Let's Love Bomb Ariel & Chris

[6/15/17 Edited to add: We thought it was a stretch goal to make it to $5000 but we crushed that within a few days! Wow! They could really use as much as we are willing to donate. Thank you all so much!]

Ariel posted this on her Facebook and so many of you responded that you wanted to help them out so I set up this page for them. 

I'm copying and pasting her recent post so you can read what happened in her own words. 

Those of us who know Ariel and Chris know that they are pretty much the most generous people around. They've always taken care of us; it's our turn to take care of them. Let's LOVE BOMB them so big that they won't know what hit them!!! Please be as generous as you can and help them rebuild.

Thank you so much! You guys rock!

From Ariel:
A week and a half later
I am waking up from the fog of this nightmare we've been living.

While vacuuming last week I saw a bug on my kids carpet. Horrified, I scooped it into a baggie and stared at it, praying fervently that God turn it into a grasshopper, a spider, a centipede...really anything except what it was, a bed bug.

Fast forward through a friend coming over to lock herself and our kids in the kitchen for hours while Chris and I haul out our couches from our 3 floor walkup. Showering and leaving for my parents on Long Island with the clothes on our bodies. Coming back night after night, pulling an all nighter, throwing away every single thing that could not be boiled or washed and dried on high heat. Hours at the laundry mat, hundreds of dollars later. Melted curtains added to the pile of garbage for the dump. It's all gone.

I would like to say I was unaffected as I tossed my records, books, kids toys, furniture, shoes, cards, the kids library, rugs, beds, cribs, bookshelves etc in the trash because in the end, it is just stuff. But I was. I sobbed over my sons trains as I tried to boil them and melted the entire pot. Chuggingtons mixed with Thomas all melted together, salted with my tears. I sobbed as I tossed the books I spent hours reading the boys. I have oscillated between losing it and reminding myself it's just stuff. My family is healthy and intact. Besides some bites, although pretty painful and itchy, everyone is okay. We have incredible parents who have taken us into their space and made us feel welcome. An awesome brother and sister in law who have lent Chris their car to spend 5 hours a day driving back and forth to work. Amazing friends who have watched our boys on their only day off as a family so we could clean more out. It is a season. It is a season. It. Is. A. Season. It wasn't the books or those specific toys we played with that made them feel loved. It wasn't the exact crib we laid the boys in that made them feel safe. It was us. It was our time, our attention and our love that made our home. We will start over. We will build a new home. And in the meantime we'll enjoy the sunset here on Eatons Neck and thank God we are healthy, safe and loved.

#startingover #tears #nightmare #bedbugs #healthysafeloved