In the Blink of an Eye

After tons of fun the night before and a restful night's sleep, I rolled over in my hotel bed which I was sharing with my birthday boy and I pressed the button on my phone to check the time.  Staring back at me was this message:  "Please tell me you are not home.  Your house is on fire BAD!"  I must have read it 10 times before I even processed it and called out to MJ.  Instant panic and fear set in.  We tried calling the neighbors and could not get ahold of them.  I called county dispatch and they indeed confirmed that our house was burning.  I can't even describe the terror we felt in the next moments.

I called my parents and they said they would head to our house to see what was going on.  Meanwhile, a Police Officer got in touch with me and let me know that it was very bad - that we basically lost everything.  In that moment I told him that our birthday boy was still sleeping and when he woke up we were going to let him open his present we had brought along, we were going to put candles in his chocolate donuts (a birthday tradition we have) sing happy birthday to him and then we would be on our way home (an hour away).  There was nothing we could do anyways and our kids come first.  So, we mustered all the strength we had to sing to our sweet boy and let him enjoy his donuts and then told him what had happened and that we would need to go home.

Here he is in his birthday boy glory!

Quite ironic that his Birthday Boy shirt had a fire truck on it........