the black forest fire.

We've had a crazy few days. There is currently a large wildfire a few miles from our house... it started Tuesday afternoon and has grown bigger & bigger every day since. Our initial thoughts of the fire were- man that's close, but not close enough to have any affect on us. We were wrong. After moving east for much of the first 24hours, the winds majorly shifted and blew it back west causing our home to be in possible danger of the fire. G called me yesterday afternoon letting me know that he received a text & an email saying that our address was in a mandatory evacuation zone... we were freaking out a bit, and couldn't quite believe that it was that close to our house. He left work right away, and I finished eating lunch & quickly began thinking through what we needed to pack. My heart was racing, and I was worried & thinking- what things are most important to me? During G's drive home, we received information that the mandatory evacuation emails, calls, and texts to our area were a mistake... we were actually only under a voluntary evacuation order. MUCH BETTER! Once G got home, we still packed and made piles of things we wanted to take. We made the decision to hang out at home until our area is mandatory... we are super lucky to have G's parents' townhome if/when we need to leave. We kept the news on all day, and tried to have a normal evening with Millie. The fire tends to calm down in the evening and overnight, so we went to bed hoping to not hear anything overnight. This morning we woke up to more of the same... no new mandatory evacuations and still nothing for our house. G decided to work from home in case we needed to head out, and Millie & I had a relaxed day at home with him. Around lunchtime/early afternoon, the news said that the mandatory evacuation area was expanding into the city, which meant that the line was now about about a mile north of us. We became a bit more worried again... that is close! We packed up a few more things, and still decided to wait it out here. We could see on the news that lots of black smoke and flames were happening on the west side, but it still hadn't crossed 83- which is where it would move into the city & into large neighborhoods. The evening came, and we still aren't in the mandatory zone. Thank goodness! This fire is now the worst in Colorado's history, and has taken at least 360 homes & 2 lives so far- that is more homes than the Waldo Canyon fire last summer, which is so hard to believe. As of tonight it is 5% contained on the southeast side, and they hope to work through the night to contain it even more. Our plan for tomorrow is the same... wait & pray that we don't have to leave our house!

the first email.

the view from our bedroom window while we were packing, showing millie the smoke, and the updated map to show the voluntary evacuation areas (the yellow outlined area) with our neighborhood included.

millie of course has no clue what is going on... she thinks that we are packing for a trip. her owl backpack has been packed & repacked many times with her favorite toys & treasures. she has also been really into watching the helicopters & planes that are constantly flying over our house. we are below the path that they fly to & from the air force academy to refuel.

what the news was showing before we went to bed... on the closest side of the fire to us.

showing the new mandatory evacuations just north of us this afternoon... i'm so tired of watching the news.

piles of packed things around the house... suitcases of clothes, scrapbooks, special things.

watching planes from the front porch. luckily the smell of smoke has been minimal... it was bad this morning, but then the wind shifted north and took the smoke with it. we've been staying in for the most part though.

this is truer now than ever.

i'm thankful that we are still in our home tonight. together.