Parenting Single

Ladies and Gentlemen

I wanted to update everyone and say thank you sooooo very much for your prayers and concerns for our safety here in Houston, Tx.  Thanks to Liz especially for keeping tabs on me...it helped so much to have phone calls from friends and family...even if it was just voicemails due to irregular signals and what not...

I was pretty much at peace about the whole thing because I knew who was in control.  My son, however, had never experienced a Hurricane or anything like it before, so I pretty much focused on him, for the most part...we went and got some food and supplies and a few fun things to do (board games) while we sat and waited for the oncoming storm.  The worst part of the storm did not actually reach us till about 3 am.  We were sort of asleep in my walk in closet. It seemed like the sounds of the wind and rain were magnified in there.  I was up and down all morning checking outside...eerie colors and sounds made my heart beat fast, so I went back to check on my son, who thankfully was sound asleep.   The next day and evening was rain, rain, rain and lots of thunder.  It made my building shake.  Spent the day Saturday playing ‘Sorry’, ‘Battleship’, ‘Pirates of the Carribean Life’ (very interesting game-Ahoy matey!) and sleeping, good to catch up on rest.

Went out a little Sunday morning to just look around, was like driving through a damaged ghost town.  Trees on houses, power-lines down, stop lights hanging down to the ground, limbs and debris all over the roads, broken glass and very few people on the road.  Everything was noticed by my son.

Sunday night was my first full nights sleep as I was staying at a friend’s house because we had no power since Saturday very early am.  My son and I live in an apartment and the whole area was without power including stores, gas stations and restaurants.  I took my food from the freezer to my friend’s house so it would not spoil; her mother brought her food over so it would not spoil.  We had so much food, almost felt guilty.  We cooked for 6 and it felt good to feel somewhat normal.

Her mother and I have been friends for a long time; we met at our church years ago.  We have been involved with many ministries and projects together and now we were hanging out, keeping each other company.  Taking care of our families.

I am now back in my house…power and water came on in my apartment complex Monday evening which was a great relief.  I returned to work today for which I was very grateful to be able to get out of my home.  The place where I work was damaged and we could not return until they finished their repairs. I am sure you have seen some of the damage to the office buildings in Houston and ours was dealing with the same. 

Our ability to get out and about has also been impacted by the gas shortages. Many have had to wait up to two or three hours to get gas.  I got out first thing yesterday to make sure I had a full tank to go back to work…I waited 20 minutes.  God was merciful!

It was very disconcerting being disconnected from the world.  Not knowing exactly what was going on around me.  Not having a television with the choice of many different news channels reporting important information.  With limited radio access I felt cut off to some extent.  The phone calls from friends and family offered some info, being more comforting than informative.

My laptop crashed the day before the storm and was in the shop to be repaired so I did not even have that… Monday evening was the first day that I was able to see the news stories about Galveston and Houston so it is rather surreal to know there is so much devastation just on the other side of the c