WARNING: Fireworks are Fun, But Can Be Dangerous...Our Story

Tonight, as we were setting off fireworks here at home, one was obviously a faulty one. After Honey lit it the entire bottom blew out of it and caused it to fall over on it's side. One of the rockets shot out and headed straight for where the rest of us were sitting... me, my mom, our four kids, a neighbor boy, and Baby Girl's best friend!

It all happened so fast and was a truly horrifying moment.

All I saw was rockets shooting off and flames and everyone running and screaming. Without even thinking all I could yell over and over was 'Oh my God, Oh my God' because I KNEW that someone had been hit, I had seen the fire! It was dark... and I couldn't see... and there were six kids and my mom and Honey... running and screaming... I didn't know who was hit or hurt or on fire. Oh, even now I can't stand to think back on it.

Thank GOD in heaven, miraculously none of the kids were touched. I just shudder when I think how bad it would have been had that happened. Unfortunately, it was my mom that had been hit. One of the rockets shot off straight at her and hit her from only about 15 feet away. All I remember seeing was white flames and her jumping up and running. Thankfully it hit her shirt (and obviously her pants as we later saw) and must have flared out and then died (I'm guessing that was the flames I saw), but the extreme heat was enough to scorch her shirt.




That has to be the scariest moment I have ever lived. It all happened so fast and it was all so confusing that after it was all over and the adrenline was gone all us girls just broke down and cried.

Bless my mom's heart. She kept saying, "I'm fine, I'm fine". I know she was just trying to make us feel better, but it didn't help. The thing I'm now most concerned about is that it hit her on the same shoulder she had surgery on at the end of November and she JUST finished a year of physical therapy last week! You know your first instinct when you're hit by something is to jerk away and I'm just praying that she hasn't reinjured her shoulder.



But do you know what I'm most thankful for out of this? Honey has felt burdened all day but wasn't sure why. Thank goodness he knows to pray whenever he feels that way. (If you're not sure what I mean, the word burden means "a prophecy of a calamitous or disastrous nature" and the word prophecy in that definition means "a miracle of knowledge, a declaration or description or representation of something future, beyond the power of human sagacity to foresee, discern, or conjecture". I have seen the Lord burden people when He knows something not-so-good is coming so they will pray, and we know prayer changes things. Feeling a burden is like having a heaviness in your chest. You know something is wrong, you just don't know what. If you ever feel this way, please, PLEASE, I beg of you, don't just push it aside. PRAY!)

God is SO good. I am so thankful He loves us enough to burden us, to protect us, and to fogive us. I'm so undeserving of His love, yet no one is more thankful for it. You see, my little Princess had been sitting in the chair my mom was in when she got hit. Had Princess still been there she would have been hit full force in the face. I don't think I need to elaborate. All I can do is shake my head in amazement and thankfulness.

Not nearly as important as people getting hit, but Honey also drove home a brand new Suburban from work this weekend so it wouldn't be left in the parking lot all weekend and thankfully it wasn't hit either, although one of the rockets also shot off that way towards it. Can you imagine him going into work Monday morning? "Uh, boss? You're never going to believe this..."

Anyway, please, PLEASE have fun and enjoy this wonderful holiday but take our story as a warning. Don't fool around with fireworks. They have warning labels on them for a reason. Sit as far away as possible to watch them (that's our fault, we KNEW better!) Take every precaution you can to protect those you love (as well as those you may not like so much).