The Fire

I stayed up until 11:00 AM on Friday (from Thursday) making sure the fourth issue of Parables was published. Actually after that I only slept off and on, because there were a few upload problems. At any rate, I had already planned to sleep nice and long on Saturday. I went to bed around two or three Saturday morning, and my mother woke me up to help her with her hair and feed the sibs. After that, I put in Million Dollar Baby (rented the night before) and layed back down. I slept off and on and watched the movie. When the knocking started I was in deep sleep. At first I did not realize the knocking wasn't a part of my dream, but thanks be to God, it got louder and woke me up. So I am thinking, who in the world is banging on the door like that. I go to the door and say, "Who is it?" and someone says "Ma'am yall got to get out of the appartment, the appartment upstairs is on fire!"
So I go into speed mode, run to my brother's room throw him some pants (we were all sleeping). Then I run to my sister's room and throw her some pants. Then, since I am in my jammies, I look around for the the first decent thing to wear, and end up yanking a sundress over my head. At this point, my sister is still slowly putting on her pants. She did not understand the urgency of fire. So I hurry her along explaining that we need to get out of the house now. I did not see her shoes immeditately and had no idea how bad the fire was, so I just led her out in her socks. My sandalls were right beside my bed, so I did grab those.

When I did get back to the living room, smoke was starting to come through the vents. It smelled awful. So Bran had neither shirt nor shoes...no service for him. :) Anyway, we are all outside, and as soon as we get out there, the fire department arrives.

The smoke getting stronger, they have us back up and move away from the building. The fire was contained to the bedroom where it started. A lady and her daughter woke up with their bed aflame; I can not imagine the horror of that moment. When I first got outside, the little girl was crying, and she told me her hair was on fire. (It was not anymore. She was talking about when she awoke.) Her face was burned a little as well, so they took her to the hospital. The mother stayed there to talk to the police. Turns out another of her children, he looked like he was three or four years old, was playing with a cigarrette lighter.

I am now in a hotel room at the Courtyard Marriot. They turned off the electricity, and so we had to leave until the electrictian makes sure everything is okay. I am hoping that will be today. I want my computer back. I am on my mothers laptop right now. I took my computer out of the house for safe keeping.

At the house, the living room and kitchen smells awful, but the back rooms smell nice. For some reason the smoke never reached them. That is a good thing. :)

I feel bad for the family. I am praying for them. I bet they lost a lot, but even in this I can see God's hand, his mercy. If the baby had not started the fire in the same room where the mom and daughter were sleeping, it would have taken longer for them to figure discern it.

So I am thankful that things were not worse. :) And being in hotels is kind of fun in a way. :)

In other news, the Ted Dekker interview was cool. :) And despite the usual publishing drama the fourth issue was a hit. :) I still have some reminders, courtesy copies, and book reviews to get out, but I am going to wait until I am on my own computer to do all of that. I pray it happens today. :)

That's all for now.

Yeah, I know....

God is awesome!

Roz

PS. It is really hard to type on this laptop, so I appologizee for any mistakes.