Rude Awakening!

Isaiah, Shelby, and Josh outside in the yard Friday evening

I wrote this whole blog yesterday while I was uploading pictures, but kept having difficulty getting them to upload and finally gave up, so I'm hoping I can get it to work now. So this post is actually from Saturday, January 16th, 2010.

So....Isaiah woke up a little after 6 this morning and we were trying desperately to get him to go back to sleep, but weren't succeeding very well. Josh decided to head out to the kitchen to get some water and a binky to see if that would appease Isaiah. Josh came back into our bedroom quickly and said, "I think Matt's car is on fire!" I jumped out of bed to look out or window and sure enough, our neighbor's car was on fire right next to ours at the bottom of our yard! We grabbed Isaiah and I grabbed my cell phone and headed outside. Josh went to see if he could safely reach our car to move it away from the flames coming from Matt's, but the fire kept "popping" and we were too worried it was going to explode or something. While he was figuring all that out, I called 911, knocked on the door next door to wake everyone up, and then called Ross Security. A few minutes after talking with Ross Security, the fire truck arrived and it probably took them a good 10-15 minutes to put the fire completely out. As the fire crew was finishing up, 2 men from Ross Security arrived and got the info. from us about what had happened. Shortly after that, the police arrived and wanted to talk to Matt about his car. At that time, Josh went to see about moving our car and realized that someone had broken our driver's side window and had cut ALL the wires housed below the steering wheel and realized that our car wasn't going ANYWHERE! He told the police then and they took a look at things and took a couple of pictures. We originally thought it was probably just vandalism, but after the insurance adjuster took a look, we believe someone was trying to steal the cars by hot-wiring them and that they hot-wired Matt's incorrectly and started the fire. So...here we are again, less than a week after the flat tire incident with even worse damage done to poor Dorothy (our car's name) and aren't sure what will have to be done to repair it. A mechanic is supposed to be coming to survey the damage, but we haven't heard from them yet and it's now 6pm, so I doubt it will happen now before Monday! This morning was ridiculous and still seems completely surreal in our minds. At first I was a mess about what happened, but we are very thankful that no one was hurt...we are all FINE....and glad that our car wasn't damaged as badly as it could've been! Even so...prayers for us to get our car fixed and be able to afford the cost and also for Matt to be able to find a new car that he can afford as well!

Our car now with no window on the driver's side

Matt's roommate, Eugene, was kind enough to let us borrow his car, so we could do our grocery shopping for the coming week, which was much appreciated as we had NO food left in our house! We had a successful trip and then Josh headed off to school to study for a few hours. Isaiah took an early nap due to our early wake up this morning and I ended up meeting with our off campus housing director, Michele, who came to survey the damage and also was responsible for getting the insurance adjuster to come and look at the cars on a Saturday! She also helped to find the mechanic who can hopefully help us with the car, so she was a Godsend to me today!!!

Our wiring under the steering wheel (all cut)

Josh got home a little after 2 and we got ready and headed to the beach for a couple of hours with our friend, Jakki, who was kind enough to pick us up! The beach was fabulous and really much needed for a little relaxation after a hellish morning of worrying about the stuff with the car. I don't think the image of Matt's car burning less than 500ft away from us will ever leave my memory! Josh studied a little at the beach, but also took a turn watching Isaiah for about half the time, so I could relax a little bit and visit with Jakki. Jake and Alex also showed up, so it was nice to catch up with them and talk for a while as well.

Matt's poor car from the outside

Looks even worse on the inside

Now we're back home, Isaiah's is down for his second nap after being worn out at the beach, and Josh is making dinner for us. Isaiah is so crazy now at the beach and just runs around in the sand and has recently discovered that he loves the ocean, so he runs to the water now too, which is really cute! I took some pictures at the beach and a video today, so hopefully I will get to upload that and post it in the next day or so too. I think that's it for now. Like I said earlier, prayers for us, as well as Matt would be greatly appreciated! The insurance here doesn't help cover our cars since they are over 10 years old, so we will be responsible for the full cost of repairs, and in Matt's case, the cost of a new vehicle. Again, we are all safe and sound, which is most important, but hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!