Help Jairo, Katrina and the boys rebuild our lives

Our names are Jairo and Katrina, and we lost our beloved home in the fire that decimated our community of Altadena.

We have three boys: Rowan (5), Aden (2.5) and Hart (3 months). We bought our home two years ago—it needed a lot of work and we rolled up our sleeves to renovate it. It was our first home as a family. We filled it with love, laughter, traditions, and early childhood chaos. We brought our son home to it. We etched the boys' heights into the doorframe of their bathroom. Every evening at 4pm, we would leave the house to go for a family walk, waving at neighbors who knew our kids by name.

It's surreal to believe that we're writing these words and that so many are hurting as much as we are. North Altadena was leveled on the night of 1/7—only a handful of homes remain standing among singular chimney stacks and a field of ash. It's all so devastating. Our hearts are irreparably broken.

While it feels impossible to think about what's next, one thing is for sure: we need help. Friends and family have rallied to get us immediate essentials, but we'll need to, one step at a time, figure out what’s next. We’re just now starting to deal with insurance and there are so many expenses the policy won’t cover.

To make things more complicated, our kids have a variety of allergies and asthma so we are limited with how far away we can be from a big hospital. It's all so complicated that it's difficult to even think straight to figure out what we need. But we'll start here. Anything you can do to help us rebuild would be deeply appreciated.

We're grateful that we are safe and together. And we're grateful that an incredible community of people, some perfect strangers, has rallied itself around us to help us during this time. It's been a shining light at the end of this tunnel.

Thank you for everything.