Today, we officially moved from “demolition” phase into “rebuild” phase. After the demolition of the walls in our house, we sat with dehumidifiers and blowers and fans. Being the nerds that we are, we learned that dehumidifiers work optimally in these conditions at 80 degrees Farenheit, so we set our air conditioner to this level and let the machines do their work. Our house dried very quickly and very well. Once the house was dry, we were able to treat it with the mold killing chemical, concrobium. This is a very effective chemical that should keep us mold free. This is a huge relief.
The concrobium will take about 2-3 days to dry with our air conditioner still set at 80 degrees and with dehumidifiers continuing to run. After that, we will be able to begin drywall work.

We have been absolutely blessed with a dear friend who has volunteered to do our drywall work for us. He arrived today, after a long drive from his home and family in Pennsylvania and has begun preparing the walls. His work be the first stage of our rebuild of our home.

For those of you who don’t know, I grew up in Pennsylvania and moved away when I was 18 to attend college in Virginia. I did go back to visit during summer breaks and Christmas, but I never moved back to Pennsylvania. I had not seen this friend since probably about 1997. He got in touch with me a few days after the storm and said that he wanted to come to Houston. I told him to come on if he wanted to come.

He met me today at the foot of my driveway after having driven through some of the most damaged parts of the neighborhood. He got out of the car with tears in his eyes at the devastation. The smell. The garbage. I gave him a quick tour. And then he rolled up his sleeves and got to work.

Around lunchtime, we took a break and I took him to Torchy’s Taco’s. We Texans are faithful about our tacos. We spent some time catching up and I got updates on his children, who are about my age and have started families of their own. He gave me a bit of history about his background that I did not previously know. The subject of faith came up. Upon deciding to come to Houston and help us, our friend did not know our faith or whether we even had one. But he decided to google us. And low and behold, apparently our baptism video is what comes up when you google us. I did not even know this video existed.

In 2013, Dave and I were baptized together in a private ceremony with our pastor. I was about 7 months pregnant with the twins. We decided to get baptized and officially join our church. We had been attending this church for a few years prior to that, but hadn’t made things official.

My experiences during Hurricane Harvey were powerfully emotional. There were extreme ups and downs. Throughout the entire experience, I felt myself being pulled and pushed like a baby from a womb. I was pulled from a place of comfort and complacency to a place of turmoil, new and changing circumstances, unfamiliarity, fear. Nothing made sense, but I found hope and love and light and friends were a big piece of the entire experience. Even in my very worst moment, I never felt alone.

I chose to officially accept God in 2013. I think that I sat generally contended, but sometimes a little uncomfortable with that decision for the past few years. I didn’t really know how to reconcile my personal imperfections and vices with faith. Somehow throughout these past three weeks, I’ve begun to see that I don’t need to. I’m strong and true and good, just as I am. I can tell you that passing through the waters of Harvey was my real baptism. I’m ready to live comfortably with this truth for the rest of my life.