On Tuesday, Dave and I dropped our kids off with a dear friend and went to work on our house. The drive to get to our house is about 5 miles total. It takes about 2 hours to get there. Because most of the west side of Houston flooded, many of the streets near the bayou are closed. Houston is the nation’s 4th largest city, so our population is obviously quite large. Also, we are not designed to be a city of public transportation. Everyone drives everywhere.
We have some very kind friends who wanted to give us a night off, where they cooked dinner and we hung out at their place, just relaxing for a few hours. After working at our house all day, we left with 2.5 hours to spare before we went to meet them. It became increasingly obvious that we were going to be late. We started texting them, asking if we could shower at their house. Then we got a call from one of the friends who was with our kids saying Andrew was puking. We kept in touch. He kept puking. We decided to cancel our fun night.
We went “home” to the place where we are staying and began dealing with the vomiting, which lasted all night. In our 4 years of twin parenting, there has never once been an occasion where both kids were sick at the same time. On Tuesday night, we were lucky enough to have that happen. We were both up all night, cleaning, cuddling, cleaning, and then cuddling some more. Both twins had a stomach virus.
On Wednesday morning, it was time to get up and at ‘em again. We decided that I would stay home while Dave went to the house and tried to get some work done. I would stay with the twins as they recovered from being sick. The three of us basically laid around all day. I vacillated between being thankful for the break and sick over the day of work lost.
Dave came home late in the evening. The twins were very excited to see him. To me, they also seemed sad. That night, I felt the weight of being a “displaced” person falling heavy on my shoulders. With two sick babies, I just wanted to be in our home. I just wanted our towels and our washing machine and our beds to collapse into. I wanted to feel sorry for myself. But I looked in those four blue baby eyes and realized that I wasn’t doing anyone any favors by being sad. It would be a long time before life would be normal again and I have to face that head on. I have to see it as an opportunity for growth and learning.
Since we evacuated in a boat, we have all been sleeping in one room together. We have had a couple of opportunities to have more space, but I haven’t wanted it. I feel more comfortable having my babies in the room with us. I don’t want this to be a permanent thing, but it is life right now. We went through a traumatic experience and I think we all need this closeness. We need this sharing of personal space. We need this time together. I feel calmer knowing where they all are.
I wanted to give an update about our jobs, as many people have asked. Dave is a teacher and he goes back to work on Monday. I have also chosen to go back to work on Monday as well. I am nervous for both of us, as traffic still poses major problems. But I also welcome the chance to dive back into a routine. To get to the “new normal”, which will involve working our day jobs and then working on the house.
The house is in a state of complete disarray. We have gutted all walls in the house down to the studs. We are waiting for the house to dry before tackling dry wall and remodel. We will have a contractor tomorrow who will help with a few issues. We also will have an insurance adjuster who will give us the verdict on our car. I’m hoping to also spend some quality time with my kiddos tomorrow, doing a few things that I think they will have fun with.
Thank you for continuing to follow us and our progress. We are getting there slowly but surely.