This Christmas Ari was particularly excited for Christmas. She couldn't wait to bake Santa special cookies, that only miss Ari knew how to bake. I feared for my kitchen every time she said something. I was a stay at home mom for the most part at that time. Always spending every second possible with my little angel.
"Momma? I make cookie???" she said to me often. I couldn't help but say yes every time too!! We had a lot of burnt cookies, and deformed snowmen. And whatever that hairy mess is… she put a lot of random things in it….
I let her stay up waiting for Santa, knowing it would only be another hour or two later then normal. As soon as she fell asleep i slowly laid out each of her presents in a perfect Christmas movie style. Putting the stockings up above the chimney.. I always thought that was dangerous, but I made sure that we didn't burn things for at least a week before it was time to put anything up. Ari meant everything to me, my husband was abusive towards me, and showing signs of abuse towards ari so I've been working on divorce papers, and basically my only want is that i have sole custody of ari. I can figure everything else out, but I do not want him to be able to touch her without my eyes watching to make sure no injuries happen.
My lawyer was just about done with the papers, and everything seemed to be falling into place, that of course is the moment that everything went bad. Steps away from having the divorce, and having sole custody is when the house set fire and i went into the coma. It was only hours before we were going to celebrate our last family Christmas. Just days before I could finally say I was sure of my babies safety.
On a very bright Christmas morning I woke up early, but acted as I was asleep. Ari ran into my bedroom "Mommy! Mommy! Santa came." she said with the most excitement in her voice. I stretch to pretend I'm just waking up then put an extreme bright expression on my face "really?! And we didn't catch him? I thought for sure we would get him with those tasty cookies!!" she giggled a little before stating " All that's left is crumminess!!" In all truthfulness the cookies are in the downstairs garbage… I have no idea what went into those cookies…. "We have to wait for daddy to arrive before we can see your awesome gifts!!" I say with a bit of sadness and bitterness. I don't want to take her 100% away from him, but I just don't want her alone with him for long. He hasn't laid a hand on her yet, so I can't take her away fully without it being incorrect.
It took a couple hours before he came, we had a beautiful Christmas dinner, and she opened up all of her presents. Afterwards we watched Christmas movies and she played with her new toys. I started cleaning up a bit later, and I ended up taking the garbage out. That was when I was dragged away from my home, and my home was set on fire. Doing my best to get back inside to get my family out was hard. I was one person completely unprepared for an ambush… Once I could finally get out of their grip it was too late, but i still tried, until a piece of the house fell on top of me hitting my head and sending me to the coma. The last thing I remember ari screaming for help with tears streaming down her face.