings

Recently I have tried during stressful times to look for the little blessings in the middle of the stressful time. Our life was pretty crazy during the few days of the fire affecting Ram's parents. Here were some little blessings that I thanked God for during that long weekend.

*Because we went to Ram's parents for vacation for a few days, my house was in pretty good shape after being a mess most of this summer. Thank you mom, for teaching me to do some basic cleaning before vacations!

*Because Ram's parents left after dark and got to our house at 2 am, I had notice to clean up the guest room and clean the bathrooms.

*There happens to be a cat "hotel" down the street from us and they had room for Yoda so the cat only had to stay at our house one night. Yoda appreciated that there were only cats, not dogs here.

*A great group of women that I scrapbook with all heard my story that first night and started praying for Ram's parents when I went to scrapbooking that night.

*Before my parents visited we installed a ceiling fan in the guest bedroom.

*Because my parents visited this summer the Lambs had some practice of how to behave when guests are in the house.

*Before we left for our short vacation we bought 4 dozen eggs. They weren't on sale and we normally only buy 2 dozen. Those eggs came in handy for breakfast and we used all of them in the few days his parents were here. 

*His parents eat Paleo and dairy free ice cream (sorbet) was on sale while they were here and I stocked up.

*The beginning of August was very busy for us. The weekend of the fire was a remarkably free schedule for us.

*Ram's parents had never stayed at our house since we moved here. Sometimes they bring their camper and camp when they visit us and other times his dad works at his office in our town and work pays for their hotel room. When my parents visited the Lambs were so out of routine for a few weeks that their behavior was terrible some days. On top of that Lamb 2's rash really bothered him while my parents visited. I was mildly concerned about the Lambs behavior with Ram's parents moving in with us for as long as they needed and we didn't know how long that would be.

Lamb 2 had a break from a rash all the days that Ram's parents were here! The boys were wild when we were all in the minivan together a few times (both up around Ram's parents town and around our town), but they were remarkably good at home. They really tried to use inside voices and go upstairs to play when the adults were downstairs. They were typical boys and had their moments, but it was a lot better than when my parents visited.

On Monday I took the Lambs to Kung Fu and Ram and his parents ate supper by themselves. While we were gone Ram's dad told him he had a nice family. That meant so much to me that we didn't drive them crazy over those few days.
*Of course it was a blessing to have a few extra days to spend with Ram's parents that we hadn't expected.

Of course we wanted Ram's parents to stay here during the fire. I thank God that their staying here went as well as it did. Part of the reason that it went as well as it did was all those little blessings added up like not needing to run to the store for eggs the next morning after being up until 2am. 

The pre-evacuation and mandatory evacuation status has been lifted for Ram's parents now. Soon I'll wash the guest bed sheets and this fire will just be in our memories. Ram's parents will deal with smoke for awhile but the real danger to their house is done now. We thank God that the firefighters did their jobs and they were able to go home after just a few days here.