It seemed like no time had passed before I was waking again. Paul still had me in his arms. It was just becoming daylight. Sam and Emily were holding the kids in the doorway. I sat up, yawning and stretching a little bit. I missed the kids more than I thought I did. I was happy to have the rest of my family back with me again.
"Thank you guys for watching them. I think we can take care of them for a while now." I said happily.
"It's now problem sweety. We love these kids almost as much as you two do. It's our pleasure to help with them." Emily said in equally happy tone.
The kids were starting to wine a little bit. I'm sure they were hungry. I took them over to the chair and sat down. Paul took his son and daughter while I worked on getting ready to breastfeed. Emily and Sam said goodbye and left as I sat next to Paul.
In just a few short moments I had both kids and was feeding them. I looked at them with a motherly love. It was a good time in life for me right now. I had my complete and whole family here with me. Nothing could possibly go wrong right now. I looked at Paul, feeling filled with love.
His head was laying back on the couch. His eyes were closed. Paul must've been very tired. I decide not to wake him. I gently got up to go put the kids to bed. By the time I came back down, Paul was fully stretched out on the couch. I placed a blanket over him and kissed his forehead gently.
I walked around the house, cleaning things that needed cleaned. In just a couple of short hours the small house was smelling and looking great. I opened the window above the kitchen sink. I wanted to let a breeze in. It was barely sprinkling a little outside. There was also thunder off in the distance.
This was the kind of day that reminded me of my grandfather. He loved to hear the rain beat against the rough and a little rumble of thunder off in the distance. It helped him to sleep a little better. It was comforting for me as well.
In the middle of feeling at peace, I heard the kids start to whine a little bit. I went up to check on them. I made sure to change each one's diaper before seeing what else they needed. It seemed like it was too soon for them to need to be fed again, but they were hungry all the time though. After feeding them, I brought them downstairs with me.
The storm was moving in a little closer. The thunder was growing louder and the rain was beating down harder. You could see the lightning as it cracked in big yellow streaks across the sky in brilliant, bright flashes of yellow and white against the darkening clouds. I could tell the kids were a little scared as each boom rang out.
There was one really loud boom after a strike that was almost deafening. It woke Paul up out of his dead sleep. The strike of lightning was so bright that I shielded the kids from it. Paul came over to hug the three of us as I shivered with the kids.
That's when I smelled something smokey. I couldn't tell what I was smelling or even where it was coming from. Paul could smell it better than I could because of his heightened senses. We couldn't see anything downstairs. So, Paul went upstairs to check things out.