Today, our debris was finally removed from our front yard. Our debris pile had been almost as tall as I am in some places and basically covered our entire front yard. In order to remove this debris, a fork lift and a front loader smashed and packed the trash and loaded it into a giant dumpster. On our street, we were all eager to get this process started, as the debris looked awful and smelled even worse. Life could not be normal with giant piles of debris everywhere.

As we go through this process, I have learned that my feelings are all over the place. I have learned that some moments, I feel perfectly normal. Other moments, I am on the brink of tears over things that I didn’t expect to be sad or hard to take. I know that this is a normal part of the grief/trauma cycle.

I had hoped and cheered for debris removal and had spent quite a bit of time harassing the City of Houston 311 number to get it done. But when the fork lifts and front loaders showed up on our street and started plowing through my yard, I felt loss heavy in my stomach. I stood and watched as they picked up my kids’ play kitchen, which had been a beloved toy from the time they were babies until now. I watched them throw it into the street and then drive over it about 10 times to smash it flat like a pancake. They then picked it up along with some drywall debris and laminate flooring, and threw it into the dumpster. I thought about my babies “cooking” for me at that kitchen. I stood there in the middle of my front yard and cried for a minute. Then I decided to go talk to the trash men. I thanked them for the job they are doing and acknowledged that I’m sure it isn’t an easy job. They kindly told me they were sorry for my loss.

We have made some progress over the last few days, beginning to work on replacing our vehicles, as well as beginning the drywall work in our house. Our air conditioner in our house has been fixed, our swimming pool pump has been replaced, and chemical shocking of the pool water has it looking much better, although we have a long way to go.

October is probably my most favorite month in Houston, and I am very much looking forward to putting September behind me. Although September has been a challenging month, it has been the most incredible month of my life. I’m so proud of our city, our community, our home. I’ve lived in Houston for 13 years and I’ve always been a bit on the fence about it. I’ve loved the life we’ve built, but also felt a yearning for nature, for mountains, for hiking opportunities and four seasons. I’ve now come to see that Houston may not have a lot of natural beauty, but it is a city with HEART. It’s a city that comes together to get things done. A community that drives forward relentlessly. It’s where I belong and I won’t be on the fence about it any longer, because the fence floated away and because it was high time to get off the fence anyway. I’m a Texan now, like it or not.