January 14, 2014

Hey everyone, 

Well it's official! I am completely exhausted! 

Today mum &  I went and helped my sister with the 5 kids (2 of her own &  3 extras who were under 6!) she has been looking after since yesterday. The fires in Perth are still burning, however it looks like they might finally be under control! Hooray! Sadly 52 houses were lost with many more damaged. The fire fighters did an amazing job keeping the number so low when it could have easily been in the hundred! Thank you to our fire fighters & emergency services! You have done an out stranding job this week!!! The 3 extra children my sister was looking after, & we helped with a little today, were kids of two volunteer firefighters & emergency service officers! Beautiful children! 

Whilst my sister was dealing with the two littlest ones and mum was occupying the attention of the two middle ones (the eldest looked after himself), I was able to do some housework for my sister, in cleaning up the lounge, toy room & family rooms, and putting in a load of dishes in the dishwasher! It's amazing how crazy a house looks after 5 kids under 10 (4 of which are under 6), have been in it for 24 hours! I totally respect single & stay at home mothers (particularly ones with more than one kid) because of the whirlwind that surrounds those 5 when they were playing! Wow! 

For the three middle children (all girls) I acted as hairdresser & did each of them a funky hairstyle for the day ... Sometimes more than once! Girls love to have pretty hairstyles! 

Today I also taught my nephew how to play poker (my sister learnt poker too) & a card game called "spit"! My nephew is a regular card shark! He learns quickly! :)

I also read 3 chapters of a fairy book to my niece before she went to bed because after the other 3 kids went home (the fire is almost under control so their parents could go home & rest & take the kids with them), my niece needed some quiet TLC! 

Needless to say... I'm exhausted & I was only there for 12 hours! I think my sisters whole house will be sleeping very soundly tonight! You guys did an excellent job sharing toys, food, attention, rooms & time with people who needed it! Thank you for your kindnesses!!! 

I'm crawling into bed... 

Much love to you all, stay safe! 

Luv Daena 

Paying it Forward

Hi all,
I just wanted to share with you one of the pay-it-forwards that I did vicariously today!

The story starts about 5 months ago my mum & I helped out at a community day for the nursing home my dad lives in! We put in heaps of hard work & helped them raise a total of about $3000AUD! As a thank you the nursing home staff gave us a HUGE box of chocolates (1.32kgs to be exact). We gratefully accepted the gift along with a bunch of flowers each! We were spoilt but knew neither of us could eat the chocolate (my mum has diabetes & I'm trying to avoid getting it!)!

So instead we thought of donating it to a local emergency services like the police station! We made a few plans that fell through but it finally happened! today I could pass that HUGE box of chocolates along!

It just so happens that a huge brushfire threatened my sisters house, & many more houses yesterday, and they had to evacuate! but my sister didn't have enough time to grab anything on her way to pick the kids up from school, not knowing it would be too dangerous to return after that! so she and her kids had the clothes on their backs & their car, my brother-in-law was at work and only had the clothes he had with him etc. it turned out that it took 150 firefighters, and several airplane water bombers all afternoon & all night to contain the situation, but contain it they did! My sister & her family was allowed to return home today.

My sister came down to my house with her kids for lunch (she didn't have any food to give them for lunch as before school they still weren't allowed to return home) so she bought them down to us & we all had lunch together!

Now my sister & I had talked about this box of chocolates a few times (after all our house/unit is tiny & the box is massive). And today we were reminded of the importance of our emergency services, particularly the fire fighters!

My sister lives down the road from their local volunteer firefighters station, so I decided to give the chocolates to her for her to give to any firefighters she came across (if they were still at the station as it was early evening). So that is what my sister did!

She dropped the chocolates in, after seeing that several cars were still at the station and gave them the chocolates & told them thank you for everything they had done to keep her house & all other houses safe in the massive blaze! The fire fighters were very thankful & my sister left in tears! She felt as blessed as I did to pass it on!

I was just grateful I still had my sister, & her family safe while men and women volunteers & career fire fighters put their lives on the line! Thank you to everyone who made a difference in that fire & all other fires here in Australia (& around the world)!

My sister & I now know how much of a blessing it is to pay it forward!

Luv Daena x