First, a couple of pictures from the pre-schoolers who started school this past week:
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| Orianthi |
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| Ollie |
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| Ori at home--she grew this cantelope. |
This past couple of weeks we've spoken with Elise nearly every day to get updates on Hurricane Harvey and how the people of Texas are coping. I asked her to write down some of her thoughts.
She began by quoting this Facebook post:
If you are in Houston or an area affected by Harvey, even if you are "ok", you are likely not ok. Your nervous system is likely shot from anticipating your house would flood- even if you ended up being lucky and it didn't. Your sleep has likely been spotty, fitful and interrupted by hypervigilance. You likely have spent days and nights worried sick not just about your safety, but the safety of your friends and family. You likely have encountered days of eating things you are not accustomed to, trapped between four walls that could be invaded by water at any time. You may have been in more constant conflict with loved ones due to heightened anxiety. Substance use and reactivity has likely escalated, and if you have a history of trauma you have likely been triggered various times. If your home is intact, you may feel forced to say "great, I am lucky" when asked how things are with you, because you are, in many respects, but please remember that we have survived a collective traumatic experience. Your body, nervous system, spirit, and heart are likely a kind of tired and overwhelmed that is bone deep- and that is to be expected. You are not alone. You are okay, and you are not okay. Both things are true. Its okay to take a break. It's okay to seek help. We are in this together. -Elizabeth Haberer
I was not raised to have a "victim" mentality, so though I do feel like this has worn me out, I do not feel like I am in anyway the one who was a victim in this situation, however, today at church, we had a few families give their testimonies who lost their home from the storm. Their different perspectives were very interesting. One family worked on their own home the first day it was safe and has been helping every neighbor they come in contact with since. In his testimony on Sunday, he stated, "Those who have not been affected by the storm have a responsibility to help those that have." I agree, though I am wary of his, and all of their uses of the words, "Affected by the storm." We were extremely blessed. We did not lose our home or our cars and all of us were safe. Andy was able to remain home because he is "non- essential personnel" so to the boys, it has been a bit of a daddy stay-cation. They've got to spend every day with him. He's studied a little, but mostly he's been spending time with us. They got to play in the rain and were almost sad when it stopped, because their little river of rain down our street was no longer strong enough to whisk their little "leaf boats" down the storm drain. That being said, we were "affected by the storm." It has affected me for good as well as brought an unexplicable tiredness (I'd like to blame it on the pregnancy, but I'm not the only one who is more tired than normal). The church has sent out emails and posts on Facebook telling members to slow down and take time to process. They have described the cleanup process to be a marathon, not a sprint. I worry about the families who aren't slowing down to process, but I understand we all have ways to handle grief.
It has been quite an emotional roller coaster for me. I have been trying to keep my family in the loop by sending them pictures of things we have been able to do to help those who were flooded and are now homeless and their reactions have been interesting to me as well. Some of them responded with, "Good job Elise!" or something to that effect. And I realized that it may have seemed like I was trying to show off how awesome and amazing we are. But that is as far from the truth as possible. I sent those pictures because they are so basic. Practically nothing. And that is what they need. It is beyond humbling. It's one of my young woman's birthdays today. She is my only Mia Maid that lost her home. Four feet of drywall was removed from her home this weekend. That's four feet of destruction. While they were able to wash and save some clothes, she no longer has a bed. She is an artist and a writer in her free time so I bought her a journal for her birthday. I am sure most of her paper type stuff is ruined. I called around to the other Mia Maids and asked them to write her a note for her birthday. From what I saw at church this morning, most of them had written notes and delivered them to her personally. While I was calling the Mia Maids last night I struggled to keep my voice steady, because after each call I broke down and cried. This girl is celebrating her birthday without a home. She was deeply touched when the Mia Maids reached out to her today. Some just wrote cards, drew pictures, or whatnot, and a few of them bought her gifts. I don't know all of the gifts she got, but among them was a sketchpad, colored pencils, clothing gift card, and a comfy plush blanket. These aren't necessarily essentials, but for a 15 year old girl who just lost her home, they are. There were many tears shed between her, her mother, and the girls serving her.
I have been trying to help in anyway possible. We housed a family from Sienna Plantation because they were under mandatory evacuation. They remained in good spirits while they were here, but with every flash flood warning (and there were a lot), they would hunker down to their phones, check on the levee levels, calculate their home's elevation and say silent prayers that their home would be okay. They came Monday. I called them Monday morning when I saw their area was evacuated and told them they could stay with us. They replied graciously that they would love to, but had no idea if they could make it all the way up here (about a 30 min drive). I told them I understood, would pray for them and if they found they could, they were more than welcome to come. About noon they called Andy and told him they were on their way up. They said that they didn't have too much trouble on their way up (they had trucks), except for one part, they prayed their cars wouldn't flood. As soon as they arrived, the rains began to get heavy again and the way they came flooded back up. They wouldn't have made it had they left any later. We had a good time playing cards, laughing, catching up. They moved out of our ward two years ago, but we have remained friends and even went to their daughter's wedding the week prior, which was another miracle that it was before all this, because now the temple is under water. They brought plenty of food with them and it was actually quite enjoyable to have them. I prepared meals one day, she did the next. They ended up going home Wednesday evening, gratefully to a dry home. But you could see the constant worry on their faces every time it rained, or they heard news that the levee had a leak, etc. Andy and Robert Jones (the brother staying with us) went down to their neighborhood Wednesday morning to check things out and help repair the levee. It ended up that the firemen didn't need help, so instead they waded in waist to chest deep water to check on members homes. There were many flooded homes, but not one of those homes was a member's. Our ward wasn't so lucky, but you can't discount these little miracles.
Speaking of miracles, I have seen so many. First of which comes from the preparation from the Lord. First of all, we had more than enough food to survive the six days of being stuck at home. We have food storage. In fact, we have two five gallon buckets of wheat I bought from a garage sale. I was able to grind wheat with my wheat grinder that my mother in law got for my last birthday and make bread for families that did not have enough food. There were many on my neighborhood that had already run out of food and were frantically searching in stores for bread. Even a few members had not sufficiently prepared. Anyway, the Lord must have inspired my grocery shopping last Tuesday, because I had NO idea there was a storm but I had bought lots of food and then the next day found out about the pending hurricane. We have had hurricane watches or tropical storm warnings before, and I have never felt the urge to fill water bottles, buckets, recycling bins, or prepare in other ways, but this time I did. Luckily we didn't lose power or water, but "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear" and we were as prepared as we could be. We were prepared spiritually. Andy and I had not been able to attend the temple in months (not since we visited Utah in December). But when Andy told me he took a day off just to celebrate my birthday, I felt the spirit pushing me to attend the temple with him, even though I probably would've rather celebrated watching a movie or going shooting or something. But I followed the spirit and Andy and I had the most wonderful experience at the temple. We decided to do sealings. The sealing room was packed. As soon as we walked in the room, you could feel the intensity of the spirit. The sister kneeling at the altar had just been sealed to her deceased parents. She replied that she knew they had accepted the gospel and that sealing. The spirit was so strong, that I knew they had too. Not long after her, another sister sealed her deceased parents to her grandparents, again, the spirit was quite tangible. Throughout the time we were there we had 2-3 sealers. All of them shared snippets of their testimony or insights to scriptures relating to the sealing or the words of the sealing itself. I have never felt so educated from attending the temple (maybe my fault, but it was pretty awesome). Another middle aged man came in with his mother. After doing a few sealings of children to parents (again family names), he stopped the sealer and said, that the words of the sealing were so powerful to him, since he was an adopted son. These children will be sealed as if they were BORN under the covenant. He said that it made him feel even more a part of his family and that the power of the sealing superseded blood. The last experience that stuck with me was when I got to sit in with 6 other sisters to be sealed to their parents. 7 girls! It was so neat. I have never had multiples and definitely never 7! Anyway, how this relates to the hurricane? We were able to go to the temple the next weekend as well for my friend's wedding and then the weekend following Harvey hit. It is unknown when the temple will be able to reopen again. In fact, I do not know if the water in that area has receded yet.
A few weeks ago I felt the prompting to compile boxes of hotel toiletries into packets. I was planning on handing them out to homeless people that are always standing on the corners around here. Instead they went to families who were staying at a high school for shelter when they had to evacuate their homes. My mother-in-law left a couple of bags of clothes for me to donate to goodwill. Well, I never got around to it until Harvey hit and I know those clothes went to people who needed them. Andy had a box of MRE's that were about to expire. Once again, they have found a place to be useful. There are many little things that I have seen where the Lord prepared me for this. And others.-- One of the sisters who lost her home had just decided to stop selling Lularoe. She had about $15,000 of inventory left when she stopped. She said she was very slow about sending them back because she had been busy, but then she felt a push by the spirit to get it done. She would have lost thousands of dollars had she not listened to the spirit.
Though the water has started to go down (but still lingers in some areas), there are still issues from the hurricane. Looting stores, inventories, and gas. I have to say, however that looting has NOT been as big of an issue as it was in NY or Louisiana during hurricane Sandy and Katrina. In fact, Texas has a law that if you rob a home or business during a time of crisis then you will be prosecuted and sentenced to LIFE in prison. I think this definitely deters looters, along with the law that prevents looters' families from prosecuting a civilian who shoots said looter during the robbery. Aside from these heavy preventative laws, most Houstonians are too busy helping others. They had to turn away volunteers from shelters because they had too many. They've had to redirect donated goods to other areas that could use them. Two of Texas's biggest companies (HEB, a grocery chain, and Gallery furniture) have donated food and more. Mattress Mac (the furniture store's founder) opened up his warehouses to allow people to sleep on their mattresses. First responders coming from out of Houston were allowed to sleep in their showroom. These are just everyday people trying to make a difference. We have the "Cajun Navy" which consists of people from the South East of us who came with their personal trucks and boats to save people from flooded areas. Everyone is pooling together to rebuild from this disaster. Even Max was (and currently is) helping at a member's home. Andy told me he was a harder worker than any of the other kids (ages 12+) and asked Andy why they stopped working when they were getting tired. I said, "Well he probably just enjoys spending time with his dad, but probably doesn't understand the gravity of what he's doing." Andy said, "Actually, he told me, "Daddy, their home is broke? We're gonna fix it." So he probably understands more than I gave him credit for. I hate not being there and doing the manual labor. There is a bit of survivor's guilt that comes with being protected, but I am striving to find other ways to serve. I have been making dinners for those who have been laboring in these homes all day and I have been organizing willing hands to help get the work done. It doesn't feel like enough or much, but I know that Mav and my belly would just get in the way if we were there.
Another weird thing from all this is seeing "normal" posts on facebook. People not here in Houston are probably thinking, "Great, here's another Harvey post from Elise." But I post things to inform locals as well as educate those who are not here. It's something I never care to experience again, but it has strengthened my testimony, softened my heart, and made me improve my perspective on things in life. When I see normal posts on facebook it feels almost wrong to me. Especially when I see people complain. when they're complaining about their kids, or work being tiring, or mundane, run of the mill things, I can't help but think, you have a home to sleep in, your family is safe, do those things really matter?? Even some people here in Houston were complaining about their AC not working (oh which by the way, ours went out too, and my poor in-laws had to fork out 12,000 to pay for an entirely new system), [they own the home] but I was thinking, "Really? you have power in your home, you have a home, you have a bed, really?" One even complained about their AC during the hurricane after several homes had been evacuated which is absolutely ridiculous because the hurricane brought beautiful 70 degree weather. Anyway, perspective.
One last thing. I have felt your prayers. I truly have. I don't know if it was the prayers of my loved ones that kept our home from flooding (I mean, I have a LOT of family, so there were a LOT of prayers lol), but I do know those prayers have lifted us up and carried us through this emotionally. I know that I see the many miracles God has blessed us with because of those prayers. I know that I am more compassionate and understanding to those who lost so much, because of those prayers. But the fact that so many of you (immediate and extended) and friends I haven't talked to in a while have either texted, called or messaged me has made me feel so loved. I have been on my phone a lot lately checking on those in this area and it means a lot that others are checking in on me too. I love you all and hope you all can remain safe and well and get prepared for any craziness that could head your way. Love you
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| Max, working as hard as a 4-year-old can. |
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| Mav. while Max is working, Mav is dancing to the TV. |
Elise mentioned that it felt almost wrong to read "normal" posts on Facebook. I know what she means. Anytime you have a tragedy, you feel that the whole world should stop. In this case, all of Houston did stop, but most of the rest of the nation went on "normally." We do feel a desire to help, and we have been counselled on how we can do so. We have also been told NOT to travel to Houston to help. Elise reiterated this--she said there is not room to house "guests." They need to keep their home open for someone who may really need a bed.
Life has gone on here in Utah. Normal things have happened. Normal and even fun things. Roy and I spent this past weekend at the Gorge. We went up with Caitlyn and had a super relaxing vacation. Even though the bed is not as comfortable up there, I slept like a rock! It's amazing what it does when you take away all the stress of everyday life.
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| Cold but refreshing |
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| Roy's Teepee fire. He accidentally knocked it down immediately after I took the picture. He was able to rebuild and get the fire going. |
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| Caitlyn with Grandpa Clyde's bridge behind her. |
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| How to catch a fish: Bait the lines. Drop them halfway down into the water (35 feet), secure the poles so they don't get knocked out of the boat. Hop in the water and play around. Make sure no one is in the boat: Voila, a trout! |
We are grateful for all the blessings we enjoy as a family. We're so grateful Elise and her family are safe! We're also glad she can be in a position to help!
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