A CRAZY couple of days....a sick baby, and running from wildfires!!!

Poor Isabelle...sick for the first time : (



Thick, black smoke visible from our house for 2 days



The view from our house Wednesday around 12:30 at night




I woke up Wednesday morning feeling very excited that Isabelle had slept through the whole night!! When she finally woke up after 12 1/2 hrs of sleep I expected her to be in a great mood, but I was way wrong. She was very fussy and crying a lot. Within an hour she was back asleep and slept for 3 more hours! When she woke up again very fussy, I knew something was wrong. Isabelle is typically a very happy, smiley baby and she hadn't cracked a smile all day. Jeremy and I decided to take her to the doctor because she definitely wasn't herself and was crying really hard for a long time. The doctor examined her and couldn't find anything obviously wrong like an ear infection, etc. She then decided to draw blood and get a urine sample, which is not easy on a nearly 6 month old baby! She just cried and cried and cried, which in turn made me cry : ( They determined that she definitely had a urinary tract infection and gave her a shot of antibiotics (more tears!). We are so meticulous about cleaning her with diaper changes, but the doctor said sometimes despite your best efforts babies get UTI's, and especially little girls. We took her home and Jeremy was off to work.
Jeremy got home from work that night about 11:00. We had heard about the wildfires burning nearby and had seen some smoke, but were pretty distracted that day by Isabelle's illness. Jeremy called me on his way home and asked if I could see the smoke in the sky from our house that he was seeing on his drive home. At that time, I couldn't see any trace of smoke at our house. We went to bed around midnight, and a few minutes later our power turned off. We thought it was strange, so we got up and checked on the baby then looked out the front door. Across the street from us are trees and above the trees all we could see was a bright orange sky and lots of smoke, it was a really really scary sight. Since we didn't have electricity and had no way of knowing exactly where the fire was and where it was headed, we grabbed the baby and headed to my sister's house for the night. The next morning we heard that the fires were more under control and went back home. We were getting ready to take Isabelle back to the doctor for a follow-up appointment, when we got word that the elementary school about 1/2 mile down the street was sending the kids home early because of the fires. It turns out that there was a "hot spot" nearby that flared back up and black smoke was visible once again. They were uncertain which way the winds would shift and it was possible the fires were going to go basically right to our house. We had heard rumors of evacuating our neighborhood, so we decided to go ahead and get out of there before things got too crazy. We grabbed a few irreplaceable items, like photo albums and baby books, and left our home once again.
Thankfully, we got a good report from the doctor, and Isabelle was already much better. We spent that night at my sister's again and returned home Friday morning. By this time, our home was out of danger's way. We unpacked and went on with our lives! I never imagined I'd be in a situation where I had to get out of my home quickly and actually choose a few items to bring with the possibility of my house burning down! I am so thankful to the Lord for sparing our home and keeping us safe. I am also thankful that our sweet baby recovered from her first illness so well and so quickly. It's so amazing how the Lord brings you through trials when you least expect it in an attempt to bring us closer to Him. This fire damaged over 20,000 acres in our area and several families lost their homes. Please keep these people in your prayers as Myrtle Beach recovers from this terrible wildfire. It definitely was too close for comfort for us, but we thank everyone who called and sent messages of concern.