It's been a wild ride!!!!

It started off as a quiet Labor Day Weekend!!!!  Until I get a call from my mom saying she had been evacuated.  Thought she would be home in a few hours!!!

 My youngest son was the one that was in the quickest response area!!!  Thank goodness... because it got very crazy!!!  These pics from a distance are 90 miles away and 24 hrs. later.... I took them from the bridge in Temple, TX on my way down there.

 This is all we knew for nearly 2 weeks.... was the smoke and unknown.  She luckily got out with the clothes on her back, her meds and a few papers.  Some man that we think must have been an angel, drove through her neighborhood and told everyone to evacuate!!!!  As she drove out flames lept out from both sides of the forest which was her neighborhood.  She was living in the hardest hit area of the "Bastrop Fire Storms" as they are now referred to.

 It was a wonderful yet eerie sight to see the FEMA notations on the side of her house.... something you just never think you will see.  The best was the number at the bottom that said 0..... no death!!

 She had a wonderful austin stone home that she had built back in 1989.... and all her dreams of a peaceful and quiet future. She is 79 years young and never experienced a disaster such as this.

 Her beautiful trees and land now look like a Halloween Movie where the trees are black and the sand and ash are whiteish in color.  Very, very strange and such a contrast from the green.

We are so thankful for the man who drove through and saved soooo many lives.  He truly was a gift from God. Makes us all realize that we have to help one another.... you can't depend on reverse 911... it never alerted anyone.  In such a forest setting, no one was really aware how devasting and dangerous or that such a fire was even so enormous. 

The best gift this year is the fact that I still have my mom!!!!  We lost my dad at a young age.... so we are very thankful she was spared and so many others were.

36,000 acres destroyed.... approx. 1600 homes.... keep so many of these people in your prayers as they try to rebuild.  I know they will have a very thankful Christmas to have their families still here.