How can I help?

I've been asked this a lot and up until now, I haven't really had an answer other than to pray for us.

There are a lot of things about this whole fire that are hard. Most of them, actually. Moments like today, when they came to haul away all of our belongings that have been declared a loss. I honestly lasted about 10 minutes of seeing our beloved belongings in the dumpster before leaving and sobbing in my car. SO many memories wrapped up in the rocking chair where I nursed Sierra and fed and rocked Bodie. And in Sierra's dresser - I remember buying it right before she was born, so abuzz with excitement that we were about to be parents. And our bedroom set. And their toys. 

Sigh. 

I think letting go of things like this would be emotional even if we let go of them one at a time. But to let them go all at once, and so suddenly, is overwhelming. Letting go of some of the things, things we needed to let go of, was cathartic. But letting go of things we had no intention of getting rid of, has been much harder. 

It's just stuff, I keep reminding myself. 

Even so, it was our stuff and that makes this hard.

Please continue praying for the emotional side of this journey for us. 

And, in addition to prayer, we have tangible ways you can help us now! 

WE FOUND A HOME TO RENT!!! 

SO exciting!

Yes, that's right - we won't have to live in this hotel forever! Praise God!!!

If you live locally,

We need furniture. 

We have lost just about everything furniture wise. They're attempting to salvage 5 pieces of furniture, and that's it. Everything else has to be replaced. :-( This is going to take time and we don't want to be pressured to repurchase everything in 2 days. So, we're looking for furniture we can borrow to furnish our house with in the meantime. As we replace things, we'll swap furniture out and return it. But at least we won't have to sleep on the floor while we're finding new furniture! Specifically, we need:

1. A California king bed frame (set?).

2. 3 dressers.

3. 2 Bedside tables.

4. A couch.

5. A dining room table and chairs. There's a chance they'll be able to salvage our dining room table, but we don't know yet - nor do we know how long it will take to get it if they are able to salvage it.

6. Office furniture (2 desks (mine and Sierra's), 2 chairs (again, mine and Sierra's), a filing cabinet, bookshelf, etc. - our entire office was a loss).

7. Lamps (both desktop and floor halogen style)

If you have any of this furniture lying around, you don't mind letting us borrow it, and you can drop it off at our new place (we're planning on moving this coming Thursday/Friday), please contact Faith Spelbring at Faith.Spelbring@lhm.org - she's handling all local donations).

P.S. A note on what we do NOT need? Clothes and toys. Almost all of the kids' clothes and most of ours were salvaged. And we pulled the kids' favorite and most special toys out before totaling everything else. Just as Dusk and I are learning this lesson, we're looking at this as an opportunity for our kids to live with a few less toys - in reality, they had way too many to begin with. 

We need meals. 

We are waiting until we are in the house to have a meal rotation set up - but trust me, we'll have one. If you're interested in having the rotation sent to you once it's up and running, please email Julia Ehlers at murphyehlers@gmail.com - she'll be handling the dinner rotation. 

If you don't live locally (or don't have furniture you feel like throwing our way):

Donations.

My amazing Sisters by Heart Board members created a fundraiser for us. It's super easy to donate and we can use the funds for anything we need, thankfully! You can access it here. 

Gift Cards.

If you're into buying giftcards, we'd love giftcards to places we can buy everything we'll need to replace (Crate + Barrel and COSTCO for furniture, Office Depot and Ikea for office items, Home Depot and Target for, well, house stuff, restaurant gift cards - or just Amex cards we can use anywhere). If you would like to send giftcards, please mail them to our attention c/o Faith Spelbring, 7517 Naylor Avenue, LA, CA 90045.

No matter where you live, please PRAY! This whole process is emotional and unexpected. Pray for the 4 of us to cling to one another, and to God - and to roll with the punches (anyone who knows me knows rolling with the punches isn't exactly my strong suit - so extra prayers for patience for Amy would be great).  

And please pray our babies keep on keeping on together, leaning on one another.