The Great Tree Incident of 2012

I have not totally given up on blogging.  I'm just...tired.  35 weeks pregnant and counting! I'll do a pregnancy update soon, but suffice to say all is well.  And we've been a little distracted with what Billy calls "The Great Tree Incident."  On August 1st, we had been home from a big trip to Oklahoma for less than 48 hrs when a very large tree from our neighbors yard fell onto our house.  Maryn and I were home and it was quite terrifying!  I guess the tree was old and had been affected by the drought.  Here are some shots of the damage:

The tree went through the ceiling of our bedroom on the second floor:

This is what it looked like once the tree was removed.  We had some nice natural light :)

 Maryn's bedroom is below ours, and because there was some sort of exhaust pipe that went from above her ceiling to the roof, her ceiling was damaged as well:

We were very thankful no one was hurt (so glad we weren't in bed!).  We are also thankful that we don't own the home and that we have fantastic landlords, our friends Adrian and Nora, who worked diligently from Colorado to make arrangements.  We were also very blessed by our dear friends the Esteps who immediately came over to help us and who let us crash at their place for a couple of nights while the tree was being removed.  Afterward, the roof was professionally tarped, we closed off the upstairs portion of the house, and we moved into the guest room on the main floor next to Maryn's room.  Then we had to wait a month for insurance and contractor red tape to go through before work could be started on the house.  But despite the stress of the wait, the timing couldn't have been better.  Some friends from church, the Harveys (I also work with Chris, and he's our pediatrician), left for Africa on a 3 week long medical missions trip a couple of days before the contractor started work on our house.  They graciously allowed us to stay in their home and it was wonderful!  They live in Niles about 40 minutes from our house.  They also have 3 daughters and Maryn was delighted to play with all of their toys.

Maryn got to see her first rainbow at the Harvey's house!

 Billy and Maryn took the opportunity to explore some of the historical sites in Niles:

Here's how they fixed Maryn's room:

And here's our room:

After 10 days away, we are so glad to be back in our home and sleeping in our own beds! Stay tuned for more Smith family updates coming soon!