Reflection

California has had quite a tough week! The absolute devastation of the Borderline Shooting in Thousand Oaks, a place I know all too well, I grew up just down the road.  The crazy thing about that night is at the exact time of the shooting Michael, and I were having a conversation about something that Kenzie did at school that day. Kenzie came home from school and told me about their lockdown drill.  Kenzie is 5 and in kindergarten, and she had to practice the lockdown drill to protect her from “dangerous animals” so when she came home, she asked me what kind of “dangerous animals” would be a threat to her at school. She asked if it would be a cheetah or a bear or an alligator. I am not going to lie, it took me by surprise, and I didn’t know what to say. How do I explain that there are people out in the world who would want to hurt her, she is so innocent and so pure. All she knows is love and kindness, Michael and I went to bed that night trying to figure out how to have the conversation the next day, that morning we awoke to the horrific news of innocent people enjoying a night of dancing being gunned down.  My heart broke for these families, for a community I grew up in, and for us all to have to go through this yet again.  We still haven’t had the conversation with Kenzie because honestly, it is going to take us some time to wrap our heads around this subject.  We try to shield our babies but this world is scary, and we need to do something.

That same day the fires broke out all across California, from Northern California all the way down to our very own community with the Woolsey Fire. I was out of town in Denver for work and got a call from my Mom that there was a fire. I immediately called Michael, and we didn’t think it was a big deal, a few hours later we got the call that we were under MANDATORY evacuation. So Michael packed up what he could and luckily my in-laws and my sister in law were in town and were able to help pack up our photo albums and hard drives. It is such a terrible feeling being so far from your family and unable to help.

I flew back Friday afternoon, and we remained evacuated until Tuesday. The areas around our home burned,

but our neighborhood was spared. We were the lucky ones, but there are so many that lost everything. It is almost hard to celebrate our luck in the pain of all those who lost so much. But I have to say that watching the community bind together and show so much support has been inspiring. In the midst of such tragedy, humanity has risen.

This picture was taken just a little more than a week before the fires.  We have taken our family pictures in this exact spot for the past six years.  This is what it looks like now.

We are so incredibly thankful for all the first responders, for the incredible firefighters both on the ground and in the sky, for our local firefighters and those who traveled across the country to come to our aid. In all the time I have lived here, I have never seen anything like this. I can’t even begin to wrap my head around what Paradise is going through up North. It is all just so much, and honestly, there are just no words. I hope in the next few weeks we can come together to help all the victims, in both Northern California and Southern. As soon as I come up with a way to help, I will be sure to share.

In the meantime, please be nice and if you see someone is hurting, reach out. Until then, I am sending out mountains of love to you all. This holiday season lets reach out and help one another; there is no better gift than the smile on someone’s face which needed a little lift.