Proud Mama

As parents, we raise our children in the hopes that they take some of what they learned from us and do good with it. Often times, it is once they themselves become a parent that you see this. I was blessed to see this at the age of 8. My oldest daughter has a heart of gold and a very caring personality. The fire troubled her and it bothered her to see the devastation. She loves to draw so I encouraged her to sit down and write her thoughts on paper to help her get through the day. She came up with a beautiful picture that displayed what our neighborhood had become. Little did we know, this picture would do so much. A picture truly is worth a 1000 words. In this case over $4000. This picture touched the hearts of so many and allowed our 8 year old daughter to raise over $4000 for the families that were directly affected by the fire. We have a lot to learn from the people around us. If we have the ability to be a person of Influence at the age of 8, why is it that so many of us lose that ability as they become adults. Do we lose sight, do we lose focus, or do we lose touch with what is most important to us? Take the time to do good for someone, you will be glad you did.

Emotional Rollercoaster

The days following the fire were simply amazing. We celebrated the hero's from that night, we celebrated life, we experienced loss of pets and belongings and love from all around. A simple posting on social networking brought in a flood of offer's to help. The offer of a warm home for those who did not have one to go home to, home cooked meals to help them get through the day, clothing to keep them warm and household items. Complete strangers reaching out to help in any way that they could. Fire fighter's stopping by to make sure our home was safe to be in and to talk with the girls about that night. Only to leave after blanketing them with a fuzzy warm red blanket wrapped in the arms of a stuffed Dalmation dog. The range of emotions that flowed around us was almost hard to contain. And despite the feeling of relief to be standing in our home, every time we looked out our front window we saw sadness and devastation and the painful question of "Why?" Why does this happen to good people? Why are people so curious to see other's loss? Why do people experience loss? Why them, why us? And the bigger question, What are we to learn from this night?

In the Blink of an EYE!

In the blink of an eye, YOUR life can change. Many of us think we have control over how life will go day after day. On December 4th, 2009, after a fantastic visit with friends we brought our family home on a very cold and stormy night and settled in to bed. A little more than 4 hours later, we were awaken to some ominous sounds and lights that did not fit with the storm. As I peered out my bedroom window, the reality of life soon flashed before me as 2 of my neighbour's homes were in flames and the fire was spreading quickly. Within 10 minutes, we were advised to wake our 2young girls as they were unable to get in to put out the fire and they were not sure how they were going to put out "the perfect storm." We gathered the few things that we deemed important and left our home. Both of us thought to ourselves, this is going to be the last time that we see our home that we had called our home for the previous 7 years. We gathered at the nearby 7-11 and as the time faded in to the night, we were joined by neighbour after neighbour. We were embraced by the staff with warm drinks and a warm place to stay and were frozen in time. All control was gone! We talked, we cried and we searched for neighbours that had yet to appear, fearing that they had not got out. Word quickly came that 3, then 4, then 5 homes were engulfed in flames and a possible 6th was now at risk. It seemed like an eternity when we finally got word that the fire was under control and everyone had gotten out safely. We decided to return to the friend's home that we had left only a few short hours earlier to resume some sort of normalcy. Although we feared, that OUR "Normal" had changed. In the blink of an eye, OUR life had changed. This was the start of something new. Our purpose had changed.