good people

• The lady who gave us a roll of quarters and bags for laundry when she saw our things spread out in front of the apartment on clean-out day

• The red cross guy who was there the day after the fire and gave us care kits with our basic needs for the night (the smell of red cross products is incredibly soothing to me now and I will open a shampoo bottle just to smell it and feel okay)

• Every single person who donated on our GoFundMe, from the anonymous donor who put in $1000 to my sweet cousin who is in college and put in $15 (probably the fun money that was all they had for the week).  Honestly, each donation seemed huge when I considered the givers's own situation.  So many people who have so many hard things.  Most of the people who gave to us are not wealthy, in fact, the vast majority are people like us - recent graduates, recently bought houses, recently had little kids....lots of things that make money tight, and yet they still shared with us

• Everyone who shared our GoFundMe and other fundraisers

• My amazing friends who offered to do fundraisers for us (we had offers for four different fundraisers on top of the T-Shirt and the GoFundMe !)

• My aunt who worked so hard to create, manage, and publicize the GoFundMe when she has an incredibly busy and stressful life of her own

• The compassionate service coordinator from our ward (church group) who came and helped me list out everything we needed immediately and pushed me to tell her what brands we preferred (I felt so selfish to ask but I've been so grateful to use familiar products)

• Whoever went the day of the fire and bought us jammies and our favorites soaps, etc.  It just so happens they bought me a hair brush exactly like my old one, just a different color.  It made me so happy to have something familiar.

• Whoever also thought to include new toys and backpacks, suitcases, and toiletry bags in the donation that day

• All the people who donated, or offered to donate, kids clothes 

• The people who donated envelopes full of cash through our bishop at church the Sunday after the fire

• My sweet friend with a newborn baby who bought my kids new mattresses and bedding

• Our old college friends who hosted Tyler and his dad at their house for several days so they wouldn't have to pay for a hotel

• All our other friends who offered to let us stay at their houses while we found a home.  Our whole family!  They were willing to let my kids come and little kids in beautiful homes is always a risk!

• Everyone who sent Tyler networking information and potential job leads (nothing has panned out yet, but he's working hard on it!)

• The lady at the hotel that my parents and I stayed in -- they got the bill for their room and were not charged for our room at all!  Huge shout out to the Marriott family for having the most amazing employees - they also gave the boys toys when we first checked in.  Could not have been nicer

• Every person who prayed for us

• Our family far away who cried for us and wanted so much to be here for us

• Our bishop for picking us up at 2 in the morning, his wife for getting beds ready for us and doing tons of our laundry, and her kids who kindly tolerated my little guys pestering them and crashing their spring break

• The amazing people from our church family who helped us clean our disgusting damaged belongings out of our burned apartment

• The sweet friend of mine who watched our kids and let us keep all of our smokey, stinky stuff in her garage for weeks

• My other amazing friends who fielded phone calls and coordinated service so I wouldn't be overwhelmed 

• The families that fed us and provided breakfast and dinner for the days after the fire

• The lady in our ward who donated everything in her kitchen to us

• My parents and sister who dropped everything to come to Texas and worked with us and spent a pretty penny getting us back in to house and home

• My father-in-law who dropped everything and flew out to be with Tyler so he wouldn't be alone when the boys and I left, and toured apartments and co-signed for us, and did pretty much everything else I sent his way

• Everyone who loved us from afar and reached out to send love and words of encouragement

• Our friend with a baby in the NICU who bought new children's books for us since my children lost all of theirs

• My sweet friend from church who offered to take us clothes shopping, who brought us detergent and quarters at the laundry mat and stayed to fold our ginormous, millions of loads of laundry

The list is pretty much growing every day.  I know I probably left out a bunch of you.  I'm sorry!  I'll probably remember tomorrow and come back and add it.  I want you to know I may not have you listed here but I don't forget.  I remember you.  Thank you.