Please pray!

Hello family and friends,

As I am sure most of you have heard, there are severe fires in the San Diego area right now (actually, from Malibu all the way to Mexico). The fires in San Diego are are the most severe, and I have just heard on the radio that my friends Andrea, Jim and I are among 500,000 in the area who have been evacuated. The fires have destroyed over 1000 structures, the majority of which are homes, and they are estimating another 1500 homes are likely to be lost today. At this point, they have 0% containment of these fires.

Those are the statistics, but what is most important is that people have been able to get to safety. Us included. We (the Moriarty's and I), left Solana Beach Monday morning before the evacuation request/demand had been made in our area. The smoke and ash in the air was already terrible and the fires were getting closer. Fortunately Jim's wisdom encouraged all of us to get out early, before there was panic or wall-to-wall traffic to exit the area. Jim was also organized enough to touch base with a hotel owner he knows near his office in San Clemente and was able to get a room with a kitchenette for the 5 of us, out of harms way. Praise God!

We watched the news online and on television yesterday, prayed, talked....and mainly prayed that the Lord would stop the winds as only he can do (yesterday they were measured as high as 40-50 miles/hr which was making the fire spread faster). We prayed again this morning before turning on the news, fearing the Moriarty's may have lost their home...and God answered our prayer!! Literally, the weather man reported the winds in our area were at 0 MILES AN HOUR!!! God lifted our spirits and gave us such hope in such a helpless time. The winds are increasing again, but gave the fire fighters enough time to get helicopters in necessary areas and start dumping water, which at this time, allowed them to slow the fires for now, which were heading directly toward Solana Beach.

To see the current status of the evacuation and where the fires are, please see the Relevant Links on the right hand side of our blog.

We are continuing to pray and ask that all of you join us in our time of prayer.

Sleeping in San Diego

Hello friends,

Just wanted to send a quick hello to everyone while we are together in San Diego (actually in Solana Beach) and enjoying each other's presence. The ironic part of finally having a California time away, is Carla is in the middle of midterms and studying all the time, while Sean is sick and sleeping most of the time. Oh well! We are just grateful to be together....Sean is enjoying encouraging Carla to study (see Carla's other blog), and Carla is so glad to be able to nurse her husband back to health.

Okay, okay....we were able to fit in some great memory making - dinner with Jim & Andrea, dinner with Carla's classmates, a few great walks, some fun breakfasts, and this pic is part of the view from our first dinner together after Sean arrived in San Diego - what a meal!

That's our update for now....