Blessings

From the moment we walked through the floodwaters to get into the johnboat to leave our house that rainy night, the blessings to us were apparent. We were alive and healthy. Most of our pets made it out alive. Granted, as I looked back at our flooded house and garage, I was heartbroken. This had been home for 28 years. Both our kids grew up here. One of our dogs just drowned. Now, as Jennifer, Allison, and I held what few belongings we could carry with us, along with the three cats and our lone surviving dog, Bella, the trauma was more than what blessings we could see at the moment. Once we arrived at the neighbor’s house, where they offered us shelter, our long journey of recovery began. The old and familiar was literally washed away.

I went out again to help rescue some neighbors, but was back soon due to exhaustion. I went through what we left the house with to inventory our belongings. As I pulled a stack of books out of a backpack, I noticed all but one were soaked through and through. The one book was dry as a bone and looked like it had not even been in a high-humidity area; it was the Bible. This was a sign to me that all was OK. Even though everything around us was chaos, it was really under control through our Faith in Christ.

As I reflect six months later, we stayed at six different places where we were invited, pets and all. In some places, we stayed for a few hours; in others, for a couple of months. We are grateful for each place we were welcomed.
We had a lot of people reach out to us to help with the house, take and wash the clothes we could salvage, and keep the paintings for us. Others reached out, asked what we needed, and provided us with money, clothes, and everyday needs like toothbrushes/paste, shampoo, etc. Every bit of that was a true blessing, and I know God will bless everyone who stepped up for us.

Our insurance was good to us. I had called to report the flood claim before we evacuated. During the conversation, they asked me how deep the water was. I responded that it was ankle-deep when I called, but it was now waist-deep. The insurance person told us to call back because we needed to leave our house immediately. By calling in that early, we were at the top of the list to get adjusters out to us. The adjusters gave us all but a small amount of our full policy. Since we had our full amount due us from our insurance, we were able to hire a contractor to start rebuilding the house. We were able to get a jump on most people who were rebuilding their houses.

During this time after the flood, I kept people updated on our recovery on social media, and along the way, they reached out to help in their own way. I even had some of the parts for my car project restored for free. What a cool blessing that was for me!

Today we are living in our house, whose interior is complete. The outside still needs work, and the garage is a work in progress. Last week, we had several boxes delivered, and when I opened them, they were garage tools bought for me, with no sign of who bought them. I am extremely blessed that someone would go out of their way to do this for me. May God richly bless them!

Recently, I was interviewed by Fox26 TV in Houston. I summed up that interview with “…..People helping people, strangers helping strangers. It is all good! The Blessings among the tragedy.”