Well this past weekend I went grocery shopping and with Shad's help I fixed 15 family freezer meals and several meals just for Sarah. With just having surgery I needed to get back in control of of our eating habits as we were spending too much money eating out and obviously it's always healthier to eat at home where every ingredient can be controlled. Steve had come home and did the lawn with Shad's help. The house had been deep cleaned before my surgery and we'd kept it up.... All my paperwork was current.... Monday morning we went back to horse therapy so we were back in the saddle so to speak! We had all kinds of appointments this week and i was hoping my doctor would tell me I could resume all of my normal exercise routine. Oh I had HIGH hopes! After I got home from therapy with some concerns about Sarah's ankles I set up more appointments for the next few weeks-things I'd had to change or put off because of my surgery.... then some college friends came by with a van load of things for Haiti. We visited and it was so pleasant. I walked them out-looked at the rising water (very normal for our area and this time of year) then I sat down for about an hour or so after putting one of my freezer meals in the oven. In reading through some messages I found I had been offered a position to work on a ministry that is near & dear to my heart! It would be a volunteer position but something that I've prayed for for years. I accepted the responsibility (with fear & trembling) and was willing to be in on the ground floor of this new aspect of ministry in Ukraine (more details later) Sitting there I was starting to hurt a little- horse therapy is about a 2 hour round trip drive plus the time we are there so I felt like I might have over done things just a little.... Oh foolish girl you had NO idea what was to come!
About 6ish Shad fed the dog and showed me some pictures he had taken outside. The pictures did not seem possible the water was so high. I walked out to the highest water I've ever seen by our house! I couldn't believe it and was at a loss of what to do!!! I walked around taking pictures totally freaking out inside but trying to tell myself it would go down. Jon came home during all of this and I could tell he was shocked and overwhelmed too and it's not much that can disturb him! Not knowing what to do since it was after 5 pm I called 911! They sent the firemen and the emergency management folks.... things got worst and we knew we had to evacuate. At first we thought we'd just send Selah and her nurses to a hotel but we soon realized we'd need to take all the kids.
I admit I literally had a hissy fit and hyperventilated!!! That happens about every 20 years or so (at least that's what my husband says) I think I scared Shad! I just said we have to pray RIGHT NOW! But I could not calm down. Obviously I can't do much physical because I'm still supposed to not be lifting thins. Jon will be having steroid shots in his back again next month and he's not supposed to be lifting things either! What a mess! Steve called during this and I was sobbing on the phone to him. Bless his heart he'd worked all day and had to work out of town the next day but he said he was on the way over to us.
In the meanwhile some of our church folks showed up and began putting everything up high on beds, counters, high book cases.... A gentleman in our church went and bought sandbags to put in our drive through garage hoping it would cover the side doors. Two of our nurses and a lady from our church packed Selah up. She left first with her nurse.
I've always thought I was organized and could evacuate quickly if needed. Well I know now that's a LIE! Maybe it would be true if I could have done most of the work but I was in such pain by that time (I'm really hoping I didn't do something to myself) Anyhow it was hard to make decisions what to take and what to move.... I'm so thankfully for the folks from my church for helping us. Also of our firemen helped too.
The first hotel Steve took Selah to had a non working elevator and no rooms on the 1st floor so they had to go to another hotel! We finally got everyone settled by 1am. It was hard to leave our home.
Today we went back (without the kids) We got more things and some friends brought us more sandbags to put around our A/C and Generator. Shad paddled out on his old kiddie kayak and turned off the gas on our gas tank which is close to being submerged in water. The water was so much higher- this time it was very hard to leave our house not knowing what we will come back to! We had to leave our cats and dog. We put a picnic table, the plastic fort and all our chairs in the drive through garage which is covered. We fed them twice and hope we can get through to them tomorrow. Emergency management is aware of our animals and are checking on things every two hours. They are not in danger of drowning-just getting wet to get to dryer areas. The worst that is expected would be a few inches of water (we hope!)
We do not have flood insurance. It's complicated in Florida and we were told different things. Most of our friends do not have flood insurance. HOWEVER if we make it through this we will be getting flood insurance if at all possible. We have great homeowners insurance except for that clause.
So we live near the Hillsborough River and near swamps and are used to alot of rain this time of year. It's not unusual for us to have standing water on our property and in our neighborhood. However we can not explain this flood nor can anyone else. Yes the river is high but over all it doesn't make sense. One neighbor has lived on our street for more than 20 years and has never ever seen anything like this! the water usually runs from west to east across our road but is running from east to west and very swiftly. That was the first thing she and i both noticed. She is also flooded out. Today as we were leaving we noticed that although the river is high we've seen it higher with no real issues on our property. In fact some of our neighborhood that usually has standing water doesn't have it! It seems so random.
When the house was being built tons and tons of dirt was brought in. We are truly praying that our house was built up high enough to withstand this!!!
Braids!
Sarah's new helmet
Monday
yes Jon was surprised
I was standing on top of our septic system which is a hill
This is today
my baby girl loves the chair
Selah is comfy
Sam is good
Shad goes with the flow
Sarah and me are roomies
If you want to see some CRAZY video go to my blog's FB page My Real Life by Yvonne
it's hard to post videos on my blog.
Things are desperate and we need a true miracle as do our dear neighbors! Please pray that this will resolve soon. The county has engineers working on it. They put up a drone today as they took serious our insistence that things were different. Hey we know our swamp and river! They were looking for obstacles in the flow. We always have a stream between our property and our neighbor- and it's not unusual for it to get out of its banks but not like this. I don't know what they called this- maybe a flash flood for the water to rise so swiftly. My girlfriends who were over can not believe the videos and pictures as they were there just a couple of hours before this happened!
It's not rained in some hours but we have a 80% chance of rain tomorrow. Please pray that the rain will not come! If it does I don't think our house will go without massive damage.
Ironically 15 years ago we had evacuated because of Hurricane Charley! And tomorrow is Selah's 15th birthday. Thursday will be 7 years since the accident happened.....I'm just a bit overwhelmed with everything right now. Please pray!
(BTW a friend was cleaning our a small freezer that she just inherited and literally brought it to our hotel. I brought all those freezer meals here so I won't lose them. Most are uncooked and I don't have a stove here but some of Sarah's are cooked and pureed so she was happy! At least I didn't lose them!)
About 6ish Shad fed the dog and showed me some pictures he had taken outside. The pictures did not seem possible the water was so high. I walked out to the highest water I've ever seen by our house! I couldn't believe it and was at a loss of what to do!!! I walked around taking pictures totally freaking out inside but trying to tell myself it would go down. Jon came home during all of this and I could tell he was shocked and overwhelmed too and it's not much that can disturb him! Not knowing what to do since it was after 5 pm I called 911! They sent the firemen and the emergency management folks.... things got worst and we knew we had to evacuate. At first we thought we'd just send Selah and her nurses to a hotel but we soon realized we'd need to take all the kids.
I admit I literally had a hissy fit and hyperventilated!!! That happens about every 20 years or so (at least that's what my husband says) I think I scared Shad! I just said we have to pray RIGHT NOW! But I could not calm down. Obviously I can't do much physical because I'm still supposed to not be lifting thins. Jon will be having steroid shots in his back again next month and he's not supposed to be lifting things either! What a mess! Steve called during this and I was sobbing on the phone to him. Bless his heart he'd worked all day and had to work out of town the next day but he said he was on the way over to us.
In the meanwhile some of our church folks showed up and began putting everything up high on beds, counters, high book cases.... A gentleman in our church went and bought sandbags to put in our drive through garage hoping it would cover the side doors. Two of our nurses and a lady from our church packed Selah up. She left first with her nurse.
I've always thought I was organized and could evacuate quickly if needed. Well I know now that's a LIE! Maybe it would be true if I could have done most of the work but I was in such pain by that time (I'm really hoping I didn't do something to myself) Anyhow it was hard to make decisions what to take and what to move.... I'm so thankfully for the folks from my church for helping us. Also of our firemen helped too.
The first hotel Steve took Selah to had a non working elevator and no rooms on the 1st floor so they had to go to another hotel! We finally got everyone settled by 1am. It was hard to leave our home.
Today we went back (without the kids) We got more things and some friends brought us more sandbags to put around our A/C and Generator. Shad paddled out on his old kiddie kayak and turned off the gas on our gas tank which is close to being submerged in water. The water was so much higher- this time it was very hard to leave our house not knowing what we will come back to! We had to leave our cats and dog. We put a picnic table, the plastic fort and all our chairs in the drive through garage which is covered. We fed them twice and hope we can get through to them tomorrow. Emergency management is aware of our animals and are checking on things every two hours. They are not in danger of drowning-just getting wet to get to dryer areas. The worst that is expected would be a few inches of water (we hope!)
We do not have flood insurance. It's complicated in Florida and we were told different things. Most of our friends do not have flood insurance. HOWEVER if we make it through this we will be getting flood insurance if at all possible. We have great homeowners insurance except for that clause.
So we live near the Hillsborough River and near swamps and are used to alot of rain this time of year. It's not unusual for us to have standing water on our property and in our neighborhood. However we can not explain this flood nor can anyone else. Yes the river is high but over all it doesn't make sense. One neighbor has lived on our street for more than 20 years and has never ever seen anything like this! the water usually runs from west to east across our road but is running from east to west and very swiftly. That was the first thing she and i both noticed. She is also flooded out. Today as we were leaving we noticed that although the river is high we've seen it higher with no real issues on our property. In fact some of our neighborhood that usually has standing water doesn't have it! It seems so random.
When the house was being built tons and tons of dirt was brought in. We are truly praying that our house was built up high enough to withstand this!!!
Braids!
Sarah's new helmet
Monday
yes Jon was surprised
I was standing on top of our septic system which is a hill
This is today
my baby girl loves the chair
Selah is comfy
Sam is good
Shad goes with the flow
Sarah and me are roomies
If you want to see some CRAZY video go to my blog's FB page My Real Life by Yvonne
it's hard to post videos on my blog.
Things are desperate and we need a true miracle as do our dear neighbors! Please pray that this will resolve soon. The county has engineers working on it. They put up a drone today as they took serious our insistence that things were different. Hey we know our swamp and river! They were looking for obstacles in the flow. We always have a stream between our property and our neighbor- and it's not unusual for it to get out of its banks but not like this. I don't know what they called this- maybe a flash flood for the water to rise so swiftly. My girlfriends who were over can not believe the videos and pictures as they were there just a couple of hours before this happened!
It's not rained in some hours but we have a 80% chance of rain tomorrow. Please pray that the rain will not come! If it does I don't think our house will go without massive damage.
Ironically 15 years ago we had evacuated because of Hurricane Charley! And tomorrow is Selah's 15th birthday. Thursday will be 7 years since the accident happened.....I'm just a bit overwhelmed with everything right now. Please pray!
(BTW a friend was cleaning our a small freezer that she just inherited and literally brought it to our hotel. I brought all those freezer meals here so I won't lose them. Most are uncooked and I don't have a stove here but some of Sarah's are cooked and pureed so she was happy! At least I didn't lose them!)
Yvonne!! I am so sorry for all of your troubles and the struggles happening right now. Praying for your family to be comforted with peace and the water to recede so you all can get back home and continue to heal. Glad you took action of leaving before things got worse! Blessings !!
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