And then there were.....RAFTERS!!!!

I post this with great joy...there has been some progress on the house.  Not as quickly as we may like, but it is progress and we are trying to focus on that aspect.  Here is day 1 of ripping off a huge chunk of the damaged rafters.  It looked better already not seeing all of the charred boards around it.

Day 2...rafters going up over the garage, laundry room and kitchen area of the house! Woo hoo!  I honestly could have broken down in tears to see this and my boys were ecstatic!  We were there for like 7 hours that day watching the action!
              

Then came the plywood sheeting to cover the rafters...even more exciting to stand inside and not see the sky!  Woo hoo!  This week they began the section over the "non-damaged" portion of the house (my disclaimer to this is that their definition of non-damaged simply means that it is not completely destroyed...it is ALL damaged).  We thought it looked funny with the middle of the house missing.

Another shot of the missing middle...and then we were beyond excited to see this bucket truck when we pulled in this week placing the rest of the rafters on the house.  It is amazing what the sight of a bucket truck and some wood do to our excitement levels! HA!

Here are the kids in the front yard watching the bucket truck lifting and placing the rafters.  They counted them down as they lifted them from the pile until the last one!

Ta Da!  The rafters are up. 

The plywood sheeting is also on it now after today...unfortunately the black paper is NOT on it and it is raining.  They have to rip the shingles off the left side of the roof now and get the paper down...then on to shingling it.  This process is moving much slower than we feel it should be or want it to be, but our hands are tied, so we are trying to stay focused on the progress we see and thank God daily for His provisions...we quickly can see the negative...trying to focus on the blessings.  Will keep you posted.

Turn of Events...

There always seems to be some kind of turn of events...we shall see if this is a good one or not!  In an earlier post last week sometime, I had said that I was going back to the "shot doc" to probably up my medicine and that we had decided that we were at the pain management stage of my treatment and no longer seeking a cure/fix for my neck pain.  I had been filled with peace on that, which could only be God-given peace because up until this appointment I wasn't ready to "give up".  Well, at this appointment the doc and I are chatting and he is looking back through my file over the last 15 months or so.  He told me that he has a hard time giving up on a patient as well and wanted to see if there was something that he missed.  Well.......there was.  He looked back at my earlier treatments and discovered that the "cocktail" he used that I showed great signs of improvement with, were different than the treatments he had given me since January...WHAT?????????  I was speechless and so was he honestly.  He didn't know how/why he had missed that and told me that he would like to try another round of shots but that it was up to me.  I was confused as to why this all happened and chewed on the information all afternoon/evening, along with talking to a few faithful friends and hubby about it.  I decided the next day to email him and pose some questions of why this happened and how many treatments he thought it would take, etc...  I explained my frustrations with this and that the cost of the injections was a big factor for us (insurance doesn't pay and it is very expensive).  He wrote me back within a couple of hours telling me that he would like to do 2 more rounds of shots with the original cocktail of drugs and that he would do both of these procedures for FREE because it was his mistake! Wow!  Will these next shots heal me?  I don't know to be honest.  Why did it all happen this way?  Why doesn't God just heal me?  Again, I don't know.  What was pointed out to me by my friend over at "The Back Door" has been on my mind...God led me to the place where I turned to HIM and gave it over to Him and had complete peace with not being "healed" and looking for a way to manage and live with this pain. Hmmmm...coincidence?  I don't think so.  While I await these shots I continue to realize that my hope is not in these shots...my hope is in HIM who gave me the peace in the first place!  I go for round 1 of 2 shots on June 21 (Tuesday morning).  I do pray that healing comes with these shots, but I know that if it doesn't...I'll be okay and God's peace will continue in me.

Post-Fire with Slight Progress

So...it has been 6 weeks since the fire. That first week after the fire, things moved so quickly on the clean up and re-framing of the garage.  It was exciting to see changes...but for the last 5 weeks...NOTHING has been happening.  It has been frustrating beyond imaginable.  And if it is this frustrating for me, I can't imagine what my parents must be feeling.  We have had promise after promise of when they will begin. Then were told that there had to be 3 forecasted sunny days in a row (weekdays mind you) before they would work...in our area, that simply hasn't happened.  But today when going out to the house to feed/walk the sheep, we saw construction workers.  I can't tell you how excited that made me. They were doing some area set-up and bringing in their trailer today, along with doing a few small projects.  They are supposed to start on the roof tomorrow and I can't wait to see things moving!  I gaurantee we will be out there all day tomorrow!  My boys would have it no other way.  Below is a shot of the basement steps, although they are still "there", they sure don't look too safe. 

As we have been reminded time and time again...God is good and has provided for my parents (and my family).  Even in the frustrations and delays, we are truly blessed.  The picture below shows a wall hanging in my parents bedroom and I thought it was kind of neat to see the smoke/water stains meeting up with the cross and my mom's favorite psalm.

This picture is one that we took a couple days after the fire. We hadn't noticed it before.  This is a lightbulb that was in the stairway to the basement....completely melted and just hanging there.  We have been amazed at some of the sights we have seen at what fire can do and what it can't do.  My boys have been enthralled with it all.

Here is my mom's bathroom sink, which is at the farthest point in the house away from where the fire was...the soot is over the entire house.  The white shapes on the sink were where items were laying and have since been moved. DISGUSTING!

We had to get stuff out of my brother's trailer that they were using, so here we are unloading and going through stuff.  Some things were in cardboard boxes and we were sorting and putting everything in plastic totes for storage...we were a sooty, black mess by the end of it.

Here is the garage all framed in and the way it has been for 5 weeks.  We are praying that after tomorrow it will look much different...with some rafters and boards on it.

Here is part of the kitchen.  The area we are looking at actually looks down into the basement steps area.  We have to be very careful that our little bug stays back and doesn't fall.

Another angle of the garage waiting to be worked on.

All of the siding is off of the house and ready to be replaced.  The last little bit that was on was ripped off this morning while we watched!

The rafters are here! The rafters are here!  Well, they have been for a few weeks, but I'm just now posting!  We were so excited the day they were delivered and then there they have sat for weeks...again, hopefully that will all change tomorrow!

My parents have moved in with us now and are living in our basement.  So far, so good! HA!  Our kids are soooo enjoying having grandpa and grandma nearby and we are out at the farm a couple of times a day anyway because of the sheep.  Lord willing, the major work will begin tomorrow and I'll have exciting progress pictures to show.

How Old Are You?--8...nope, just 3!

Can you believe my little girl turned 3??  Where did the time go?  But, if you ask her how old she is, she will 99% of the time tell you "8". Eight is her favorite number...trust me she knows that she is 3 but grins and tells you "8" anyway.  She is such a stinker.  We celebrated her birthday a day early on Memorial Day because everyone had to work on her birthday, plus we had 2 other things that evening. So, we headed to Bob Evans for breakfast with our little family and my parents too.

After a yummy breakfast (her favorite part being the very chocolatey milk), we headed home to open presents.  She was very aware of presents this year and couldn't wait to open them. If I remember correctly she was doing a little dance because she was excited about presents.

She definitely is a spoiled little girl!  She got so many great presents.  One of her favorites is below from her aunt, uncle and cousins in PA...a DRUM that came with maracas, a recorder and a tambourine.  This girl is soooo musical like her mama and LOVES this.  We've been tempted to hide it every now and then but she has such fun playing it all!

Look out!  Wild woman on the roads! Well, we only allow her on our huge back patio with her "four-wheeler" but...you better look out...she runs over whatever is in her way!

After presents we were ready for cake and ice cream. Yummo!  She was very ready for her cake and was so incredibly excited to blow out her candle!  Here's the happy crew!

More gifts...soccer ball and notice as she is kicking the ball, she has on high-heel princess shoes from Uncle Andy and Aunt Jul???  She got four pair of them and she LOVES wearing them around and flipping them off for the next pair! She was funny as she was ploaying with her toys. She had them all out and would literally play with each thing like 30 seconds before rotating to the next toy.  Oh my...she was in heaven!

Here is our sweet 3 year old (going on 8, or maybe even 18!)!

Happy 3rd Birthday sweet Kiara!  We love you so much.  The time has gone so fast already and I know it will continue to fly. Don't grow up too fast little bug!

Living This Life

I've avoided this post for a variety of reasons, but the main one is that it seems so final.  I've been battling neck pain for going on 8 years now and have been to doctor after doctor. After the most recent battery of tests and therapy we have come to the place where it is time to stop seeking answers, stop seeking doctors, stop seeking a fix for my neck.  We are now at the place of figuring out how to go on living this life the best that I can under the circumstances of pain.  We have entered the pain managment stage that will continue for the remainder of my days.  Two weeks ago i went back to my "shot dr." after finishing my physical therapy with no results.  Actually the results were that I have strengthened my neck significantly and have more mobility because of the therapy but it has not helped the pain at all.  I still feel pain all the time and it has not decreased with therapy.  So....long story short, the doctor says he believes that it is time to focus on ways to manage the pain and make it easier to go on about my life.  This seems so final for me...after 8 years of seeking a cure, I must accept that there isn't one...that I have come to the spot in my treatment that I have to let go and realize that I will likely ALWAYS have this pain in my neck.  Some days I am not terribly limited by the pain and other days it is difficult to function...that is my future and not just my past.  That has been hard to accept.  As the doctor and I came to this conclusion though, there were no tears (much to the surprise of myself and the doc)!  I simply nodded in agreement and said "What's next?"  The doc prescribed Lyrica to me (small dose to start with).  It is a drug that is used for anti-seizures as well as fibromyalgia.  With other medications that i am on, I am limited in what I can take and must monitor the side effects very carefully.  Right now the only side effects are that I'm drowsy and dizzy. That seems to be improving after 1 1/2 weeks on it.  I go tomorrow to probably increase the dosage on it.  So far, I don't notice any relief in the pain at all...but I'm not giving up yet.  Hopefully I just need a bit higher of a dosage.  Not really excited about medication for life, but it is what it is and I will deal with it.  Now I'm just praying that this medicine works and that I don't need to try a bunch of different meds to get relief. So...that's where I'm at.  I haven't told anyone outside of my family about all of this...you are the first to know! :)  God is good even in the midst of this.  I assumed that when I reached this point (pain management) that I would be a basket-case, at my lowest of lows, and a mess...but God has brought me to a place of peace with it.  Happiness, no?  But I have His peace and that makes such a difference.  Thank you all for your prayers on this journey.  The journey isn't over, but the road has straightened a bit.