Hurricane Harvey One Month Later

I haven't been on here much because right now my life is such an emotional mess. 

It's been one month today, one extremely long month, that Hurricane Harvey hit and flooded my home. I'm not going to lie, every day has been a struggle. 

Our family is safe and together under one roof and we have all the comforts of home but it's not our home.  My sister in law and her family have taken us in. Their house is actually big enough and the boys have their space and we have ours but its just not the same. 

Our flood insurance adjuster came out last week on our anniversary to look at our home and take a few pictures. I handed him two flash drives full of pictures and he put them in his jeans pocket. I had three to four maybe six images of everything we owned. As we were removing the destroyed contents I was snapping away with my camera. 

I also had to fill out a contents spread sheet for the adjuster. That task alone was very daunting and emotion filled as I was looking at the pictures to fill out the spread sheet. It was a constant reminder everyday of what we lost and what I couldn't save. All I can tell you is that I cried everyday for a week and my emotional state was not good either. Realizing you didn't grab one of your children's baby books and didn't grab the folder with all of their awards from Pre-k to 5th grade nor did I grab the Rubbermaid with all of their keep sake items was more than I could stand. It was to much for this mama and her heart to handle.

This week the adjuster emailed Hubs and asked him if we had pictures to support the spread sheet. I told Hubs to give me the phone and I would handle it. I called the adjuster and asked him if he still had the two flash drives I had given him when he came that were loaded with pictures. He said let me look as I dump everything into a shared drive on my computer. He said he had them but wanted to know if they matched the spread sheet. I almost lost it at that point. I said I'm sorry but we have lost our house and everything in it. We had over six feet of water for 5 days. I took those pictures so you would have the documentation you needed and I would have memories of what we lost. I built the spread sheet with the help of those pictures. Everything in those pictures is documented in the spread sheet, I'm sure you will have no trouble finding the items mentioned. They may not be in order according to the sheet but they are there and you can scroll through them just as I did. He just replied with yes ma'am. 


Hubs and I also finally cleaned out his car which had kind of been our storage for cleaning supplies for our house. Since the house was now gutted down to roof, studs, and ceiling we could put those supplies in the garage area of the house and he could once again have his car back.  

I haven't really been back to our house because it's just to painful. I hate driving into our neighborhood and seeing everything torn apart. I hate seeing so much damage and every one's belongings on the side of the road. I hate that our entire neighborhood and the three others surrounding mind have all suffered the same amount of damage. I just hate it all. 

So now we are waiting on the insurance to send us the money so we can move forward with the process. I'm ready to be done with this process. I'm ready for it to be over.  I'm ready to move on. 

I just want to go home and I want normal. And I want it all right now. Harvey sucks!

Twenty Years

20 years ago today I walked down the aisle to say I do to the man I fell in love with. 

We have built an amazing life together. We've had some wonderful times and some not so wonderful times too. But through it all we have always loved one another. 

I would not want to take this journey with anyone else. 

I love you Hubs! Here's to us and and many many more years together.

Waiting for the Disaster to Pass

Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me,

 
    for in you I take refuge.

 
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings

 
    until the disaster has passed.

Psalm 57:1

Hurricane Harvey Demo Day

Saturday Hubs and I were completely humbled by a group that came to our house and removed the contents, carpet, and padding of the last room in our home. 

They also demoed the entire home. In one day. All of it. Down to the studs.

The week before I had seen a post on Facebook that if you needed help from organizations such as Samaritan Purse, Habitat for Humanity, Baptist Men, etc. to call the phone number listed and they would create a ticket with your needs. So I called and created a ticket with them. They said they would be in contact in about three weeks. Honestly I pushed that information to the back of my mind. Friday afternoon they called letting me know they would be there the next day.

Saturday morning around 8:30 some men with the group, Mormon Helping Hands showed up and went to work. They only stopped long enough to eat lunch and by 4:30 they were finished.

Through out the process every time Hubs and I would try to do something they kept telling us, "oh ma'am we will get that or sir I'll do that." They would not let us lift a finger. 

Because of this group and the men who answered our call we are now in the drying out stage of our home.

At the end of their time with us they asked us to pray with them and Hubs lead the prayer. 

In the 22 years that we have been together I can count on one hand how many times he has either cried or gotten choked up by events, Saturday was one of those days. My emotionally strong husband was brought to tears and almost could not finish praying. 

Hubs and I will forever be grateful to the men that came to help. There is no way we can ever repay each of them for the time they spent working on my home. 

So in the craziness of Post Hurricane Harvey, these guys were the bright spot in my day. 

We Must Never Forget

We must never forget 9-11 and what that means for our country. I'm sure each of you can remember exactly what you were doing when you heard the news, I know I do.

2977, we must never forget. I will never forget.

73 3/4 Inches

If you know how to convert inches to feet, which I did not, 73 3/4 inches translates into 6 feet 1 inch.

That is the amount of water of my home had in it. Think about that for a minute. That is taller than most women, and I'm 5'3".

Today we were able to fix the content removal of the livingroom, dining room, and all of the kitchen cabinets. We also removed the contents of the boys rooms and pulled up the carpet and padding as well. 

Tomorrow is the removal of the contents of our bedroom, closet and both bathrooms in our house. Then we can start pulling the sheetrock from floor to ceiling and removing all of the kitchen cabinets. 

This is what I am affectionately calling DEMO DAY! Yeah, I stole the line from the show Fixer Upper. I love that show and I keep thinking how cool would it be to have them come and demo my home and then rebuild it. But I don't see that happening but a girl can dream. 

Also, today I sat on a huge tarp on my front lawn for three hours with the Rubbermaid I found in the bottom of my hall closet that had all of the boys baby pictures and a few school photos and sports photos. I was so upset when I realized I left it. I sat there and pulled pictures apart and let them dry in the sun. It was really a bittersweet moment for me. 

I also found the Rubbermaid with all of the boys keep sake clothes. The outfits and blankets I used to wrap them in when I brought them home from the hospital. Their first birthday outfits and their one year picture outfits. And several other items that has significant meaning. All filled with nasty flood water and ruined. It was very difficult to walk and put that Rubbermaid on the side of the road along with all of the other trash. I cried the entire way there and the entire way back to the tarp. 

I sit here tonight grateful for my family and that we are all safe. Grateful for friends and friends of my boys that came to help. Grateful for services that offered to help haul out wet items and demo our home. Grateful to my sister and brother in law who have opened up their home to us. My heart is heavy for our loss but it is also grateful for the many blessings that have been bestowed upon us in the past few days. I pray that they continue. 

I realized I don't normally blog on the weekends but as I set the date for this post I truly had no idea what the date was let alone what day of the week it was.  

#harveysucks

Hurricane Harvey Sucks

Well it's been a while since I've truly written here and now seems like a good time to clear my head. 

My boys had their first day of school August 21, R1 is a senior and R2 is a 7th grader and one week later we were evacuating for Hurricane Harvey. 

And just a few days later we learned that our house had 7.5 of water. To say that I am devastated in really an understatement. There are truly no words. 

We were finally able to get into our home on Wednesday September 6 to witness the damage first hand. All I can say is it looked like someone filled my home with water and then lifted it off the foundation and shook it up and then set it back down. One of our end tables floated from the livinroom and down the hall and into R2's room. 

We started the process of removing the furniture and carpet but it's long and slow when you only have the four of you as so many other people you know are dealing with the same issue. I hope and pray each day we have more help and this process goes quickly but I as no one comes to help I only get more disheartened. 

Trying to remain positive in this horrible situation is difficult but I'm determined to do so for my kids. 

I'm asking that if you some how find yourself reading this blog, that you pray for us.  Pray the house cleaning and demo go quickly. Pray that God will give us comfort and strength as we take on this task. Pray that we are drawn nearer to Him during this process. And I know it's trivial but please pray that some people come to help. 

Thanks!