Thank you!

From my husband:

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to take a moment to THANK YOU! for all of your kindness and support during this time since the wildfire took our and many other homes. Particularly since so many have lavished gifts upon us, I also wanted to give you some details. First of all, I am humbled by how difficult and exhausting this whole process has been. A few years ago, I worked with Samaritan’s Purse sifting ashes in an area about an hour from here. I never imagined how difficult it was for those we served. I am also humbled by the outpouring of support from family, friends, churches, local businesses, and local services. THANK YOU!  
As for the details . . .

We quickly received the insurance money for our contents because our first list exceeded our limit by a good clip. We were under insured for contents by as much as $100k. The lesson here is to revisit your contents coverage when you have lived in the same house for almost 20 years. Contents seem to increase with time and kids : ) So we can’t go out and replace everything we had, but we don’t need to. We have food and covering, and with these we are content - most of the time : ).
We also quickly received the base coverage for the replacement of the house itself. With that we put the down payment on a house since no rentals for a family of 6 was showing up in our general area. We are wanting to rebuild our house and then sell or possibly rent the one we now live in in order to help pay for the rebuild. We thank the Lord for a house to live in all together as a family.

I am currently working with the insurance company and a contractor in order to justify maxing out the coverage amount for the rebuild. The lesson here is to revisit your dwelling coverage as the price of materials and labor goes up.
We are currently trying to decide on how to rebuild. Private contractor or group build? A private contractor is more expensive but allows us to rebuild similar to what we had in terms of number of rooms and square footage. In a group build, the options are limited but the price is lower. Thank the Lord for options.

Yes, I am trying to finish the DMin program at Master’s Seminary and graduate in May, Lord willing.

I tell you all of this not because we are looking for more gifts but because we have received gifts.

THANK YOU!

In Him,

Carl

From me:
There have been so many who have been incredibly generous to us in a tangible way:  family, friends, businesses, musicians, and organizations.  There have also been complete strangers who have blessed us unexpectedly.  Thank you!  I wanted to take a moment to mention just a few of the businesses and organizations though.  I probably am forgetting some, and many churches were generous, but these are some of those that have been really generous to us in one way or another:

Santa Rosa Symphony
Stanroy
Cokas Diko
Teamsters
Fleet Feet
Bed, Bath & Beyond
Creative Sonoma
Rincon Valley Christian School PSP
Chik-Fil-A
Redwood Gospel Mission
Jackson's Bar & Oven
Shutterfly
Evy's Tree
Sara Groves
Redwood Empire Food Bank
Mombos Pizza
Maria Carillo High School
Cabi
Oska
Sons of Korah
Go Pro
Copperfields
Corricks
Clone
Redwood Empire Beauty College Salon
Equi Ed
Messiah Sing
Empire Soccer Club
Secret Santa
Village Art Supply
Riley Street
Bird's Nest
Focus on the Family
Santa Rosa Junior College
Sisters Consignment

Highland Hospital ED Staff
Sonoma Family Meals
and many churches, friends, and family.