At 3:00am my phone rang. You never want a call in the middle of the night. It can only be bad. This morning a recording told me that the Las Conchas fire is approaching Cochiti Lake, New Mexico and we needed to be prepared to evacuate.

When I went to bed I knew of the fire, and saw some smoke. This is a record year for forest fires in New Mexico. But now I could clearly see a line of flames like a necklace on the mountains behind our house.

I was shaking, and thinking, what do I take? What a weird and great experiment on values and character. What to take? Knowing that your house could burn down. I grabbed Dexter of course, and the two rings I wear everyday. And for some reason my toothbrush, I threw on my tennis shoes, sweats a t-shirt and a baseball cap. Still shaking I grabbed Dexter’s favorite toy, his dog food, leash and collar. Took one more look back at the house, grabbed a cross I have hanging by the back door that I touch every morning before I go to work – the word “Cuidado” is etched in it. .

Here’s a link to the map of the fire as of 10:00 this morning. Please pray for those in Los Alamos and White Rock. They have been through this once already.

So, what would you take? If you only had 15 minutes to pack your “stuff”……..it’s a great question.

UPDATE: Yesterday was crazy. Running on three hours of sleep I went into work with Dexter waiting for Mark to arrive. His plane landed at 1:00pm and I met him at the house in Cochiti. There were reports of the golf course burning and the apple orchard up the street. It’s funny how facts get skewed in times of chaos. By the grace of God and the invention of the sprinkler, the 15th hole of Cochiti Lake Golf Course was spared. So were the apple trees at Dixon.

Mark and Dexter are holding down the fort. We are still under a voluntary evacuation at Cochiti Lake. All of Los Alamos was evacuated yesterday. The fire continues to burn out of control and the winds are predicted to pick up again at noon.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.