Grace upon grace.....

Today.

This is our life for now.

And boy am I blessed!

For those of you new to what's been going on, I will start from the top.

It rained... etc...

For days.. fast!... hard!!!

We have lived on our property for years.

In fact, longer than I've been around.

it's never flooded like this.

Never came close.

We though we would be spared but the reality hit

It was coming up faster than what we could plan for.

So we gathered our three kids and grand baby in my bedroom and held hands.

My husband prayed hard over our little family and our home.

And we rushed out.

We jumped into the back of his pickup truck as the lights flickered and darkness fell.

I held tight to Heidi and my silly little plant.

I don't know why I grabbed the silly tree but its just special yall

It's funny what you do in times like these.

It's an awful picture of me and I wish I could say I looked better now but that would be a lie lol..

We met with my sister and her family and bunked the night at her husbands business.

We crammed so many of us including 4 dogs into one small room.

We just sat there ya'll.

numb.

Sometime during the night my daughter posted this on her instgram.

I love her heart!

We waited for the sun to come up and my son took his boat out to see if it was clear.

He came back for us and we loaded one by one to take a peek.

                 

Here we are below coming up on my back yard.

                                 
                                  

Keep in mind that the water had started to go down a bit.

I can't really find the words to describe what we were feeling.

Disbelief I guess.

We floated around a bit and just took it all in.

Then I knew it was time to face the future.

We walked inside.

The smell was so bad...

                  

Our floors and walls covered.

One of the questions I get asked the most...

"Why do you have to throw it all away"

Along with the muddy water comes sewage... yup.

Nasty , stinky  sewage.

Imagine if your toilets overflowed into your home and touched everything.

Now you may have a better idea of why we have to throw it out.

I have had people send me messages like...

 "if you're too lazy to clean your belongings, donate them"

Ya'll...

I would love nothing more than to share my things but giving people

items that are contaminated is just wrong.

Believe me, If  I could save it, I would.

Another question often asked...

"Did you have flood insurance"?

Praise God... I do.

Many don't.

We are so very grateful that our home was covered.

BUT...

The catch is they will only replace our flooring and walls.

That's all.

we lost it all...

Can you imagine?

I'm still trying too...

So we let it all sink in and I looked up.

God is good all the time!

Life is still good.

We are still so blessed.

I dug through some of the rubble and found this sign and placed it on my window.

I wanted my neighbors to know that we can still give thanks in this storm.

We could not start the cleaning process until the water went down and thank goodness...

Our family cat... "BIG Momma" was missing when we left.

She had a litter of kitties hidden and we could not find her when we left.

I heard her crying up in the tree.

It took three days to get her down.

My son and husband tried everything but she would just climb higher.

It hurt my heart to have to leave her but we had to go.

                 

We said goodbye to the house... again...

And paddled back to high land.

Meanwhile, a group of boaters were picking up stranded families and one of my signs got caught up in his motor.

He reached down and pulled it out of the muddy water.

Later we found this photo on facebook and let him know that it was one of ours and I was so happy he had found it.

He wanted to return it but I insisted he keep it.

What a great reminder that Love is all you need.

That night we made the news... lol

It seemed like weeks before we could make it back home by car.

Our home was still surrounded.

And the clean up began.

BIG Momma came down out of the tree and located her babies.

I don't know where she left them but she sure knew what she was doing.

They were high and dry.

We laughed

(I was the center of the jokes because I paint so often)

The picture below is Jesse holding up a piece of trim with a very thick layer of paint... lol

And then we cried..

And laughed some more.

We were able to salvage some of our clothing.

Nothing like a dose of humble pie when you have everything you own in the back of your truck.

My sweet sweet chairs from World Market...

It's times like these that make you reflect on all the good.

I thanked God right there..

That moment I saw my husband catching his breath and taking it in...

He has been my rock!

As for the house.

It's empty now.

The walls had to be removed half way.

mold has started to grow but we are fighting it with everything we have.

Maddy's little sweet sixteen car .... gone.

It went under.

She hasn't complained once.

Mine was parked right behind hers... gone.

So now that ya'll are all caught up.

Here is our view for now.

It may take months for this to be cleared.

Because the flood was so widespread, many people are hurting just like us.

We are not alone.

So where do we go from here?

I'm not really sure.

I do know one thing...

"This is what it means to be loved and to know that the promise was that when everything fell

we'd be held".....

I now know the true meaning of this song.

His grace has covered us.

His grace is enough.

xo

PS.

A really neat video on the link below 

                                                       https://youtu.be/Q0jQHPIk4us