Our loving home reduced to ASHES

Amber and I are Bay Area natives, we met in 2010 shortly after High School and quickly fell in love.  Soon after getting married we decided to relocate along with our young son Damian, to sunny Florida in 2011.
 
Amber and I finally purchased a home a few years later with dreams of turning it into a loving home, full of the laughter of children. Over the next couple of years our happy family was  blessed with the arrivals of our daughter Serena and then our son Ronan.    As a family we spent our days enjoying the wonderful outdoors while exploring our hometown.  Our family grew once more with the arrival of little Kassidy. Kassidy’s was only 2 months old when Hurricane Irma hit Florida. The hurricane warnings came fast and the winds were devastating. If you saw the news coverage, you remember the destruction it caused.  We were left with no choice but to flee our home. We left everything behind in a mad dash to get our family, which now included a newborn daughter, as far away from danger as possible.

 Dealing with the damaging emotional and financial aftermath of the hurricane left us with a very tough decision.  The house that we had spent so much time and effort into making a happy home was now too damaged by water to be repaired.  We decided that for the safety of our family we’d have to move away from the Florida, the only place my daughter Serena and Ronan had ever know, and the place Kassidy was just starting to explore.

So, in the early fall of 2017 along with our 4 kids and doggy, we moved the family to beautiful Magalia California. As a family, we enjoyed our new hometown and the beautiful nature scene . We could often be found at the Honey Run Bridge where we picked river rocks, which we  took home and hand painted with art from children’s movies.  As many other families did on weekends, we  would then return to the Bridge and set the rocks around the area for visiting folks to find.  You can still see some of our artwork and our treasure finds posted on our FB pages.

Damian who is  9 years old who and Serena who is 5 years old had the very unique oportunity of being homeschooled and  enjoyed being taught by my wife Amber.  Damian who has Autism thrived in his learning sorrounded by the natural beauty of his classroom/home.  Ronan age 3 was simply content to spend his days listening to country music (yes, he even had his favorite boots and inflatable horse to go with music) while discovering every nook and cranny of the small wooded area behind our  home, great for trailblazing!  Kassidy age 16 months was just as happy enjoying her days on the livingroom rug playing with our puppy Mossy Oak. 

 Our 1st anniversary of our move to Magalia CA was almost here. In celebration , we were gearing up to host our very 1st  Thanksgiving Dinner inviting family and friends, everyone was so excited we would get to show off our beautiful town....

On Thursday November 9th 2018, I left to work in Chico, just like any other morning,  and Amber was at home herself, busy with the Damian and Serena’s schoolwork.  A couple of hours later, I saw the sky change to a chilling orange with a lot of smoke.   Once again Amber and my children where given an evacuation order. How could his be happening again?!?!. Only this time it wasn’t a Hurricane threatening our family but the raging Camp Fire closing in on the neighboring town of Paradise.  Alone at home with our  4 young children and a dog to think about,  Amber was once more forced to flee, taking only our biggest treasures ,which are our CHILDREN and our DOG.

Along with a lot of other folks who travel to Chico for work, I could do nothing but stand by helpless and hope for a miracle.  For the next 3 hours, I would frantically try to locate my family with deep fears for their safety.  Did they make it out, did they get stuck on the roads, where were they headed?  Watching news coverage of the evacuations raised even more fears that they would be caught by the fire amongst the sea of vehicles full of families trying to escape.  We would all be safely reunited Thursday evening but only after what seemed like an eternity. 

The next 2 days would prove to be the hardest as we still held out hope that our home may have been spared. Day and night with the help of family and friends we poured over tons of links, webpages and photos for news on our home. Saturday night November 11th 2018 we received confirmation that not a single house in our neighborhood had been spared. 

Amber and I are hardworking,  devoted parents who like so many moved their family to Magalia for its community, scenery and opportunities. Here we hoped to raise our 4 kids in that home until it came time to send them off to college. Our house may be gone but our family who was not defeated by a hurricane in 2017 will definitely not be reduced to ashes by a fire in 2018. 

Please help us regain some semblance of normalcy as we try to once more provide a safe  home for our children. We are painfully aware that we are not the only ones that lost homes and possessions in the fire . We, the Garcia- Livingston family, Jose, Amber, Damian, Serena, Ronan and Kassidy and our furry baby Mossy Oak,  appreciate every bit of help you can spare.

Should you find someone in greater need that is suffering due this tragic fire, and want to donate to them, we surely understand. After all, we know how fortunate we are to have made it out alive, safe and together when others did not.

#campfire #paradisefire #Magaliastrong #campfirevictims #TeamGarciaLivingston