When Lightning Strikes...

We had quite an eventful evening tonight. And scary. A few hours later, and I'm finally not shaking anymore. We haven't had rain in WEEKS. And today, it came with massive amounts of lightning and thunder. I had just posted on Facebook how I love thunderstorms. And within minutes, our house was struck by lightning.

We were all hanging out in our living room, partly watching the storm outside and partly watching the radar on the TV. Isaac and Naomi were both sitting up on the couch and Sarah was playing peacefully on the floor. Kevin and I were both standing up. Out of nowhere came a LOUD explosion from our fireplace. Just feet from the children. Sparks flew out from the wall, singeing the carpet in spots. And both big and tiny shards of tile flew across the room. I looked down to see pieces of shrapnel surrounding Sarah. There was a delayed reaction on all of our parts, but then Sarah and Isaac both began screaming. Naomi just looked like a deer in headlights, but remained calm.

We think a piece of tile hit Isaac's foot, but mostly he was just as scared as we were. Miraculously, nothing hit Sarah! The entire room smelled like burnt explosives. The kids probably sensed our uneasiness with the situation. What do we do? Do we need to get out of here? Where do we go? Kevin and I were disagreeing on whether we should call the fire department. But I finally won the battle and made the call.

I had to call 9-1-1, but began my phone call with, "I don't think we have a major emergency, but we just want to be sure everything is okay." The operator sounded frazzled as she said, "Look, we have a lot of people calling in right now. What's going on? What's the reason for your call?" I let her know that we thought our house had been struck by lightning. And she quickly responded with, "Um, that is DEFINITELY an emergency...I'm sending a unit out to you right away!" She went on to take our information as she sent a truck out to our house.

They came and inspected the house. Everything looked fine. There were no outward signs of a lightning strike. Given that our house is for sale, this is a very good thing! :) They stayed and double checked everything, but we were cleared as safe! Whew! We have since discovered that each of the light bulbs in our upstairs bathroom were fried, one of the breakers tripped, and our modem was completely fried as well, leaving us without Internet for awhile. All things that are easily fixable! :)

Now we just need to get someone out here to fix our fireplace before we sell this place! In the meantime, we've figured out a way to make it look better. :) All in all, it was a crazy night. We are just SO thankful that none of us were really hurt. And that the house wasn't more damaged. So many things could have gone terribly. But everything was okay. Praising the Lord tonight!! :) The best quote of the evening was from Isaac. After assessing the damage, he exclaimed, "Oh no! Now no one is gonna want to buy our house! Not with a hole in it!" We were surprised at his concern and thoughtfulness about the situation. Super sweet! :)

Anyway...here's what we're gonna do if we have any showings before we have it fixed. Can't even tell, right? :)