When Ronni Peterson and her two children lost their home to fire on December 9, things looked bleak. She did not have renters insurance and nearly everything she owned was destroyed or damaged by the blaze.
But things began to turn around once a Paypal account and support account at Wells Fargo bank were set up to take donations. Those accounts are still open if you would like to donate any amount to help the family.

A short time later she got word that a home was being made available to her for the holidays by Lisa Davidson. That arrangement was temporary but has since become more permanent.

Peterson contacted the West Seattle Herald after we inquired how she is doing now. Here's her report:

"We are all doing awesome! The lady who let us stay here for the holidays is letting us rent from her. We are super excited! We love this place. We actually had everyone over here for Christmas day. We normally all go over to my Mom's house in Olalla but I felt that it was fitting for us to have Christmas here this year after all we went through. We had quite the full house with 15 people over. It was the best Christmas ever and we have so much to be thankful for!

I can't remember if I mentioned this or not to you but the day of the fire my daughter discovered something amazing. If you look at the picture you took of me in the living room, right behind me was a table with a fish tank. It contained my son's mosquito fish which he got from his teacher in the beginning of 4th grade. Ethan told me that his teacher said that they only live about 6 months. I looked them up online and the article I read said that "most die after breeding with few living longer than 15 months" This fish was at least 3 1/2 years old. The afternoon after the fire my daughter, Emily, and I were going through the house seeing what we could possibly salvage. I kept walking by that sad murky fishtank filled with black smoke filled water. I felt so bad for Ethan's fish. I already knew that he lived over double his life expentency at that point but I was bummed that his life had to end that way. I couldn't bring myself to even look in the tank, knowing I'd see him floating at the top. I was outside digging through the rubble that the firemen had thrown out on the lawn with my neighbor Robin and Emily came running out and said "Mom, the fish is alive"!!!! I couldn't believe it!! That crazy fish was in one of the worst places possible to be during the fire and survived it!! We decided to name him "Vinny" after all that which is short for "Invincible"!! That is one badass fish huh? I know that was a totally rambling story but I thought you might like that. It was just another thing that day that made me feel lucky and realize it could have been a lot worse."