Family Apartment Fire

 On December 15th around three in the morning, I experienced something that I could never imagine happening to me and my family ever in my life. I was in our music studio in our apartment when I heard the smoke detector go off. I opened the door to see a lot of smoke coming from our living room. The first thing I thought was "I'm not cooking anything." I walked out of our studio to find our six foot artificial palm tree in flames. I immediately ran to get my one year old son who was in our bedroom which was close to the fire. His bedroom doorway was close to being shut off by flames. The fire was growing extremely fast and rapidly; I had to move quickly! After I grabbed him we had to go around the flames to go get my five year old daughter who was on the other end of the hallway; I can hear her screaming and calling for help through the door. After I grabbed my daughter I turned to see that the flames were pretty close to cutting off our one and only exit; the front door. I held both my children close and prayed to Jesus to protect my children as we leaped over the flames to our exit. When I first tried to open the front door the top latch was locked and the door didn't open immediately. This is how I received more burns on my lower back as the flames were closing in on us. I eventually got the door open and we ran out screaming trying to get help. My neighbors downstairs were the first ones to open their doors and they immediately called 911. That's when I seen the burns to my face and I started panicking and freaking out! I then seen my son's hands and started freaking out more!! My neighbors tried to put the fire out with three fire extinguishers and could not get the fire out. My children and I ended up leaving in the ambulance to Grady Hospital to be treated at "The Burn Center". We lost everything; one of my turtles passed away as well as all twenty-two of my fish. That night was extremely traumatic, the fire is still under investigation because I'm not even sure how it all started. I still have nightmares about the fire and I am having a really hard time sleeping. Sometimes I close my eyes and can see and hear the flames. I try to snap myself out of it because I’ve always been such a strong person but here I am with this imagery and sounds stuck in my head. The pain of having to peel your burned skin off your entire face and off of parts of your body is unbearable! I have to legit pull off my skin!The pain medicine doesn’t even help. I would never wish this pain on anyone. If I don’t pull off the skin then I risk infection. My face looks so bad that my daughter has a hard time looking at me. When I was in the hospital I couldn’t open my left eye for two days and both my right and left eye for over 24 hours. It took days for me to open my mouth wide enough to eat and that was painful as well. My husband and I made ends meet with our music studio which was burned down so we have no means of making income at this time. My husband was not home when the fire occurred. It is so crazy how earlier that day we went to the trampoline park with the kids and had a great time. You never know what is going to happen in the next few minutes so please do not take life for granted. I am so happy that we got out of our burning home safely. The doctors said we will heal well, please keep us in your prayers. God is REAL and He will always protect you, we are so grateful to be alive. Our renter's insurance does not cover nearly as much as what was lost as well as our medical bills. We are very appreciative for any donations. God Bless you all and thank you!