Home, Sweet Home!

Ash in the flower

It has been two and a half weeks. We've been a little occupied. Wonderful as it is to be here, our homecoming hasn't been quite what we expected. When our things were delivered back from the cleaners (a day late), many of our belongings were still covered with ash and reeked of smoke. We are working on how to move forward from here. It is discouraging at times.

There is encouragement, too, and cause for thanks--not least the constant reminders (constant now that we are here) of how near-run a thing it is that we have things left to be ashy at all. The shot above is of Wombles in a chair that was J.D.'s grandmother's...we have a photo of her in it on her first birthday. Precious.

The more things and signs I find in our yard, the more impossible it seems that our house can be still standing. I do not understand how it can be. I know that the wind was somehow in our favor (Psalm 135:7: "He it is who ... brings forth the wind from his storehouses"), and that firefighters worked very hard to save it. I still don't understand. And am trying to be grateful. For our home, our saved belongings, the Westmont students who have tirelessly helped me unpack and sort and take care of children over their Spring Break, and the neighbor who came on Friday and took a MOUNTAIN of dirty laundry to return it clean and folded. So much for which to be thankful. So much generosity! And when it rains, the whole mountain smells of fire again. I think I still have a lot to learn about how to take the good with the evil (Job 2:10). What does doing that faithfully look like? Any thoughts you'd like to share?


On our first night back in the house, a gentleman from our church brought over some housewarming and other generous gifts from people at church (He and his wife took us in for the first 2 1/2 weeks, and again later). Among them was this collection of lilies (NOT the same bunch from Westmont!). It made me wonder...has someone local found my blog, or was this just one of those lovely little "coincidental" gifts from our Lord? (See 2.13 post). I have never been a big fan of calla lilies, but since the fire they have come to be symbolic of much and have lost their stand-offishness by being wildflowers.


It is so good to be home. We love our neighbors, and can't wait to get some more of them back home! We were the last folks back into the neighborhood that still had a house standing, so now we're waiting on the rebuilds. Early signs of the process have begun--and with the neighbors to the immediate south and west rebuilding, the children are very excited about having an up-close view of the process! Bud in particular... here's a shot of him sharing a doughnut with Wombles on one of our first mornings home. Now that I look closely, maybe he's just sharing the sprinkles...



Last week J.D. walked the children over to the citrus grove to pick some lemons and oranges. Pixie stopped to enjoy the azaleas. Ah, how the sight does my Southern heart some good!

Thanks for wading through some of my processing...