Yes, I have an excuse and his name is Harvey. I meant to be back here sharing inspiration and projects at the beginning of September, but instead we had this storm and life has been shaken and stirred quite a bit more than usual.
All will be fine. As I write this, we are in between a friend’s parents’ vacant apartment, a new apartment we have not slept in yet, and the room over the garage where we rode out the storm. In a couple of days, we will be in only the new apartment and all our things will be accounted for. I’m rather tired of looking for insurance papers or clothes that are in between the 3 places and our cars.
The community has been absolutely amazing. At times I swear all we had to do was think that we wanted or needed something and it showed up. I will share more about how incredible the Houston community, our school community, and our friends from near and far have been. It’s absolutely amazing. I included below the Facebook post I wrote about a week afterwards, just to share my thoughts with you.
What I want to share here is that life for us will develop a new normal in a few days. We will collect our kitties, who have been enjoying an extended stay with friends. SG’s school will begin in a new location in 2 weeks. Her school was destroyed… if you’d care to help, we need a lot of it. This is one fundraising avenue:
Everything inside had to go… office files, books, tables, chairs, rugs, teacher supplies, art supplies, computers, lab equipment, everything down to the last stray pencil is gone.
Teachers, students and faculty will be using an extra building at another campus for the entire year while the repairs to our beloved school are ready for students in the fall of 2018. School start has been delayed a month while teachers, families and countless volunteers cobble together a makeshift school to have a productive learning environment for all of our children. This is just one way to help.
And here’s a few shots of what our house looks like today. It will be back better than ever, fear not.
Front yard
Kitchen
Water coming inside
Master bedroom
Finally, thank you so much to those of you who have reached out to me, proving that blogland really is a very small world. xoxo
Naomi, I’m so sorry! In my head I have all those photos of the work you did on your house and now this… I will be thinking of you and sending energy, and looking forward to new photos and words of recovery and all the good things that will spring from that. Yes, jumbo hug.
cynthia newberry martin recently posted…How We Spend Our Days: Kai Carlson-Wee and Anders Carlson-Wee
Thank you so much… I can feel your love. I’m already creating room books on Houzz for the next phase!
Dear Cuz. My heart is with you. As always I am inspired by you. Your strength and resilience are palpable. Gratitude is a strong healer. And you have that in spades. Love you three to the moon and back. Lori
Love YOU! Resilience is a perfect word for a situation like this.
When I think of you, I think of your house. How you created this home and then how you added more color and atmosphere after you’d lived there a bit more. Your family and home grew together. Knowing this leaves me absolutely certain that all will rise again and you’ll be back together stronger than before. You just need time. I am delighted to read about the support you’ve received. I am so very sorry that this has happened to you and your family. So very sorry. Sending you a jumbo hug.
Kelly L McKenzie recently posted…How Our 94 Year-Old Spent The Summer
Thank you, Kelly. It all was a labor of love and it’s disheartening to feel that all that effort and time was lost. But… there’s always a flip side, right? Everything we were wanting to achieve (more light, conversation spaces, etc) we will design into a new home. 🙂
I can clearly see exactly how high the water got. I am so glad you had that room above the garage! I am grateful that you still have vehicles. You must have parked them someplace a little higher to keep them running. I am so sorry your lovely home suffered so much damage!! I have a very small idea how hard you worked on making it look so nice before. Our house isn’t nearly so perfect, but it is home, and I love it very much. Nothing else really can compare to your very own home. At least you have not lost the lot, the foundation, and much of the structure. I appreciate you telling us on Facebook how things were. I couldn’t help but worry, although I knew you would make good decisions, the situation was scary!
Our garage had about 6″ but it never rose up to the bottom of the cars, thank goodness. It was a good thing we’d just done that new construction or we would have been in trouble. It’s true, that sense of home and routine and having a place that belongs to you is very important to feeling safe and secure. I’ll have to rebuild that. We’d be on our way to Colorado except for the fact that my family is here and we want our daughter to have some sense of routine… same school, cousins to play with, etc. 🙂