He can settle any sea / But it doesn't mean He will It's amazing how life can be so crazy that you can barely stand it, and are stressing about every little thing... and one more thing happens (like, say, you have to evacuate the city because you're pregnant and they locked the freakin' hospital doors)... and suddenly, for some reason, everything is ok. I mean, everything is on its head, but suddenly I'm ok with it.
So here's what happened. My dad was in the hospital, I was stressing about going home, and then my Granny broke her hip and went into the hospital. I was pretty stressed about everything, and just barely managing to hold it together. About an hour after I heard about my Granny (this was Wednesday night)... They announced the evacuation orders for my county, excluding Pearland itself. After some looking, I found out that our "voluntary" evacuation for Ike meant (among other things) that the hospitals were locking their doors. So, Chad and I decided to leave, with no great idea where we were going to go. I slept that night, drove to my office to grab my computer, and spent the rest of the day trying to help Chad get the house ready to leave. We left about 5pm, after boarding most of the windows, and packing the animals, our photos, and enough clothes to last us through Sunday.
Monitoring the traffic leaving Houston, everything to the north and west was close to gridlocked. So... we headed east down I-10. Other than two pretty serious traffic jams due to accidents (slowing us an hour each time), the traffic wasn't that bad at all. Although it was extremely difficult to find a drive through place that wasn't closed and boarded up.
We started looking for a hotel room in Baton Rouge, which was a lost cause, really. We headed north up I-55, and when we got to Jackson without finding a hotel, we gave up. Chad and I took turns driving and sleeping, and we made it into Southaven about 6am on Friday morning. Crazy stuff.
Friday, we slept a little, ate Abner's, then went to the hospital so that some people Chad's mom works with could give me an ultrasound, which was awesome. They did both 2d and 3d ultrasounds, and got some great pictures of the little one moving about, sucking its thumb, and being difficult by covering its face. It was really cool, and made the trip pretty worthwhile.
Saturday, we got up early and drive to Huntsville, and visited both my Dad and my Granny. We had a good visit, and Daddy seem to be doing a little better. He's walking without a cane, and he was really glad to see us (and the baby). That night, we headed back to Southaven, intending to leave for home in the morning. But once we arrive in Southaven, we discovered that we could not go home. I-10 was blocked in places, and the authorities told us to stay where we were. We knew Pearland was hit kind of hard (friends lost a great deal of their roof), but that our house was at least intact, and not leaking through the roof.
So we sat back and tried to enjoy the "vacation". Each day, we made plans to come home the next day... but between the roads and the authorities, we didn't get to come home until Thursday. I ended up working remotely some, to keep from getting to far behind, but JSC was closed the entire week.
When we got home, we saw first hand how our house fared... we lost our fence (half the neighborhood did as well), and our shed (with the grill and everything in it), and (we discovered later) a little water got in around the windows on the back of the house. This may mean replacing all the windows and the back door, and replacing all or part of the drywall/insulation in the bedroom (and maybe part of the carpet). But overall, we didn't fare too bad. We have power, water, and gas, so we're all good. We even have groceries at the store, finally.
Traffic, however, sucks. My 45 minute commute has morphed into a 2 hour commute. But since that's my biggest complaint, besides finding contractors to fix the house, I can totally survive.
And I'm far less stressed about everything else, and more centered, which makes entirely no logical sense. But I'm enjoying it, while it lasts. :-)
Sometimes He calms the storm With a whispered peace be still He can settle any sea But it doesn't mean He will Sometimes He holds us close And lets the wind and waves go wild Sometimes He calms the storm And other times He calms His child ~Sometimes He Calms the Storm, Scott Krippayne
Holy crap, you were in Jackson looking for a place to stay and all you needed was my phone number? I totally had a space for you.
I am glad to hear you made out well.
# posted by Willer : Friday, September 26, 2008 2:26:00 AM
you know everything will work out.
the commute is bad for me as well after the storm. yours should ease up a little once the tolls are re-instated on the beltway.
# posted by Kat : Friday, September 26, 2008 4:45:00 PM
Goodness - that makes me tired just thinking about all that. I'm glad you were able to get the ultrasound while you were evacuated - I know that made you feel loads better knowing that the little one was doing good!! I hope your family is on the mend and doing well. And that you don't have to stress too much about the repairs... Do you have an updated picture of your tummy progress!! I miss you lots. KIT - your friend, Laura McFarland
# posted by Anonymous : Saturday, October 04, 2008 5:01:00 PM
Well HOWDY NEIGHBOR! YOu lucky duck. You got your power back on way before we did. Ours finally came back on the 22nd.
How neat that you got to have a 3-d U.s.! I'm with Laura in wanting to see them.
That song is my absolute favorite of all time. It speaks so much about the way God works. I'm glad you have been able to find peace through all of this and I pray your family is doing well now.
# posted by Damama T : Sunday, October 05, 2008 9:51:00 PM
This is my brain..... in part, at least.
: Friday, September 26, 2008 4:45:00 PM
