One week later

Hi Everyone,

     Here we are one week later.  Still thankfull that we all got out of the fire completely unharmed.   Our home and all our posessions were declared a total loss by the insurance company.   The fire traveled up through our interior walls according to the fire fighters really fast.   Things were either damaged by the flames, smoke, heat, water or force from the firefighters.   Walking through our home the first time was very shocking and emotional.   It is hard to process the loss and terrifying to realize how much danger we were in.   So what do we do now?   It feels like a million things.    We moved from my parents to a long term stay hotel (not my thing) to a regular hotel (much nicer).   We have secured a long term rental home.   The amazing thing is it's right next door our old home.   Our neighbor's house has sat empty during this housing market.   We will move in Monday or Tuesday.   Our insurance pays for a company to furnish the home.  I spent an hour yesterday talking to the housing people and we'll be supplied with everything from couches, beds, tables and chairs to pots/pans and trash cans.   Apparently all I do is show up and let folks in.  Sentimental items have been retrieved from the home and are off to special companies to restore them.   When you think of the things you want to recover, we got many of them.  We've been able to get our wedding album; paintings my mother in law painted, photo albums, scrapbook albums, the box of items Bill bought for Lily in China, adoption documents, tax documents, sentimental knick-knacks like the crystal candlesticks we received as a wedding gift.    Laptops, cameras and jewelry were given to us by the firefighters and those are being cleaned and restored as well.   Most of the kids posessions, i.e. toys, are not salvagable.    So, I've been trying to order or pick up a few of their favorites.    New car keys were made and we can now both drive.     Next week, we are going to try to get somewhat back into our normal routine though I'm sure Bill and I will continue to have a million things to do.   We are waiting to hear from the insurance's estimate on what it will cost to rebuild our home.    We will then have to figure out what we do next.  After that, it's on to doing an inventory of all our items................