The fire and the ramifications from the fire are never too far from our thoughts. Really, it’s difficult to put into words all the areas of our lives that it has affected and continues to affect. There are things that will pop into my head that are forever gone that I just have to quickly put out of my mind. If I don’t, I think I could cry for the rest of my life. Photos are the things that are most painful. Can hardly bear thinking about some of the photos that we lost.
If you recall, in this post, I wrote about how I had dreamed twice {not long before our fire} that we had had a fire and lost our home. Right around that time I felt such a strong urge to take a couple pictures of our pictures. So I got my camera out and went over to the wall that one would first see when they stepped inside our little log home and snapped two pictures. Don’t know why I didn’t take pictures of all the pictures on that wall. Don’t know why I didn’t walk upstairs to the loft and take pictures of the tons of pictures in frames on the cupboards up there. Really, if I think about it bloggy friends I will start to weep.
See the thing is that those up in the loft were so destroyed that there is no way I could even tell what they were. Not even close. If they were out on the cupboards, they were some of our favorites, no doubt. But what were they pictures of? My mind can’t remember in the trauma of it all. I am at a total and complete loss, which is beyond painful to my heart.
So I thought I would mention this all to you, my sweet bloggy friends. I want to encourage you to go get your camera out and snap pictures. Take pictures of your pictures hanging on your walls. If you have pictures propped around your home on tables or shelves, take pictures of them!
And back up the pictures you do take to a hard drive. I now have two external hard drives and I am just beginning to back up all my pictures on my computer to each of them. When I have done that, I will be taking one of the hard drives to a safety deposit box. Then I will rotate the hard drives, continually trying to put all the pictures we take on both, so that we, Lord willing, never lose any pictures again. On a sidenote, we don’t have a safety deposit box and never have. But the bank said that they provide a free one to all customers that have an account. Also, there are services like Shutterfly that back up pictures.
Anyway, here are the two pictures I snapped that day back in November. Remember I said the other day that I have made matching Mother’s Day outfits? This is from Mother’s Day 1997. Tyler was such a good sport, he wasn’t very into the pink with flowers, but wore it anyway. It is one of my favorite pictures we ever had taken. I am going to print this picture of the picture and put it up in our home now. I am so thankful that I have it. 
The other one I took was this one. It was a collage of pictures that Dw had made for me when we were dating. That’s a picture of my prom in there. There’s also a picture of my little brother, Neil, and Dw holding me in the air. We were being silly. Dw sitting with his dog, Chisum. A football game where my brother Neil was a superstar (got a full paid football scholarship to Boston University). And yes, I will print this picture out, too, and put it up as well. 
By the way, I keep meaning to mention, if you live in Western New York or Southern Ontario, Neil is an afternoon talk show host on WDCX-FM out of Buffalo. Neil is an extremely gifted communicator, so if you live nearby, tune in!
Anyway, grab that camera and snap some pictures {for me!}, okay? You most likely will never need them, but it will always be good to know you have them.
Such a good idea!!
oh my gosh that pic of your kids way back in the day is priceless…way too cute! :0)
what a great idea. i can imagine losing your memories is a recurring bitter pill that you must swallow.
meh.
have you heard of carbonite.com? it's an off-site backup service that backs your system up daily. if anything goes wrong with your computer or drive, there's a copy of it there. sort of a digital safety deposit box.
don't know if you've posted photos of your new digs. if you have, i'd love a link to where they are. if not, snap some, sister! i'm sure i'm not the only one who would like to see the beauty from the ashes.
have a sweet weekend, friend!
I used to scrapbook although the desire is still there the time is not. I would rather make the memories then scrapbook them right now!
When I crop-or cut-pictures I don't want to mess too much with the background so I can remember what it was really like. Since we have moved several times, I think the kids will find it interesting some day too….well, somtimes I crop out the laundry baskets…they seems to make the backgrounds of most pictures!
I have to admit that a house fire or any fire is my worst nightmare. Probably because there is no control over them. I grew up in SoCal and brush fires were so common that we evacuated many times, even helping the neighbors to walk their horses to safety. But now that it's my home and my stuff and my memories… the thought of loosing it scares me even more. I don't wan to live in fear but I do want to be prepared. Friends of ours lost their home to a fire while they were at work/school last week. It got me thinking about what I would miss most. During my 'spring cleaning' this year, I'm hoping to really purge this house so I know what is in here and what is important to me. Any tips on how to store things so they have a greater chance of surviving a fire? There's only a few things that can't be replaced. I do backup photos online and we have a small fire safe for valuable documents. The household goods I wouldn't cry over, but the keepsakes of my dad now in Heaven and the videos of meeting our two girls in China… those would be irreplaceable.
Yes, print the pictures of pictures. I'm glad you have those.
I am a bit overboard with my pictures, for fear of just that scenario. I have shutterfly, snapfish, and the external hard drive.
Sweet friend, I will heed your advice and ask my sweet hubby to back up our pictures. I don't have many from before digital (we gave almost everything away when we left for the mission field) but I do have a cherished scrapbook. Thanks for the encouragement not only to hang on to the joys of life, but to learn from the icky parts as well.
Happy,
sara
Linny, I had a thought pass through my mind two days before our house caught on fire. It was, what would you do if your house caught on fire? I remember asking that my pictures would be saved. I know now it was the Holy Spirit speaking. None of the ones on the walls or the ones sitting around made it, but the few little albums I had out made it through with some water damage. It was truly a miracle that they did, because they were in the most intense part of the heat, and everything around them was destroyed. I can only attribute it to God.
I ache for you when you talk about the things that you can never have again, it's so hard…I'm so glad that we serve a God who is Faithful always and who will sustain you and hold you through each wave.
What a wonderful blessing that you do have some pictures of your pictures and that you can get them framed.
Lots of love to you,
jenn
Linn
I've been taking a break from blogging, so havn't read any lately. I read yours today and am amazed because the past few days I've been going through our pictures and photographing them to add to the computer. Coincidence?
Good Idea – Thanks for the info.
Such a great idea! Where do you store your photos? I keep them on my laptop and the memory card, but in a fire I guess those would go to? Is there a safe online program? Due to stalker I am weary of putting them on the net so to speak!