Firestorm 2007

So this past week has been an incredible experience. On Monday, October 22, 2007 my neighbor came pounding on my door. I was hesitant to open because I wasn't sure who was pounding at that hour. I'm very glad I did. During the previous day there had been a fire out in the Ramona area and growing up in San Diego, I took it for granted that I would be ok. I mean there is always a fire out that way and It has never affected me before so I didn't know what to do when I was told we had to leave. I had gone to bed and the fire was far away and I wake up and it's in my backyard. Scary

I grabbed my kids and woke up my husband and told them we had to leave. We grabbed what we could think of. I took my kids to my mom's house in Oceanside and Aris went to work. We had no clue how huge this thing really was. We stayed at my mom's house for one night. My mom's room mate me feel uncomfortable so ended up staying the rest of the week at my Grandma's house Escondido.

We were not allowed to return to our home (if we had one to return to) until Thursday afternoon after the President had toured our community. Aris and I left the kids with my grandparents and came to see if we had a home, the kind of damage, etc. We ended up being very fortunate. Our neighborhood was not hit. Our homes stunk like smoke and the wind had cause some lights to fall off. Not a huge deal at all in comparison to some. We decided that the kids and I would stay at my grandmas for a couple more days. We were not ready to bring them home with the air quality the way it was.

Saturday we returned home. We are still cleaning up the dirt and ash that is around the house and trying to get everything clean again. The kids returned to school today. Which was a very good thing. I hadn't cried during this whole ordeal and I knew I needed too. I just couldn't bring myself to cry in front of the kids. I needed to be strong for them. But after I dropped them both off at school today and heard stories of some of my friends and the kids' classmates I couldn't stop. Many lost their homes or had major damage done.

I am very blessed that I still have a home to come home to and that my family and I are ok.