Back Home...sort of

We are back home! Sort of... we are staying at my parents for a few days until we get our house settled. So still no photos! SORRY! :)

We got back on Saturday night. Sunday after church several guys from church came over and tore down two walls of our bedroom and about half of the ceiling, bundled the 2 downed fences and tarped the roof. And when I say, tore down, I mean that you can see the stud walls. Thank you Jeremy, Daesha, Jacob, Charisa, Jay, Jayson, Pat and Troy! We are SO incredibly thankful to our friends! Jeremy and Daesha practically worked their little fingers off bundling limbs at all three houses. Pat came back yesterday and finished patching our roof.

So now we are just waiting on the smell to go away and the rest of our stuff to get settled into a new spot and then we can move back into our house. Hopefully within a week... we'll see.

The few weeks weeks look different for us...Ladies Class is on a break for a few weeks. Sunday School is on abreak because the carpet in the classrooms is wet. Jason is handling claims like a mad man. We will not get to see as much of him as normal...but that's the nature of his job and it is OK. We will get more snuggles from Granna and GPop since we are staying with them. And my Weight Watchers attempts (which was SHOT over the last week) are starting up again.

Thank you for all of your prayers, kind words and helping hands. It could have been SO much worse and we are so incredibly thankful to our loving God for all his blessings on our family!

An Ike Update...

We are still in DFW... at least for another day or two. Jason was able to get back to our house last night and our SUPER friends, Jeremy and Daesha, helped him clean up our bedroom and fridge. And yes, bless all of their noses!!! A freezer full of meat mixed with wet carpet and dry wall CANNOT be a good combination. So they got our bedroom down to the concrete and walls. Jason took pics of the damage and the bare room - they will be coming soon.

At times like this you really see people's true colors. We have been showered with love and help - even when we are not there! The blog comments, emails to check in, text messages and phone calls have lifted our spirits. And I will speak for all of us refugees - THANK YOU for making us see a bright spot in the middle of disaster. Knowing that our friends are praying makes this seem not so bad. And let me also say that true friends are worth far, far, far more than silver or gold.

As I have been going through this hurricane mess first hand, I have had some connections to the Bible. As I listened to Daesha talk about the wind and the rain and the water rising, it made me think of the people in Noah's time when the storm hit. They had to have been so scared. However, they did not know God. And as Daesha was talking, even though she was scared, she knew that God was going to protect them and a sense of peace came over her with that reassurance.

This experience has also made me think about heaven. We have been to worship service 3 times now where we are staying. The congregation is about 65 people and they have opened their arms to our family. It warms my heart to think that this is how God intended it to be... believers loving believers - even though they do not know each other.

And being away from our friends and church family has also made me think of heaven and that one day we will all be re-united. When Lacie moved, our little circle of friends decided to drink the cup from the center circle of the communion tray to remind ourselves of the lessons we have learned together through the years of studying the Bible. It also is a warm fuzzy that 6 of my closest friends are drinking the same cup, praying to the same God and serving the same Master. Usually 6 of us are in the same auditorium on Sundays, but this week, 7 of us were in 7 different places. Taking communion this week, made me think about our brothers scattered all over and that we are still one in the bond of Christ.

The damage to our house was minimal compared to so many. We have already heard of 2 long-time friends who lost everything to 4 feet of water in their houses. But a house is a house. Even though the damage hurts and makes us so incredibly sad, it is just stuff. God protected our lives from this storm... which also reminded me that He will protect us through the storms of life.

So if you have read all of my ramblings, thank you!!! Hopefully my next post will have some photos. I'm not sure how to do that on my in-laws computer.

Damage Assessment #1

We made it to DFW safely on Thursday and have been enjoying some extra time with Jason's folks and brother's family. Our dear friends, Jeremy and Daesha, weathered the storm and gave us initial damage reports on Sunday. Jason left DFW on Friday morning to go to San Antonio as part of the catastrophy team for the insurance company that he works for. Today he was sent to Houston to assess the damage to their insureds and he was able to go inside our house and look around. I always try to look on the bright side and count my blessings, so I will try to remember our abundant blessings as I tell you about our damage due to Ike.

1. We are blessed that the pine tree out front did not fall into our living room.
2. We are blessed that there is only one hole in our roof.
3. We are blessed that the hole is about a 1 1/2 foot square where the twirly vent used to be. The twirly vent is currently in our front yard.
4. We are blessed that a lot of shingles are off the roof and we get the new roof that we have needed since we bought the house 5 years ago.
5. We are blessed because 2 of our fences are laying on the ground, but did not fly off and break any windows.
6. We are blessed that the third fence is only leaning and did no damage.
7. We are blessed because the kitchen, den, dining room, nursery, teacher room and guest room had NO damage, even though some of the boards were blown off the windows.
8. We are blessed that the ceiling collasped only in our bedroom - destroying our mattress, bedding, night stand and bookshelf.
9. We are blessed that we left our house because the ceiling could have fallen on us while sleeping and that would have been terrible.
10. We are thankful that the pictures were all off the walls and that we took all the scrapbooks with us because the destroyed bookshelves used to be the home for them.
11. We are blessed that we have in-laws that love us and are the epitome of hospitable to our displaced family.
12. We are blessed that mom and dad only sustained broken limbs and plant debris.
13. We are blessed that Granny and Popa's house only has a fence down.
14. We are blessed that the church building had NO damage, even when the funeral home next door burned to the ground.
15. We are blessed that our loving God protected our family and friends during the storm. God is so wonderful!

I'll post pics once Jason emails them to me of the inside of our house. Check out Daesha's blog for pics before and after the storm of her house, ours and others from church. Her name is in my sidebar. I'm emotionally spent and exhasted. Thank you blog world for your prayers. They have been answered and we feel so blessed that in the big picture, our damage was very small.

On the road...

So that crazy Hurricane Ike looks to be headed a little too close to home for us, so we are packing up our life and heading to DFW to spend a few days with Jason's family. And we I say "we" I mean all 8 of us...Jason, Kim, Jacob, Rylan, my parents and my grandparents. We are hoping to miss the rush - which we did NOT do when we left for Hurricane Rita. So blog world, this blessed momma will be out of touch for a few days. Please be praying for everyone in the path of Ike!!

And a thought to ponder... look around your house and think "What material possessions could I never see again and be OK with?" That is what I am doing right now... And I have decided we have too much stuff! But rest assured, ALL of the scrapbooks will be heading north with us! :)

Hot Stuff!

The boys got their first "shades" this summer from the Summer Reading Club. They think they are HOT STUFF every time they wear them! As soon as we get in the car I hear a chorus of "sunglasses... I NEED sunglasses...Mommy sunglasses... Daddy sunglasses...Granna sunglasses...MY sunglasses"

Hot Stuff!

Wild About God's Word

For the last three summers, our church has had a program to read a portion of scripture each day throughout the summer. The first year we read the whole New Testament, last year we read Psalms and Proverbs and this summer we read the 4 gospels. There were two new twists for this summer. First we opened the program up to the community. We had about a dozen families join us and about 4 of them completed all of the reading. What a blessing!!! The other twist was having a Bible Power Hour each Monday morning. We met for one hour and had lots of singing, a Bible Story, puppet show, craft, light snack and the kids could get their prizes. For every 15 chapters, you reached the next level and got a prize.

Last Sunday night after services we had our Awards Program. All 117 kids that participated got a certificate and the 55 that completed all 4 Gospels also got a medal. Come next summer if your church is interested, let me know and I'll send you our stuff. It has been a WONDERFUL experience each summer!!! And the Bible Power Hour this summer was truly great!

Rylan and Jacob completed all 4 gospels! Each morning right after breakfast we had our family devotional. Jason would read the selected verses and then we would pray. SO far, we have been able to continue our routine. I encourage each of you who hold the Word of God dear to your heart to do this with your kids. If two 2 year olds can do it, so can yours! :)

These are the boys certificates and medals...And at the ceremony, we went up with them to get their medals. This is Rylan getting his certificate from GPop, one of our elders, and his medal from RB, our preacher.
And Jacob was just a few steps behind Rylan!
Luckily their sweet friend, Annelise, helped keep them on stage while the other kids were called to the front. She had a neck hold on them that made us all chuckle! And during the closing prayer, she even covered their eyes! It took every ounce of self-control not to take a photo during the prayer! hahaha
This is most of the kids. I was too close to get the whole stage, but you get the picture. LOTS of kids being exposed to the Word of God. Whether you read one chapter of all of them, your life was enriched by reading the Bible with your family.
Our little family! We are so proud of Rylan and Jacob for learning more about God this summer.