Gustav and Ike

The Friday before Gustav hit, my family was eating lunch and planning and after-nap departure for Mississippi. God shined down on me with a phone call from Robin Cook who asked what I was going to do about the storm. I said that after living through Katrina without power for 5 days, as soon as I lost power from Gustav, I was heading to Texas this time.
She said, “Are you kidding me?”
I said, “No, I’m not sticking around with three small children with no air conditioner.”
She said, “No, I mean are you kidding me that you are going to wait until you lose power? You have to leave now. You can’t wait.”

I talked with Doug, and five hours later, I was headed to my mom’s house. Doug decided to stay here and still visit our friends in Mississippi and ride out the storm either there or in Baton Rouge. The next day, when he saw the storm headed straight for Baton Rouge, he packed up most of our freezer in an ice chest, battened down the hatches, and he headed to Texas, as well. It just took him FIVE more hours on the road than it took me the day before.

It was weird to be somewhere where everyone was going about their lives as if things were normal. I was screaming inside, “Don’t you care that Baton Rouge is getting pummeled and all my friends and my house are under greats about of stress?!”

Several incredible people, (Mike, Tommy, Rick, and Stefanie) drove by our house to report on our damage…None. We returned a week after the storm to clean out our fridges and deep freeze and check everything out. Thankfully, we went without kids, because power still had not been restored. The wind only created some minor problems around the house that Doug was able to fix in a few hours. My heart was so heavy as I drove around seeing trees in houses, but it was lightened to see the thousands of workers around the city helping where they could.

After cleaning up our house in Baton Rouge and having our power come on while we were there, we returned toTexas to get the kids. The next day when we were thinking about returning to Baton Rouge again, Dad wanted help boarding up the house and getting the outside ready for Ike. Doug was doing things my dad shouldn't be doing - which is good. By the next day, the traffic from evacuation was so bad, we couldn't return, so we rode it out in
Yoakum. We finally got back home yesterday (Thursday after Ike) after I-10 was cleared.

Friday night, Doug was praying and he said, “God, I don’t want to test you, but I know if it is your will, you could have someone knock on our door tomorrow and make us on offer on our house.” In my mind, I’m thinking, “Doug surely is bold. No one has even looked at or called about our house.”

Wouldn’t you know, Saturday after lunch, the doorbell rang, and it was an 82 year old man who was looking for a house because a tree was inside his. He loved the house, and told Doug he could offer us a little less than we were asking, but he could pay cash.

I don’t know if we will ever see him again (he may find another abode), but I do know I’m going to try to be more specific in my prayer requests. Isn’t God amazing!!!