So...

when I first saw the smoke I thought, "The chicken boiled over on the stove, so now there's some smoke." I turned the fan on over the kitchen stove. But the smoke got thicker.

And there wasn't any in the kitchen.

So I go out into the living room to open the windows when I smell something burning that isn't chicken stock on the stove. As I walk across the room I smell the smell of burning paper and wood and something else. So I opened the window to let it out and go smelling the rest of the house. My mother-in-law is walking around smelling too.

I say to my fourteen-year-old, "Go see if you smell smoke in the basement." I hear that the basement is full of smoke. I go running down and when I inhaled I started to cough and choke. I handed him the box of kittens (our cat had kittens earlier this month) and I yell upstairs for everyone to get out of the house, there's a fire.

The smoke appears to be coming out from under the door to my husband's office, which is full of kindling...I mean books. I always thought I'd grab my Daddy's trumpet or pictures, but faced with the reality of a house fire, I got the kids out of the house, called 9-1-1, shooed out the animals, and grabbed my cell phone so I could call my Bear.

My father-in-law showed up about five minutes later. He found the source and put it out. A mouse had chewed through an extension cord. There was short. Some of the exposed wire was touching a piece of cardboard and a piece of wood. He unplugged the extension cord.

The fire department showed up and said that it was a good thing we were home. He said that the cord was burning and would have reach the electrical outlet it was plugged into and that would have been that.

I was pretty good for the first ten minutes the firemen were here. Then it hit me that had we gone to the park like we had planned to do, we would have lost our home and everything in it.

Of course, the only thing I was concerned about when facing the possibility of loosing my home was my family and the pets.

I am very blessed that God was watching over us. I'm so eternally thankful that my father-in-law forgot to get something at the store so he had to go back. I'm thankful that we got a late start this morning. I'm thankful that my FIL and children had meandered at the store to begin with. All these things made it too late to go.

But I am thankful, most thankful, that God allowed the short while we were here to stop the fire before it occured, instead of letting it go last night while we were gone or tonight while we were asleep.

I am very thankful, God, and I wish I could find the wight words with which to tell you what I feel in my heart at this moment. But I can't. So thank-you through tears will just have to do.