I have only 10 minutes…10 minutes! That statement went through my head and slowly began to count down as I raced through the apartment gathering winter clothing, food, diapers, blankets, sleeping bags, personal hygiene things and the play-n-go. I was gathering enough supplies for my five children and myself. The 10 minutes turned to 9 minutes, then 8 minutes, and so forth. I wasn’t in a race with a hurricane, a tornado, or any other natural disaster. I was on a race for my life.
Think about it, if you only had 10 minutes to grab what you could from your house, could you do it? I was in pain as I made choices of taking clothing over pictures and baby books. I knew that leaving certain toys behind, even though Garrett’s melt down was going to be over the top, was necessary. Ten minutes…ten minutes. My biggest challenge was finding all the things that I needed as quietly as I could, packing it in the van, and then gathering my sleeping children from the bed and driving away into the snowy night.