Our House Almost Burned Down Twice!

The last two years, at Christmas, we have sincerely almost lost our home. In 2013, Lilah's elf, Ariel, caught on fire. Real fire. Like, the elf's leg had flames and smoke coming off of it.  You can read all about it here. This year (2014), we were preparing to head out to church for our annual Reformation celebration. Things were hectic. The kids needed to be in their costumes, I had several dishes I was entering into a contest and I was trying to get them finished up, and everyone was starving. We were loading up the van, I started the dishwasher, and ran upstairs to brush my teeth.  Everyone else was in the van waiting for me. Upon heading out the door, I smelled fire and saw soot. Our dishwasher, the inside door panel, was melting and on fire. It was seriously one of the scariest fire encounters that I had seen in my person life. Had I NOT ran upstairs to brush my teeth, I seriously believe our home would have burned to the ground because we would have already left the house. BOTH times the Lord's grace was upon us. BOTH times we were able to catch the fire in time.  I know our home, on this earth, is temporary. I know our home and everything in it, minus the 5 human beings that reside in it, are just material, non-eternal belongings, but we have made this house a home and it truly would have been devastating to come home to find our house gone.  I pray that this year's fire was the last time we ever have to endure such a scare. I am beyond thankful that not only were our possessions safe, but also more importantly, our precious family of five was also safe. I can barely go through the motions of me running the dishwasher and then going to bed. Knowing that our dishwasher caught on fire, it sickens me to think that not only would our home have been lost, but our lives could have been taken too.  

Below are a few photos of the damage. It doesn't seem like much, but trust me, it was. We are thankful for Dennis Maggi's help with installing our new dishwasher.  Darren said, "I could have never done that job without him!"  We still owe them a thank you a dinner!!!!

While Darren and Dennis installed the dishwasher, I snapped some photos.  LOL!  Of course I had to document Dennis' kind deed. Enjoy the short "flipagram".  The music is sappy, but it was really meant to be comical.