And We Wait....

We are tired. But cannot sleep.

Joel stayed at home and worked from the home office today. It's nice to have him around. We were running dangerously low on diapers so Alyn and I ran to Missoula for a quick trip to Walmart around noon. The smoke seemed worse in town than it did out here at the time. 

On our way back out to Lolo, we saw some crews setting up a fire camp just north of Lolo on Hwy 93. I've never been this close to anything like this so I'm learning so much!

We decided we should stop at the Fire Info tent to see if they had any info as we hadn't heard much at all this morning. 

The Lolo Creek Complex Fire (which started out as two small fires late Saturday night - from lightning) had ran out of control late Monday afternoon. Monday morning it was around 200 acres and Monday evening around 5,000 acres. The high temperatures, low humidity and wind gusts made this fire just rage out of control. The National Weather Service said this morning that today would be a 'carbon copy' of yesterdays weather. (not what we wanted to hear)...

Here is the map that I took a photo of around 1230pm today.

You can see the fire (red) and the arrows point to some of our friends' homes in the area. If you look close enough you can see little squares on the map. Each square represents one mile. 

(RIGHT NOW: the red fire area is estimated to be way closer to the tip of the Luhmann/Boretsky arrow)

As the day went on (regular school day, Scentsy work and Joel working) we started noticing the change in the winds. (which of course can be different right at the fire but it was very concerning for us)  One half mile up the road, the Sheriffs and fire crews were giving mandatory evacuations up Sleeman Gulch.  

The high temps and winds from today made the fire blow up again and now they are saying it is around 10,000 acres! Tonight, Joel and I decided to start packing the car with the things we want to save. The only things left in the house that need to be packed is our clothes and extra blankets. (I'm not going to lie... there was about 30 minutes this afternoon when I got that pit in my stomach that we might have to leave and leave it all behind)

We watched the planes and helicopters fly above us to drop retardant on the mountains about 2 slopes back. What I love most about this fire is the sunset... look at the glow behind the smoke!

We have not received an evacuation notice from the Sheriff's Department... so we are still at home.
Waiting...
Praying...
Not a single blade of grass or needle of tree burns without Our Father making it. The town of Lolo, the city of Missoula and many other towns of peoples far away are seeing His glory tonight. The prayers are being lifted up. He is AMAZING!

Please continue for safety for all the crews and the peace for all evacuees.

XO.
Jari