Thank You!!!!

"Sparked by flying embers from the Mountain Shadows area, a grass fire burns south of Centennial Boulevard at Mule Deer Drive around twilight June 26. Firefighters kept the blaze from spreading."

This is from the newspaper. This shows just how close the fire was to us. The picture looks like it was taken from the kids bus stop.  The firemen who stopped this section of fire from crossing the street, saved our home. 

There is no way that I can explain the gratitude that I feel for the firemen that saved my neighborhood and for the police and National Guard that protected the neighborhood while we were gone.
The day we came home we heard reports of houses being broken into while people were evacuated. We had taken most everything that was of value to us but I was still nervous about what we were going to find (or not find) in addition to smoke damage when we came home. Luckily, our friend had kept checking on our house for us and we knew that all the neighborhoods were being guarded by the police and Colorado National Guard.  We returned home and our house was fine and had not been broken into.We decided as a family that we were going to take cookies to the National Guardsmen  and police that were guarding the streets around us that were still closed.  Every day the kids decided on the kind of cookie to make and every  night for a week we delivered cookies. It was strange to see the hummers everywhere and men standing around with guns in my neighborhood.

  Every night the Guardsmen seemed surprised when we drove up with cookies but appreciative that someone thought of them. One night they were so nice and shared their gatorade with the kids. Every night we felt gratitude and humbled as they shook our hands. We were thankful for their service.

Thank you firefighters

More than 1500 fire fighters from over 30 states came to fight the Waldo Canyon Fire. At 8 p.m. in the evening when the fire fighters came down off the mountain for their shift change, hundreds of people were lined up to cheer and show their thanks and gratitude.  A friend from church posted on Facebook that her family had gone and cheered for the firefighters as they were switching shifts. We decided that we wanted to go the next night. We went every night the next week except for the one night that it rained (yeah for rain!)

It was an amazing and emotional experience.  The kids made thank you signs and many of our friends were there with us who felt the same way we did.  On the 4th, Kristi, John, Taryn, Conrad and baby Addie came down and went with us instead of going to fireworks. I was thankful for their support and for Kristi's sign that said "Firemen are smokin hot" :). We cheered, clapped, waved and yelled thank you. The firefighters waved back and many of them were filming us as they went by. Zach said that he was thinking about a lot of things during all of this. He said he was thinking about being evacuated and he was thinking about all his friends and people that he knew that did loose their homes as well as be grateful that our home was safe. Brig and Natalie were interviewed by the local news. Brig commented on how the sense of community that he felt there that night and Natalie said she was glad that her home didn't burn ( That was after she told the news guy that her name was Natalie and she liked to dance and she liked sports.) Zach and Maddi said that Natalie was born to be on T.V.

At one point, there was a whole bus full of firefighters and they were all hanging out the window waving back at us. Their hands, faces and clothes were covered in black. That is when the tears started to flow. These people that I did not know were fighting to save our city, our neighborhood, our homes and they were filthy and sleeping in tents at my kid's middle school. Our signs did not seem like an adequate expression of our thanks. 

The Firefighter Express

One particular friend that lost her home told me that on the day that she was allowed back in the neighborhood, 4 firemen were waiting for her to explain why they were not able to save her home.  She was told that the temperature of the fire reached 2800 degrees and that the firemen had to retreat.  They told her that they felt like every home was their own home and that they were so sorry.

In the weeks since the fire, we have seen more and more of the devastation of the fire but we have also seen more and more places that were saved.  There are so many places that the fire went right up to the back door of people's homes but their homes were saved.  There are places that you can see the bulldozer lines that saved an entire neighborhood.  You can see burnt homes and fields within 20 feet from the kids elementary school, yet their school was saved.  I can see a burnt field across the street every time I leave the house, yet my house was saved and I am so thankful.