A New Home, Part 1
Well, on September 11, we closed on our little house in the woods. And on September 13, Hurricane Ike made landfall and then progressed north doing lots of damage. We stayed in our apartment for the storm, since we didn't have time to get moved into the house in two days. There was a very large oak tree catty corner from the back of the house that we knew was likely to come down, but we weren't able to cut it down before the hurricane. I prayed and prayed for the Lord to protect our little house.
Meanwhile, in Conroe, in preparation for the storm, my loving man searched diligently to find a place to park our car where it would be out of danger of falling trees or fences. He found a place, actually at an apartment building across the street from us, where not a tree was anywhere near the parking lot. So we felt safe about the car and holed up in our apartment with all of our supplies and waited for the storm. The worst of Ike made it to Conroe sometime while we were sleeping. Our building suffered no visible damage, though there were lots of limbs down, and a large part of the fence separating our complex from a neighbor's back yard was down. In the morning, when the weather cleared enough, James got up and went to check on the car. The saddest thing had happened. A limb on a tree on the other side of the building had broken, blown over the building, slid down the roof, and crashed directly into the hood and windshield of our vehicle, shattering but not breaking through the windshield on the driver's side, and causing a big dent in the hood. No other vehicle in that lot suffered any damage.
So, James removed the limb, got in the car, started it with some trouble, and moved it back across the street to our complex and parked it in the place it had originally been parked, where no trees had fallen, and where the car ceased to run.
So, the storm has cleared, and of course we have no power, and we're very concerned about our new purchase, but we have no transportation to go and check on our investment. This is ridiculous! And of course, as neither we nor anyone else seemed to have expected, our cell phones stopped working late morning on Saturday.
We bided our time waiting for businesses to open, visited with friends Meredith and Jeremy, who came and visited almost every afternoon, which was nice for breaking the monotony.
On Monday, we walked to a pay phone and called James dad to ask him to go and check on the house. He said he already had, and that it looked fine.
On Tuesday, the auto parts store near our house reopened on a generator, and on Wednesday, we were packed and off to our house, with the little supplies we had. Thursday, of course, was to be my birthday, Friday, our 10th wedding anniversary, and Saturday, James' birthday. We had planned for months that a home of our own would be our gift to each other this year, and we were blessed to get to spend those days in our house, even if it was bare.
Upon arriving at our house, we found a very different-looking yard. SO many limbs had fallen! But also, i saw the hand of God answering my prayers. The big oak we were concerned about did fall, but fell parallel to the back of our house. Other, smaller trees, all fell away from the house. Nothing even fell on the power line. Nothing. Thank you Jesus!
Then, the most wonderful thing happened, at about 8:15 Wednesday evening, the power came on at our house. So we had a bare floor, an air mattress to sleep on, and air conditioning. I got to wake up in my own home on my birthday, which is what i really wanted, and we spent all three days in our house. By the third day, however, the discomfort of the air mattress had worn us in, and we returned to Conroe to sleep on a real mattress.
I tried to post pictures with this entry, but since i am working from a dial-up connection right now, that is proving slow and difficult. =)
Meanwhile, in Conroe, in preparation for the storm, my loving man searched diligently to find a place to park our car where it would be out of danger of falling trees or fences. He found a place, actually at an apartment building across the street from us, where not a tree was anywhere near the parking lot. So we felt safe about the car and holed up in our apartment with all of our supplies and waited for the storm. The worst of Ike made it to Conroe sometime while we were sleeping. Our building suffered no visible damage, though there were lots of limbs down, and a large part of the fence separating our complex from a neighbor's back yard was down. In the morning, when the weather cleared enough, James got up and went to check on the car. The saddest thing had happened. A limb on a tree on the other side of the building had broken, blown over the building, slid down the roof, and crashed directly into the hood and windshield of our vehicle, shattering but not breaking through the windshield on the driver's side, and causing a big dent in the hood. No other vehicle in that lot suffered any damage.
So, James removed the limb, got in the car, started it with some trouble, and moved it back across the street to our complex and parked it in the place it had originally been parked, where no trees had fallen, and where the car ceased to run.
So, the storm has cleared, and of course we have no power, and we're very concerned about our new purchase, but we have no transportation to go and check on our investment. This is ridiculous! And of course, as neither we nor anyone else seemed to have expected, our cell phones stopped working late morning on Saturday.
We bided our time waiting for businesses to open, visited with friends Meredith and Jeremy, who came and visited almost every afternoon, which was nice for breaking the monotony.
On Monday, we walked to a pay phone and called James dad to ask him to go and check on the house. He said he already had, and that it looked fine.
On Tuesday, the auto parts store near our house reopened on a generator, and on Wednesday, we were packed and off to our house, with the little supplies we had. Thursday, of course, was to be my birthday, Friday, our 10th wedding anniversary, and Saturday, James' birthday. We had planned for months that a home of our own would be our gift to each other this year, and we were blessed to get to spend those days in our house, even if it was bare.
Upon arriving at our house, we found a very different-looking yard. SO many limbs had fallen! But also, i saw the hand of God answering my prayers. The big oak we were concerned about did fall, but fell parallel to the back of our house. Other, smaller trees, all fell away from the house. Nothing even fell on the power line. Nothing. Thank you Jesus!
Then, the most wonderful thing happened, at about 8:15 Wednesday evening, the power came on at our house. So we had a bare floor, an air mattress to sleep on, and air conditioning. I got to wake up in my own home on my birthday, which is what i really wanted, and we spent all three days in our house. By the third day, however, the discomfort of the air mattress had worn us in, and we returned to Conroe to sleep on a real mattress.
I tried to post pictures with this entry, but since i am working from a dial-up connection right now, that is proving slow and difficult. =)
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