In the end, the stomach bug got all four of us. That has never happened before. Normally, one of us gets a stomach bug and the other three help care for that person. Maybe, when things get crazy, two of us get it. This time, we all got it. When it was my turn, I was too sick to even get out of bed for more than 30 seconds. But it was fast. I’m over it and back to work, feeling strong and good today.

Several months ago, our day care held a silent auction. One of the items that I bid on was the painting of a bedroom in your house. I won this item and over the summer we had the painting done. We were so happy with the painting, but what we were really happy with was the company that did it. They were local people within our school district who were honest and kind. We vowed that we would use them again when we were ready to do work on our house. We had no idea that that would happen in a couple months.

When I knew that we were definitely flooded, I called this company and asked if they would be willing to work with us again. They said that they would help us out with demolition or whatever else we needed. We were able to do about 80% of the demo ourselves (with help from some wonderful volunteers), but really needed help with that last 20% which was much harder demo work. They came to our house and knocked it out (literally!) in a couple days. Our house is now in “drying” mode. It will get treated with mold killing chemicals in a couple days. After that, we move to rebuild phase.

I must admit, I vacillate between being excited about starting from scratch and being horrified that our house is destroyed. I’m probably about 75% excited and 25% horrified. I’m not much of an interior designer, so the idea of picking out countertops, floors, cabinets, etc is overwhelming. But, it’s time to grow up. It’s time to learn how to do this.

I’ve learned so much over the past week. I’ve learned what a family of four (plus 3 pets) really needs to carry on their back to survive. I’ve learned what floods do to homes and what floods smell like. I’ve learned how to move things to higher ground and how to gut a home. I’ve learned how to give better hugs because sometimes that’s all you have to give. I’ve learned that complete strangers can become instant friends. I’ve learned what heroes, grace, compassion, humility look like in real life. I’ve learned what overwhelming love feels like. I have felt a shower of love from friends near and far. Some of you I haven’t talked to or spent time with in years, and yet, you are all loving us so well. We say thank you and we mean it from the deepest reaches of our hearts.

Dave and I are a couple who enjoys hobbies. Dave actually jokes that he collects hobbies. We do things for awhile and then do other things and then come back to the first things, and it goes like this forever. Books and reading are one of our passions that is ongoing. No matter what, we are always reading something and then talking about it with each other. After our Harvey rescue, we both stopped reading. I am pleased to say that Dave bought a new ebook a couple of nights ago, and I started a new ebook last night. This is a good sign that our mental health is headed in the right direction.

Dave also had a running streak going before Harvey. He had run every day for about 150 days straight. He has not picked this back up and I think it will be some time before life feels normal enough to go running again. But we take things a day at a time.

I told Dave a couple of days ago that I generally wake up feeling the same way as I did before Harvey. Happy. I told him that we are being tested right now and I feel stronger and happier than I would have expected, given the circumstances. He said, “remember the Winnie the Pooh quote that we’ve heard a hundred thousand times?”

“Always remember, you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think, and loved more than you know.”

This is the truth. Thank you for loving us.