The Piano *sigh*

When Leah was 10 years old she was given a piano for her birthday. She has moved around a lot throughout her life both as a child and as an adult. And you'd better believe the piano went with her! She claims it's moved from the east coast to the west coast twice! It was so heavy and moved so often that over the years they wised-up and actually made a special dolly for it. The frame of the dolly survived the fire, complete with melted wheels. The piano however did not.

Typical of this couple is the positive spin on a heartbreaking story...at least Tom doesn't have to move it anymore!


Now some really great news!

Yesterday afternoon Tom and Chad were at the house again digging through the remains. The house is big enough and Tom's degenerative disc problems with his back make it pretty slow going when they search. So it's taking a while to even establish what might have survived.

Leah was particularly worried about one room that had some precious heirlooms and family photographs. Well guess what they found yesterday! An entire box of baby pictures that the fire hadn't touched and heirloom dishes that have been passed down for generations in Leah's family! There is some water damage, but at least the fire didn't get to them. Who knew when we saw the roof collapse over that room that it would actually protect those irreplaceable items?

Housing

There's good news on the housing front too. The Abbotts have found a place in Highland to rent. I'm really glad that they'll be sticking around. They've got pretty strong roots in Florida so I was afraid they'd be heading back. So I'm relieved that they found a place to live, but I'm really excited that they'll still be living close by! For now the Red Cross is putting them up in a room until Wednesday when they can move in. Hurray for the Red Cross!

Tom

I also wanted to share some things that are going on with Tom. This upcoming week Tom will be getting an epidural for his spine. And then Friday he'll be going in for surgery to take care of the tumors growing on his kidney. If you're the praying type please remember Tom and his family. If you're the crossing your fingers and toes type then do that too!