Well, peeps, things are heating up around here.

As far as we know, our home is not in any grave immediate danger, but we’re pretty much surrounded by fire on all sides. Not, like, our house all alone in the middle of a clearing with walls of fire billowing toward us in every direction, though. More like miles away in every direction, except that of the beach, of course.

We’ve just found out that there is a new fire aboard our base… directly by the gate we use to get on base. There are now three housing areas evacuated, and some barracks that definitely need to be… but they can be a little slow getting those orders out when it’s in the military’s hands to do so. (Like, uh, last night. When, at almost midnight, John’s command started calling once they got official word that their training area was about to burn… beginning a bit of chaos as the guys realized they had a ton of classified, official and important stuff out there that needed to be “rescued.” Instead of, you know, being prepared and getting it earlier in the day when they knew the fire was very close. But, anyway…)

We just talked to a good friend in the barracks, who said that he and the hundreds of other young guys are packed up and ready to leave just as soon as they are allowed to go. But, they have to be allowed to go first. Even if they can see the flames from their barracks. Ahem. Such is life in the Marine Corps. And yet we do love it tenderly. Ooh Rah. :smile:

Our main interstate was closed for a while today, but is thankfully reopened for now, which is good in that it gives us a way OUT of here, if need be, that doesn’t lead us directly into the southern fires. It also gives us a way to get to the birth center if this baby suddenly decides that smack dab in the middle of chaos is the best time to make his appearance. Thankfully I have a copy of all my charts if we aren’t able to get down there and need to head to the nearest hospital instead. But we’re just hoping he stays put. There are lots of little details that would be involved with leaving here that would kinda add some stress (like, where does Troy go if our friends who are planning to watch him are evacuated or if we can’t get down to them? And, with the fire so close right now, we’d have to leave praying that our area doesn’t get evacuated while I’m at the hospital, with our animals and all important stuff here… but, you know, I’m trying not to borrow worry at the moment. Blocking that right out of my mind. Or not.) We’re just hoping the baby keeps cooking for at least a few more days.

We’re hearing from my dad for quick minutes when he’s able to call. They got a few hours of sleep last night in a house that was under construction, taking turns keeping watch. I saw one of the pictures he’d sent (how I love phones with internet access!) and John said, “Yep, there’s his bed.”

I told him, “No, silly, those are his turn outs and all his gear.”

“Exactly. His bed.”

Oh. Yeah.

So he’s tired, working hard, hard, hard, and covered in black soot, but he’s safe… being our brave fireman!

That’s about it from under the smokey skies for now. Thanks so much for your prayers…. seriously, there is just something so… neat… about having bloggie friends praying in times like this. To see the body of Christ come together through internet lines… it just shows that no matter what, our Jesus is BIG–bigger than power and computer cords, uniting us together through miles and miles–and certainly bigger than any fire. How thankful I am for that!