Thank You

There are not enough thank you cards, or hours left in my life for me to write said thank you cards to properly thank the people that have loved us, supported us and just been there through this tragedy. I will do my best to do so here.

To the Klein Fire Department, EMTs and all the Emergency Responders on that day: Thank you. From the bottom of my heart thank you. To the female EMT who caught me when I was running towards my burning house, and caught me again as I passed out, who was the voice of reason and calm when I was totally loosing my shit, thank you. To every. single. fire fighter, you are amazing people. You ran into my home when it was the most dangerous place to be. You risked your lives to save my dog, husband and the home that we had built. I am no-one to you, but to me, you are everything. To the fireman who held the tarp as we said goodbye to Sam, who would not make eye contact with me out of respect for what was happening, thank you. To Barry, who worked on Sam for a very long time trying to save her, and then appologized to me like it was your fault she was gone and then held me as I cried, thank you. To the fireman who came to save our house on your birthday, thank you. To the men who came to me as I sat on the lawn sobbing after the fire was out and offered to try to find things out of what remained in our house, thank you. To those same men who pulled out my wedding ring, the quilt I made Issa when I was pregnant, our wedding album and her pooh bear. Thank you. To each and every person there that day, trying to make the horrors cease, I may not have seen each of you, but I know you saw me. You mourned with me. Thank you.

To Our Neighborhood and Neighbors: You watched it go down, you smelled the smells, and you cried with us. To every person I encountered that day, and the days after, thank you. You held me when I cried. You caught me when I was overcome with grief and fear. You sent messages and love and support. You brought food and water. You saw me waiting afterwards and you handed me money. You donated clothes and shoes and toys and games. To the kids who made my daughter an awesome poster, thank you. You are all why we love where we live, you are why we will rebuild.

To Our Family and Friends: You have been our rock. You have come out from the woodwork of our lives and loved us, without mention of time or distance. You have sent us gifts, and money and gift cards and so much. Your text messages, and calls and FB messages are what keep us going. We can feel your prayers, the love is overwhelming.

To my daughter’s school, who without question took care of Issa when I had to rush to the fire. They have offered to cover her tuition for the year and let me bring her in any day needed and stay late when needed. Thank you for being so supportive and for loving us and my daughter so very much. Thank you for your prayers.

To the Strangers & Businesses:

To the wife of the firefighter who donated clothes that were exactly my style and size. Some of the clothes you sent were exact items I had in my closet that I loved. Thank you.

The the people at Zappos, when after hearing of our story from my best friend asked her how many pairs of converse you could send to my husband. Thank you.

To the employee at Whole Foods who celebrated with me when I found the PACT underwear in my size and style and then hugged me after hearing about the fire and marked down a pack for me. Thank you.

I wrote a message to TOMS. I told them the jist of our story, and the following: “We’ve lost everything, including a huge collection of toms. I’ve counted for insurance purposes and I believe it was at least 14 pairs between myself, my husband and my 4 year old daughter. The one pair I still have were the cream classics I wore that day, now covered in the remains of my home. I don’t know why I’m writing you. I do know that one of my best friends brought me a pair of her toms, when ALL I had left was the dirty pair. Putting them on was the closest to normal I’ve felt since this whole thing. I felt like I just need you all to know that.That somehow, these silly shoes with a cause made me feel a little normal when my life had been totally changed. Thanks for that.” I just needed them to know. They responded by telling me that they wanted to send Issa and I matching TOMS. I cried on the toilet when I read it (don’t judge, we all look at Facebook on the toilet). Thank you.

To Joybird Houston, where I bought my dream couch 4 months ago, where you helped me work through fabric choices and wood colors all while Issa bounced around on all the furniture. I have just heard that they are going to remake our couch for free. When I heard this I cried. Thank you.

To David at Experimac West Houston who called us when he heard about what happened and set us up with a Mac right away so that I could start writing and so we could start making The List. I cried a lot after I got his call. Without him we wouldn’t have had a computer to work with, at a price we could afford on the small advance the insurance company had sent us in the first week after the fire (we also had to purchase clothes, shoes, underwear, toothpaste, etc. with that small advance). He’s also helped us replace so many of our Apple products and has been awesome about finding us affordable replacements for exactly what we needed.

SO MANY MORE

We have so many more to thank, and will continue to do so within this space. If you’re not listed here, its not that we’ve forgotten your love and thoughts and blessings on our family, we just haven’t gotten to write about it yet because there is SOO much. Thank you, over and over, thank you.