First of all, Rustin and I cannot begin to express our gratitude to our friends and family today. To Ryan and Barbara for coming to our rescue at 2am, to our neighbors who sat outside with us all night/morning, to all the calls and offers of help of so many people dear to me, to my sweet BFF Leslie Harrison who asked me 12x today if she could come over (sorry - it took me a while to see/catch up on messages), to Chesley Walton for practically begging for some clothes to wash (I LOVE YOU!), to Suzanne Henley for bringing my kids some toys to play with and a very generous offering for Rustin and I. Second of all, I'm running on 2 hours sleep and fumes so I'll get to the point tonight but soon I'll post about the bigger picture in all of this and the recent ways God is growing us as followers. These attacks on my family this past year only validate that we are hearing God and our obedience is infuriating the enemy. Bring it on, because we know God orchestrates ALL things for our good and He will restore what the enemy destroys.
The best we know right now is the fire likely started from an electrical line that ran down our fence line. We don't know yet what it is - probably to the pool or shed. It is a MIRACLE; and I mean a total God thing that we got out of that house. The smoke alarms did not go off, and I am so, so thankful that God sent Rustin that signal that randomly woke him up at 2am this morning. More on this later. The house is not in good shape, insurance best guess is 5-6 months before we might be able to move back in. We got out with our valuables, and their names are Thade, Reed, Adalae. This is all that matters.
So many of you have asked what you can do, and we could use some help. As many of you know, we recently moved from our big ole, new, pretty house in Euless to our smaller, older, now quite smokey yet somewhat charismatic house in Bedford. The insurance company, adjusters, and restoration people are really taking great care of us so there is not much we can do at the Bedford house right now. However, our house in Euless has not sold. So you see my dilemma, we own two houses, neither of which we are living in! We need to get the Euless house ready to put back on the market this weekend; need it to sell quickly so we can pay Thade's tuition to FWC, among other things. Just this past Tuesday we got a to-do list from the realtor. We are a little overwhelmed because we also have to find a new place to live this weekend.
We will be working on the Euless house from 9-3 at the latest on Saturday. Our to-do list is a lot of minor stuff that Rustin and I could get done in a weekend, but we no longer have a weekend. It would be such a blessing to us to have the Euless house finished so
we could focus Sunday and Monday on finding a place to live. Off the top of my head it would include touch up paint, painting a closet and laundry room, some baseboards and re-staining the front door and a step in the house. Also we need to repair a shower rod that broke from the tile if anyone has tile experience? There are a couple of other minor things that anyone handy could handle.
The address is 1709 Lake Eden Dr. Euless, TX 76039. If you can come even for an hour, feel free to drop in. I seriously don't know how people do this without community. I'm overwhelmed and humbled by God's provision for our family. We love you all.
In Him,
Heather
