Our Story...

Well, it has been a while since Hurricane Ike hit Houston, but I thought I would just post our experience, or should I say, Jeff's experience with the hurricane. Jeff made it through safe and sound. I fortunately had picked last week to go to Dallas to visit my family and all heck broke lose. That's why everyone needs me here...I keep things together. ;-) Every night before Wednesday we talked and not much came up about the hurricane. In Jeff's and my mind, we thought it was going to go east. Then Wednesday night, things started to change a little. Jeff had told me that he bought boards to board up the windows and that's when I started to get a little concerned. He asked me if I wanted him to come up Thursday, but I said no because I didn't want him to have to fight all the traffic.
He stayed put and everything turned out okay. We just lost some fence and that was about it. The thing I was most worried about was him losing power and Pearland being so flooded that he couldn't come to Dallas to pick us up. He did lose power for 24 hours, but we were so fortunate to not have any flooding. So on my way home from church on Sunday, he calls and says he is already in Dallas...I was ecstatic!!
We continued to watch the news Sunday evening and he made the decision that we should return back to Houston Monday morning. I gave him a, "are you crazy?" look, because all the reports were saying to not come back, no gas, power outages, etc, etc. So, Monday morning rolls around and we make some phone calls to see what people were in need of and made our way to the Rockwall Walmart and Home Depot. The whole time I was just thinking, "I want to help everyone, but what about this and that." I wasn't 100% sold on the idea of going back. I told Jeff, "Lets just use the money we are about to spend on all this food and do stuff here in Dallas, where we have food, water, electricity and gas." He repeatedly kept saying, "People need help." I hesitantly agreed but still wasn't sure about his decision. It is amazing how selfish you can be when you are pregnant and have a baby. I kept thinking we were going to get all this food and not have power when we got back. Get stranded on the interstate because of no gas. I am a very much a worst case scenario kind of girl.
To make things less assuring, IN ROCKWALL, we were exiting to go to the Walmart and there was a huge electronic sign that said, "DO NOT GO TO HOUSTON OR BEAUMONT." I just turned to Jeff and shook my head. I have told people that I felt like Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty, when he is driving around and has the prayer beads in his hand asking God to give him a sign and out pulls this truck with a thousand warning signs. This was, I think, our sign, but we just ignored it.
Finally, we arrive back to Pearland after having to go through Waco and College Station. This was a very good move by Jeff because I don't think we could have gotten gas anywhere on 45. We stopped in Waco to get gas and it was a good thing, because once we got to College Station, there was no more all the way to Houston. *Side note* when we stopped to get gas in Waco, I was feeling really bummed and was just hoping we could make it back okay. Jeff handed Joe over to me and it was like Joe could sense I was down, so he just looked at me straight in the face, said, "Hi" and gave me a huge hug. I felt so good after that.
Once we got home, Jeff got to work and started helping wherever needed. When we made it over to the property, I was so impressed with the joyful spirits of everyone. Everyone still had smiles and were all glad to see our little family. For those of you who don't know my in-laws, they are just the most amazing family and honestly find good in the bad. They are the kind of family that will notice the flowers on the table rather than the dust. I didn't hear one member complain...they just talked about all the fun they had visiting, playing, and surviving a hurricane. I was honestly impressed and was just so glad that Jeff had decided to come back.
And in the end, I believe God blessed Jeff...he had an entire week off and someone had paid him for some work he did at their house. I was happy for him because I felt that he truly deserved it for being the sweetheart that he is.
We are finally getting back into the swing of things and into our usual routine. I appreciate the entire Kirklin family for just being the wonderful people that you are.