Picture update

Benjamin can sit up by himself now!! He's 6 months this week - CAN'T BELIEVE IT!

The girls at the beach! (obviously not Galveston) :)

Benjamin's first haircut. His hair makes a great mohawk! We decided not to paint it blue!

Benjamin in his borrowed car! One of the girls in my mom's Bible study was so kind to let us borrow this while we were evacuated in Dallas.

Some of the neighborhood girls. The girls on each side of Katelynn are in her class at school.

The kids and Hunter. Our friends spent the night because they still didn't have power.

Ike Aftermath

Life is slowly getting back to normal in Houston. Gas is a little more plentiful (and the price is falling again), perishables are found in the grocery stores, and schools began to open this week. It's been a bit weird around here, but a relaxing week and a half off from life.(for the most part)

Being in Dallas as an evacuee, you kind of forget that things aren't normal at home. The first signs of worry were when the signs on the highway were telling me not to travel to Houston or Beaumont, for lack of fuel and food. Tim had come home the day we got electricity, which was Tuesday for us, and I was following on Thursday. Our water came on a few days prior, so we were pretty set as far as living, as long as we had enough gas to get there, and back out again if needed. We hauled fuel, food and ice in with us. Driving in to town was surreal. It was so still, dark, dead, everything a mess, and it was the middle of the day. Trees were everywhere, along with debris. Roofs and signs strewn across the road or into houses and other buildings. The power continued to flicker and the water still goes off every once in a while, long enough to scare us, and then returns. Some of the stores are still not open, some are running off of generators. Target only had half of their lights on yesterday, the camping aisle was empty, only 5 bottles of bug spray and not one case of Coke!

The really amazing thing about this whole disaster is that it's brought us all out of our houses and into the streets. We've spent more time with neighbors in the past week than we have our whole time living here, and even shared water, food, supplies, and pool water to flush the toilet! Our neighbor behind us (who I asked you to pray for earlier) came over and raked our whole front yard before we even got home! The sense of community has been amazing!

So, back to life we go. Tim started back to work today and Katelynn starts school again on Wednesday. As we go back into our daily routine that we already had, our prayer is that the sense of community will remain. It's been so refreshing to have those friendships and to have someone to walk alongside in life as neighbors. Our society is so closed to each other and this has been a natural disaster that has caused us to all come out of our shells and support and help each other when it's needed the most.

These are some pictures of our yard, the front already cleaned up by our neighbor!

This is our shed that kept the garden tools and equipment. It literally looked like someone threw a granade in the door and ran. The walls just exploded off the sides.

Our new pool!

This is looking into our back yard. If you look closely behind the tree on the left you can see our new pool!!

Ike Damage

We're still in Dallas, getting word from friends throughout the day. Our house is good. We lost the back fence and had some branches and debris in our yard. We also had some water come in our back door and got the carpet wet. We are very thankful for the minimal damage. We still have no electricity or water, so there's really no reason to return yet. Katelynn's school is cancelled through Wednesday and Tim's work through Tuesday, until further notice. We've had friends able to check the inside and outside of our house so that's been a stress saver for us. Our backyard neighbor has been giving us the daily update (sometimes hourly) on what's going on with our house and neighborhood. We thank you all for your prayers and will try to get some pictures up when we get home and have them.

Hurricane Ike

You'd think in all my years of living in Houston I'd been through a hurricane, but this is my first one to experience. We're at my parents house in Dallas, and even watching Ike from a distance here, it's a bit nerve-wracking. Some of our friends and family are still home riding it out and my thoughts and prayers are constantly with each one of them. We keep calling back to get updates and the voices on the other end of the phone continue to get less and less sure of themselves. Please keep our friends and family in your prayers. The eye of this gigantic storm is headed straight for our house. We are inland about 70 miles, so that'll give it a little time to weaken, but our main concern is the trees and wind. Our house is supposed to have sustained winds around 75 mph.

I am continually reminded of God's power during this storm. We were imagining yesterday what it would be like to see the hurricane while it's out in the ocean. Would there even be separation of sky and sea? The image that I got during that discussion was a new glimpse of God' s awesomeness for me. Someone commented how crazy it would be if the storm just fizzled away out in the Gulf. My response: "The REALLY crazy thing is that God could do that!" God is in control and we are under His protection. Glory be to God!

We'll keep you updated. Thanks for your prayers.

If you are reading this, I have one specific request to ask of you. Will you please pray for our backyard neighbor? She is a new friend to us and lost her husband at the end of July. She and her 4 year old son are home alone riding out the storm. She is trusting in Christ for the first time in her life, after her husbands death to a heart attack. Please pray for her safety and for God's comfort and protection to be surrounding her. Her name is Jennifer and her son is Jack. Thank You!