An Anniversary: Part 5 Let’s Wrap This Up!

Well now the big cleanup and recovery begins.  Because it took so long to get to our home we decided to stay in town with my parents so dh could get to work and I would be near the hospital…although my poor ob/gyn had BAD damage at her home and was stranded.  We would visit our home every day to retrieve items we needed, visit the cats, and clean up.  One day a team from dh’s home office in Indiana arrived to help.  What a blessing!  They brought food, water, propane tanks, flashlights, tarps, and plenty of people who worked long and hard to clear our yard.

The days of recovery are kind of a blur but I remember some things clearly:

1. My dad got stung by a bee in his mouth!  We were eating outside on the porch, remember, and he set his drink down on a table.  When he picked it up he did not notice the bee.  He also grew a beard for the first time ever.  He said he was on shaving strike…well, when you don’t have running water…
2. I have never seen so many stars at night in all my life.  The first night after the storm when we saw the sky it was actually a little unsettling!  We didn’t just have a few power outages, our power plant was compromised and no one for miles had power, so the sky was pitch black and just filled with stars.
3. FEMA is the stupidest thing ever created.
4. Generator power is loud, smelly, dangerous and loud.
5. When a disaster happens people on the “outside” know more about it than people living through it.  The public saw the storm’s track as it landed, saw pics of our damage, knew the death toll and everything and we were pretty much clueless.

In the end we were without power for 18 days, no water for 14, no phone or cable for a month.  My oldest also missed an entire month of school because of damage to the buildings.  But life went on and we recovered.  I don’t have many personal pics of the aftermath.  I was 9 months pregnant, hot, miserable, and not a bit concerned at the time about documenting this event in our lives.  And I’m sorry but the scanner is not working so the pics I do have are pics of pics.  Wha?

If you look closely you can see the remnants of the big pine in the front of the pic.  We tried to save that leaning tree as it was one of our faves, but no go.  And if you look even closer still….there is a rainbow in the background. :)  You see, even though sometimes it doesn’t feel like it, God is still there.  Here is even more proof…

Yep, ds4!  Waited until 18 days after the storm to arrive.  That’s right, the night we got power back my water broke and my own little rainbow appeared.  And no, we never ever ever thought of calling him Ivan.  ;)