Power Restored!

After approximately 7 days and 13 hours, our power was restored. And let me say, I don't think I would have lasted much longer. I know that it could have been much worse. And I know that there are still people in Houston without power. Not to mention the state of Galveston island, which is officially "closed" according to a sign we saw today, while traveling on the interstate.

Here's our story...

Robert was out of school on Friday before the storm, and we spent most of the day watching the news and preparing for the hurricane. The winds kicked up around 9 pm with occasional gusts and got worse as the night went on. We put Bo to bed in his crib, but transferred him to his pack 'n play in the hallway around 9. I prepared my sleeping bag in the hallway and laid down around 11:30, getting through 2 songs on my iPod before it died - one preparation I wish I had remembered to make. I woke up occasionally and heard the winds, trying not to let it worry me. I was awoken early by Robert turning on the radio to hear the damage reports, and Bo saying, "I'm ready to get up."

Being in Sugar Land, we were on the calmer side of the storm. By God's grace, our house didn't get damaged. We had a few large branches that were either on the ground or hanging from trees. And a good bit of our fence was blown down.

We spent much of Saturday inside as the winds were still gusting in the morning. Bo and I took a short walk around the block later to look at the damage and just to get out of the house, as Bo was getting a little stir-crazy. We didn't see much damage to houses, just a few trees down some branches down or hanging and lots of leaves and debris. It wasn't until we went out that night that we saw this right outside our neighborhood...



We went to Sam's on Monday to find some ice. But we had to go to two other stores before we found milk, some of the last few jugs, and the bread aisle was completely empty. Tuesday, the big trucks arrived with ice. And Thursday, they had ice, water and MRE's - army meals...which I don't think I'm brave enough to try.

As I said earlier, I was getting closer and closer to the line of "okay, I've had enough". And I did say that I know it could have been much worse. This whole week without electricity actually hasn't been that bad. One reason is that God brought us some cooler weather. We opened some of the windows and enjoyed some cool breezes. We spent some great time outside as a family, since school was canceled for the week for Robert. Bo enjoyed helping Daddy wash the cars and helping Mommy rake the leaves and sticks.



Another reason it was not so bad was the generosity of our Christian brothers and sisters. Saturday, Sunday and Monday we were at different friends' houses grilling out the various meats and seafood that were thawing from everyone's freezers. Tuesday through Thursday we were fed by a local church who opened their doors to the public with free food, air conditioning, free WiFi and plenty of plugs to charge phones, laptops, etc. I really don't know what we would have done without the generosity of these people. I definitely would have come to the "I've had enough" line much, much sooner.