Improvising

Nothing like a natural disaster to bring out the creativity hidden inside of us...Katherine is no exception! She has spent the last several months without a bedroom. She sleeps on an air mattress in the living room (not much privacy and certainly not quiet!). She decided a week or so ago that she wanted to make her "bed" up with her new bedding...creature comforts. Last week, she got a little more creative. We had already hooked up a tv and dvd player in there and set it on an end table. She went a step further; she found her satellite receiver and hooked it up. She ran the cables under the wall (no baseboards yet) between the living room and her room and hooked it up to the tv. She didn't feel good this Saturday so she spent most of the day cuddled up in her "bed" in her "bedroom" watching tv! We are working on what we call the office (a guest room) attempting to get it done. We are down to doors, floors and trim in there. (New windows going in today-guys are here removing the old ones). Prayerfully this week it will be done (although we are tiling and haven't done that before), and she can move in there. Ya think she will miss her old room????

Old Friends

Things, situations, and even people sometimes come into our life for just a season. I could not begin to count the number of people I have called friends that no longer share my life! For the longest time I thought being a Christian friend meant sharing the rest of my life here on earth with that friend, but it hasn't worked out that way. Many times someone is right there at the right time for that need at that moment, sometimes my need, sometimes their need. I still build relationships on the premise that they will last forever, and I remain in touch as much as possible, but people come and go, circumstances change, and things...my goodness...what little value they have unless we can share those with someone else!

Once in awhile God restores old frienships. People reappear that we haven't seen in a bit. This past week or so has been one of those amazing weeks. We are so thrilled that Tonia (and Caitlyn) are back in our life, and we are equally thrilled to be sharing in Tami, Bobby, Ms. Carol, and Celeste's lives again. I think we met Tami and Celeste when Katherine was five. Kat and Celeste spent much of their early childhood together. They are young women now attending college, but picked up right where they left off! God is so good!

We are in North Carlina right now. We drove 20 hours towing our Ranger (now Rob's) to Robert. It is pretty sweet that we were able to bring it to him. I finally got to give a vehicle away, all made possible by God's amazing grace expressed through the generosity of my mother and father-in-law! If I had thought and thought and thought, I would never have imagined how the flood would have impacted our life, how we would have changed, or who God would have brought back into our life!

Flood Smart

We are continually researching and looking for ways to protect our home in the future...knowing that we can't prevent a flood, we can't change the elevation of our house, and we don't plan on moving out of the flood plane we live in...so....the best solution is education. We have already learned a lot. Tearing the walls down has given us an insight into how the water got in. Today we have a crawl space guy coming to give us an estimate of cleaning the crawl space and inspecting under the house for water/mold damage. Once that is done, we are installing crawl space fans which will circulate air under the house, keeping the humidity/moisture levels down, and maintaining a regular temperature. In a pier and beam house, maintaining the crawl space is as important as maintaining other features of the house. Roofing guy is coming today too. He is going to give us an estimate on the roof damage so we can repair those leaks before resheetrocking the walls....a busy day!

I am so grateful we have flood insurance....so many people don't. I read an article yesterday about a church in Shreveport that was flooded. They didn't have any insurance. Their congregation is trying to clean up, but without any aid, the cost is phenomenal. Our insurance is paying for our reconstruction, and although it has been slow coming...we know it is there.

Flood Smart
http://www.floodsmart.gov/floodsmart/pages/landing_pages/landing0000_1.jsp?WT.mc_id=FEMA_Google1&WT.srch=1

How Do You Eat an Elephant?

Answer: One bite at a time. That phrase has become my prompt to just keep chipping away, little by little. A procrastinator at heart...learning to break big tasks down into smaller and get over the all or nothing attitude I have has taken some real effort!

It has been a productive last few days. Saturday, Rich and Steve spent hours trying to hang the original shed door in the new shed section. They couldn't get it to work because the door opened out and there was a rise in the concrete. The door kept getting jammed. After hours, they gave it up and threatened to throw that door away! Instead we used it in the shed attic as flooring (LOL...it was a homemade door out of plywood). Steve decided we were back to buying a door which he did, and he and Rich learned how to install an exterior door last night. It looks great. The shed just needs externally panelling now, trim, and water sealant-then we can get some of this stuff out of the house and store it out there!

Next, they headed indoors for the fireplace. Rich was so worried Steve was going to take that down without him! We all donned masks and went to work on it. We weren't sure what we were going to find behind there. What we did find was panelling, a window, a left over curtain hook still mounted on the window, and lots of evidence of rodent activity. Steve and Rich took it down one brick at a time so we could save some of the brick. Doreen and I cleaned mortar off the brick and stacked those up. It isn't completely down yet, but will be by this weekend.

We have a call into a roofer, a contractor, and a plumber. The roof has to be repaired where the chimney is, we need help with windows, and need a plumber to take out the gas line to the fireplace. After that...we are ready to rebuild!

It has been moving so slow, but now that we are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel...I am hopeful life will return to normalcy around here!

Building Walls and Taking Them Down!

Well...we have decided to take the half wall out of the den. It connects the breakfast room with the den and removing it will open up the space. I have mixed emotions about that because I was looking forward to putting a bar there, but opening it will open up this end of the house tremendously. As we are taking down walls in the house, we are adding them outside to the shed. I had always envisioned our shed as a guest house. It is plenty big enough. It has several smaller rooms attached to it which can be our shed storage. Steve decided to enclose an open area which was just wasted space. Last night he framed up that wall, took out a wall between two other areas, and framed a wall to separate the storage end from what will eventually be a closet in the apartment. I decided yesterday that the deck was not going back up where it was. It was too close to the house and gave the rats a haven as they crossed the yard to get under the house. We haven't seen a rodent one since we removed that deck and cleared out the debris from the shed. (Since I have open walls and floors everywhere-no rodents is a really good thing!) This weekend we are going to finish the walls in the shed, finish the mold cleanup in the den and our bedroom, take out the rest of the ceiling and fireplace in the den, and hopefully do some much needed yard work.

I keep thinking about what Shelly, my daughter's new adopted sister (God so provides!), said to me about this whole thing. God brings circumstances into our lives which mirror what is going on or changes that need to be made Spiritually. Her assessment of my life was that there was too much clutter, and there is. I also have struggled with setting boundaries where need be, and letting my guard down in relationships because I don't feel like I can be who I am. I feel like I spend a lot of time walking on eggshells with people, afraid to say what I feel, because they might get offended. I certainly don't want to be an offense to anyone, but I also want freedom in my own life. I know there are alot of walls in my life that need to be erected, and many that need to be torn down! Who I am in Christ makes me valuable as a person, not perfect, but forgiven and ever growing, and I need to be who He wants me to be, not who everyone else expects me to be. That is a wall long overdue for demolition!

Too Much Crime Television

We went right to work on the den when we got home from our wanderings. My brother pulled out most of the panelling while we were gone. Monday night, Steve pulled out the rest of the panelling, drywall, and insulation which was still wet. I went to work on the cleanup. We are using a product by Moldstat which is a peroxide base and enviornmentally safe. It cleans up the mold, kills it and the protects against it. It is a process and takes time. The den had lots of mold in it, so the cleanup is tedious! We hope to have it all done except the fireplace out by this weekend. Then this weekend we will pull the fireplace and see what is back there. Steve pulled up the floor last night and discovered what we are affectionately calling a crop circle! LOL. We thought water had damaged the floor, but to make a perfect circle??? For some reason there is a perfect circle of something in the floor. We couldn't lift it to find out what is under it, but we imagined all sorts of things: some bankrobbers loot, a dead body, an old fire pit, maybe a fountain or sink....we laughed...too much crime/police shows for us!

Team Work

Team efforts...many hands make light work! This weekend we finally started on the house. After quite a few trips to Lowes, Steve and Rich assembled tools and began replacement on the attic stairs. (I so need to go up there and see what needs to be done about all of that stuff up there!) Taylor chipped in this weeknd. He, Kat, and I worked on our master bedroom. Taylor took the sheetrock down on part of the room (he was having way too much fun with the sledge hammer), Kat took down the trim. Funny moment: the baseboards had "Richard room" wrote on the back of them. I showed that to Richard and told him he needed to get hopping remodeling his room! LOL. We are completely remodeling a few of the rooms, the master being the first one to be redone. 3 windows have been sheetrocked over for years in our room-it was so cool to open one of those up. I held my breath, but it really is in good shape, and WOW what a difference a little light makes! We can hardly wait to make the changes in that room. It is prayerfully going to be a serene light filled space. Accomplishments so far: acquired the tools we need, tore apart one of the shed rooms which is being turned into a shop for Steve (one of those projects which has been on the back burner for awhile), emptied the master bedroom, began sheetrock removal, replaced the attic stairs, and began inspection and treatment for mold. Praise God-so far the mold has not been horrific! We do have some, but cleanup so far is very manageable. We are excited about all that is getting done, but it is sure slow progress, and no, you can't save used sheetrock! (Though I tried to figure out if it was possible!). Many many thanks to Taylor, Rich and Doreen for being here. Doreen has been cooking for us nearly day in and day out. We so appreciate her gracious sacrifice too!

Live and Learn

This flood repair is certainly going to be a learning experience! We got our first initial payment from the insurance company. That is such a blessing, because now we can get started. I hope we are ready to get started. I spent a bit of time this morning researching how to treat the studs for mold when we take out the sheetrock. We are still trying to determine the best way to handle the reconstruction process. We have learned that we need a homeowners permit-thanx to my dad for clueing us in on that one. Steve is going today to the city to get the permit we need and ask a host of other questions! We also know that to protect the house from mold infestation, we have to pull the sheetrock and subfloors and let the room dry out. That means we are going to have open spaces for awhile. That scares me a bit. I like wildlife-outside, NOT inside! There isn't a whole lot we can do to prevent the house from flooding again, but we are trying to learn how to rebuild in such a way to prevent extensive damage in the future. Lots of details to chew on!

We are also learning how much everyone seems to live in their own worlds completely unaware of what is going on in other peoples' lives-we do that. My dad was telling me about what he went through when hurricane Hugo went through South Carolina-I had no idea. I have such a clearer picture of how it affects people when they endure these forces of nature. Next time someone experiences something like this, I will be able to empathize with them, and understand how to better minister to their needs. Everyone keeps asking, "What can we do to help? What do you need me to do?" I have had no idea what we need. I don't know how to answer. I know we need help. We need advice. We need people who have dealt with these problems to share what they know. We need people to show up and give moral support. We need people to call just to tell us they are thinking about us. We have needed to know we weren't alone and someone cared. Other than that God knows what we need, and we are trusting in His provision!

Progress

Yep, yep...coming along. Finally found some order around here. We finished cleaning up the kitchen, breakfast room, and bathroom yesterday. That is a relief. I feel like we can live here now! I am going to finish moving clothes out of our room today (all that is left in there except taking the bed down) so we can start demo in that room. I am pretty excited and nervous. We have been reading and researching and pricing-just trying to determine what to do! We have decided on a floor plan in there, taking out a wall, and moving the closet! We have decided to put in wood flooring. We both love wood floors. Now we just have to find it at a reasonable price! A blessing yesterday, we have been pretty solo on this project so I began praying for God to send us the right people and help. We were looking through This Old House magazines yesterday and discovered an issue on Katrina recovery. That helped alot. It gave advice on repair of sheetrock and mold prevention. We are going to try and put some of those ideas to work. We not only want to repair the house but protect it against further damage. We know we live in a flood plane and could be flooded again. The goal is to remodel in such a way that if we flood again, we won't have to remodel! ;)

Demolition

The demolition has begun...yesterday we teamed up and cleaned out the shed. That in itself was a chore. Lots of stuff to be sorted through and thrown out. We were able to save some of the kids's school work which is now laying all over the place drying out. The shed looks a lot larger empty! Then there is the deck...Steve, along with Katherine, my brother Rich, Shawna ( a dear friend), Roque and Alisha took to the deck with sledge hammers, saws, flat bars, and drills. They took down the first part and part of the upper level. It was an interesting thing watching that come down, and Steve and Rich plan out the new deck. We also just about got the kitchen back in order. We have been washing and bleaching everything-but..in the middle of cooking dinner, trying to clear places to sit down and eat, cleaning up from the shed/deck project...I walked into the living room and noticed the couch was wet...really wet. Confused, I looked around and discovered the ceiling was dripping wet and had been leaking on to the couch. It was buckled and about to come down. We pulled all stops and attacked that...turns out something is wrong with the a/c and it is leaking into the ceiling. We cleaned everything up, the ceiling did not collapse, but we have no a/c for the moment and it is hot! Right at that same moment, Doreen (sister-in-law) was heating up the oven to cook and it caught on fire! LOL. Turns out I had dropped a baby shoe inside the oven when I was drying those out, and it caught on fire. Steve, really busy dealing with the ceiling, stopped to put out the fire! All of that happened within a few minutes of each other. It would not have been funny in the least if we didn't have 10 people in the house at that moment, all of us with at least some sense of humor...so instead of tears, we laughed! My Sunday School lesson today finishes up Joseph. I love the last section in Genesis 50:20 where Joseph tells his brothers that "...God meant it unto good..." In all things, even this moment, knowing God has a plan that I may not know or be able to see is comfort and peace. There is much to do, still lots of cleanup and lots of packing to do, and of course the insurance company to deal with, but no matter...God is sovereign. He knows the plans He has for us! Demoloshing/clearing out the clutter will give us more opportunities for a clean start and new growth!

Sweet...

Borrowing from my daughter's vernacular...After a really hard week and a half...through lots of tears, confusion, chaos, and total inability to focus on anything, God comforted my heart. Yesterday, Steve and I were at the Saturn car lot. He had been researching Saturn Auras and thought we needed to look at that car so we were there to do that. I have had a really hard time reading my Bible-one my Bible is somewhere ??? So I have been grabbing a different Bible. Somehow reading a different Bible then my own doesn't feel quite right-then there is the focus problem which keeps me from being able to do anything but look at words. Yesterday, while waiting in Steve's truck for the salesman, I picked up his Military New Testament. In the back of it, there are references to verses for particular problems. I turned to the comfort verse. "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." (2 Cor. 1:3-4). Hearing God speak gave me such comfort. We looked at the Saturn. I was feeling so pressured and had no reasurrance this was the right vehicle. We left that lot and stopped at another one which had had a Sebring convertible I just had to look at. It was sold, so we drifted around the lot looking at other vehicles. The salesman came out; we took a look at a few; nothing struck me. While we were waiting on him for yet the third time to bring keys out, I spotted a red jeep. A jeep had caught my eye on a different lot too. This one had everything I wanted in a vehicle so we sent the salesman for the key, drove it, loved it, knew it was the right one, and bought it...SWEET. I know God led us in the right direction, calmed my fears about choosing the right one, and made it possible for us to buy this one. It was just the punch I needed to get going...not the car...but the reassurance that God is right here with us, the prayers of others are intervening for us when we can't pray for ourselves, and God has a plan even when we don't know what it is! Living in Christ is nothing less than SWEET!

Exhaustion

It has hit...pure exhaustion...the physical and emotional demands are so heavy right now, and I am just tired. I am not getting much done in the way of cleanup at all. Yesterday, Kat and I worked on sorting through paperwork in the shed. Some of it will be salvagable which we are thankful for! It was certainly a dirty job! Steve cleared all the debris from our driveway which helped tremendously. Kat worked diligently on laundry which desperately needs to be put away. We are making slow progress to say the least, which considering we are waiting on funds to come in to begin the big stuff...it isn't all bad. All I know is that with car shopping, working, trying to function in this chaos, and very little restful sleept...this is what exhaustion looks like!

Flooding 101

Flooding 101: Wow, how different it is experiencing a flood as oppossed to what I thought happens in a flood. It has been almost a week since our area experienced an incredible flash flood. Water came down in record amounts in a record amount of time. Before we even had time to consider the possibility of flooding, it was upon us! For about 6 hours we fought with the water pouring into our house and vehicles, attempting to protect anything we considered valuable. We scrambled to grab books, lowlying items, important paperwork, pictures, irreplacable mememtos. We unplugged electronics and got all the electrical items up above the water line, moved cars to higher ground, brought in the animals...a story all in itself. We tried to stop the water, but it was futile. The entire house flooded from every possible angle. Water came in through doors, under the floors and baseboards, in through the ceiling and walls; it even poured in through electrical outlets. There was no stopping it. Every room flooded simultaneously. Now to praise God: My sister was here with Alex, Chris and Taylor were here too which means there were 7 people in the house...God's number for perfect completion. With that number, and all of us thinking differently, much which would have been lost was saved. Everyone went in different directions accomplishing totally different tasks...things which never even entered my mind. Not only did that help with our own property, it allowed us to help many others. In the middle of our chaos, we realized vehicles were being stalled out front and people were stranded. My family scrambled outside to help get people out of cars and to stop more vehicles from stalling. Chris and Taylor went down the road and blocked traffic from coming through while we opened our home (not exactly a dry place at the moment) to families who were stalled. They too helped us salvage material. We formed a line to our attic and passed everything we could get up there to a dryer place. It was a long night and the days that have followed have been just as long, but praise God! All is safe...it is a mess...we took some losses, but much was also gained...somehow God knows just what is important and what is not. In the weeks that follow, when we clean up, throw out and began remodeling (whoo hoo) may God remind me how temporal everything is...and what really matters- His GRACE and His PRESENCE in the midst of every storm! Knowing He is here, even when I don't know where my Bible is...turns out they ended up in the attic. The only Bible I could find was one of Robert's from his childhood which was left up on a shelf in our office. (Really glad I put that there). He is here when the world is swirling around us and kneeling to pray is impossible. He is here when we have been up for two days and can't begin to find clothes, get showers and get to church. He is ALWAYS here. My heart hurts for those around me that are going through the same storm, but without His reassuring presence. We have already experienced a small measure of who God is in providing for us...we have been given coupons to eat out every day...we have had food. The insurance agents have already been here and been so gracious, so willing to help us. We will have our first round of insurance payments this week. Our needs are great, but God is greater! Thank you, Lord!