Surviving Ike

It has been an emotionally and physically draining past week. Last Thursday we got up to go to work to hear on the news that we were in a mandatory evacuation zone for Hurricane Ike and they expected our area to have a storm surge of up to 25ft and they wanted us to start evacuating by noon that day. Needless to say we didn't go into work that day but instead worked tirelessly preparing our house for the storm. Jay worked outside all day boarding up the windows, putting up patio furniture, and securing anything loose that could become a projectile. I worked inside all day getting everything up off of the ground and somewhere higher in case of flooding, went to the grocery store, packed our bags and packed the car. We pretty much took our house apart trying to protect what we could. I probably way over did it and lifted heavier things than I should have. I was aching all the next two days but am better now. Finally about 4pm we were on the road...evacuating to Sugar Land. We knew the storm would hit hard there too but at least we were out of the storm surge. Friday morning we woke up and the media was saying that if you were in a mandatory evacuation zone they didn't expect you to have a home to return to. I guess they were just trying to prepare people for worst case scenario and get people to leave for their safety. But it freaked me out! So....my parents and Jay and I went back to our house as fast as we could and packed up all the baby stuff that we could and got my car that we had originally left at home. Then we just kept praying...hard! We "hunkered down" at my parents during the storm that night and I thought it was pretty creepy, I was a little hypervigilant at different points. I think it was cause I am pregnant and extra protective right now. We lost power at my parents early in the night but thankfully it came back on by 5pm the next evening. We are so blessed! I was beginning to wonder how I was going to handle weeks of no air conditioning while being 9 mos pregnant! And the mosquitos were already attacking me...if you know me well you know how allergic I am...it's an issue. When we could go outside after the storm it was crazy looking. Fences down everywhere, tree limbs everywhere, huge trees snapped in half lying across streets and ripping up sidewalks because of being pulled out by their roots, lots of roof damage, just more destruction than I would have imagined would happen out in Sugar Land. We were eventually able to get through to some neighbors of ours in Clear Lake who told us the blessed news that our street didn't even flood, our roof had no damage, and all the boards on our windows stayed on. Then Sunday we drove down there to check it out for ourselves. The house was completely unscathed...God is so merciful! Our fence is down in several places and will probably just need to be totally replaced, it was really old. Our transformer is on the ground in our back yard. We had a Martin bird house in the back that was knocked down, the metal pole was completely bent over at the ground. And our pine tree in the front was basically stripped down to a pole, the limbs are pretty much no more. Many houses in our neighborhood had windows blown out, water in their houses front leakage where shingles were ripped off the roof etc. We feel so blessed and once again are truly humbled by God's mercy and faithfulness to us. We are still staying in SugarLand with my parents because we have no idea when we will get our power back. Being that the transformer is on the ground, they can't just fix our power remotely and will have to actually send a truck out to repair the damage. Who knows when that will happen?! Hopefully before Josiah is born! Pray for us please! =) I have not been able to return to work yet and we don't know when we will be able to either, still no power at our building. Jay went in for a few hours today but can't really do anything until businesses in his territory are back up and running. So we are just in limbo for now. We are praising God for a place to stay with power and for sparing our house from damage and keeping us safe. We are devastated at the loss and destruction in Galveston. It was kind of a sanctuary place for Jay and an escape for both of us. And we really grieve for the people down there. They are all in our prayers and heavy on our hearts.