Then it all Changed

   

  

Beautiful, God Given Life

📷: Google Images

   "Everyone is just one phone call away from their world changing." That's what I've always heard but ya know, I never really considered myself in the category of "everyone". I know, that's ridiculous. But that is truly how I felt, well, until my parents received that one call. Then I fit perfectly into that category.
 
    December 8, 2016 began like any other casual day in the Schultz house. With an after play party to prep for, we spent the cold, December day making Christmas brownies and popcorn filled cups decorated like snowmen. With Christmas music in the air, my brother

prepared a roaring fire in our fireplace. My mom apparently thought he needed some guidance because that morning she showed him some YouTube videos on "How to Properly Start a Fire". I think it helped, because that day he ignited a blazing fire!

    Everything was just beautiful! By the end of the day, our house was clean and we all were dressed fancyish to go to the play, The Happy Elf. From what I can remember, it was adorable, with little elves and fun songs, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The cuteness of that play though, is not what rocked my world into transformation, what was going on at my beautiful home is what did it for me.
   

    While standing and cheering for the adorable performance I feel a tap on my shoulder. Upon turning, I see the calm but concerned face of one of our greatest family friends and fellow blogger Missy Rhymer. She carefully explained that my parents got a call from one of our neighbors telling them that our roof is on fire. She went on further to tell me that we are going to let the little ones meet the cast and then she is going to take us to the house to see what's going on. 
   
   That was one of the strangest moments of my life. I was standing there, in the after party of sorts to the happy performance. Little children dressed as elves are running around, people are laughing, Christmas music is playing and I am standing there in the midst of it all trying to figure out what I should do with the shocking news. 
   
    I calmly tell my slightly dramatic sister (another fellow blogger Paper Cuts) and she reacted like I think most people would. Like, if she we were texting about it, she would have been using a lot of uppercase letters and exclamation points. Ya feel me? 

   The car ride was not quite as dramatic as my sisters reaction but it was intense all the same. We were going back to our home and had no idea what we would find. It was pretty scary. But of course, like the Schultz family never fails to do, even in midst of the pain, a laughable moment was born!  My slightly dramatic sister that I mentioned earlier, solemnly asked if we could listen to the band Housefires.... Yeah. She did that. Now we all understood, the band is really comforting and calm. But Housefires! Really? 
   

📷: Google Images

    Anyways besides trying not to laugh in that intense moment we were all pretty quiet which shows significance in my family. But the Lord knew what he was doing when he set Ms. Missy up to be our driver. I can't think of a better person to be given that incredibly hard job of driving eleven children home to their burning house. She was exactly what we needed in that time. She was calm but concerned, she prayed and reassured us of the goodness of the God that we serve. Thank you Lord for giving us Missy Rhymer!
   
   When talking about it recently, my eight-year-old sister explained that she didn't cry until we were at the house and Missy prayed for us. That one of the most surreal moments of my time on this earth. Here we are, down the street from our house, because that was the closest that we could park due to the firetrucks and emergency vehicles parked outside of our home. In that moment I felt the presence of my God in a new way. He was my greatest comfort. Sitting in the back of our big van with my younger siblings broken beside me the Lord enabled me to be strong for them. All that I could think of was Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." All that I could think to say is, "We are all going to be okay." So I spoke it out and tried to explain to my frightened siblings that we are going to be okay. The Lord was with us in that van outside of our burning house on December 8, 2016 when everything changed for the Schultz family.

📷: Google Images

    So it turns out, we had a faulty fireplace. The fire was so hot that a beam on the inside caught the blaze and escalated up the chimney and onto our roof. All of our stuff was smoke or water damaged and could be sent to be properly cleaned (with a cost) but most was thrown away. 
  
    The fire inspector told us that the fire could have started at any time we just had to get it hot enough. Which if you think about it, that means that we all could have died if we left a it burning all night. My dad says that the worst thing happened in the best way. For me that can only point the creator of the universe. 

   It is truly beautiful all of the times and ways that the Lord has taken care of us but my favorite is

how he made us. I was blown away at how strong my family was! Now, I knew that they were strong before but after this, WOW! They were on a whole nother level! We had lost almost everything and  my family embraced the challenges of dealing with that alongside living in a hotel for three months and now a tiny rental. With no space or stuff to call our own my family came out champions! Even the younger ones embraced every challenge that we came across. Now, I'm not saying that there were no tears or heart ache, or complaining because that all happened, but there were so much less then I could have imagined. 

    On that note, I feel crazy to say it, but if I had the option of to change the past so that the fire would have never happened I honesty wouldn't. What happened made us stronger as a family and have a greater appreciation for each other. The realization that we could have all died really made us celebrate the life that we have even if it is crazy hard and stressful and unfortunate... It's life! And it's beautiful! And it's God given which truly makes it worth living no matter what happens!