Baby is the size of a lemon!
this picture and post are late because it's been pretty crazy around here lately. and not in a good way. a week ago hurricane harvey hit Rockport, Texas and a few days later the rains began. and they didn't stop. for five days. my entire city, my hometown, is completely under water. I have never been in a natural disaster before and it's nothing like it seems on TV. the images are the same but they affect you in a completely different way.
we are one of the lucky ones who did not lose our home to the flooding. we lost power for a few days. that was all. so many around us have lost everything. the past week has been surreal. you drive down the neighborhoods around here and all you see is destruction. everything people own, furniture, appliances, clothes, personal possessions, is all sitting in huge piles on their lawn as groups of volunteers covered in white dust help them to destroy what's left of their homes, before it gets worse. the stench is terrible. the sewage systems got backed up and so the water that filled their homes was completely contaminated, literally destroying everything it touched.
I've seen grown men crying in the street, kids wearing gas masks carrying out rubble to the curb, beautiful, dream homes completely gutted and hollow looking inside. I can't go anywhere without tears rolling down my face.
and the worst part is not being able to help. I want so desperately to join Mark and my father and go out and answer the many pleas for help. but I'm almost four months pregnant now and have a 15 month old to care for. there have been four reported cases of the Zika virus in Houston, with the mosquitoes becoming an epidemic out here with all the standing water. it's not safe for me to go out and probably not safe to breathe in any chemicals for the baby.
I am going to help in some way, I'm just not sure how yet. Remi gave us a large sum of money to put to good use and I want to give it to individuals who really need it. I'm still looking and praying about that.
but it's not all bad. even though our city is completely ruined and everything must be rebuilt from scratch, there is an air of hope out here. that first day when the rain stopped and the sun came out, it was like waking up on Christmas morning after the Grinch stole Christmas. you would expect to hear sobbing, yelling, cries of defeat. but instead, you look out your window and people are smiling at one another. everyone is working together, making plans, cheering each other on. so many people have come to help that some of them have to be turned away.
the hurricane may have taken our city but it didn't take our spirit. it's amazing what we can accomplish when we all work together and I have this feeling that when we're done, Houston will be ten times the city that it was before. I'm so grateful I can raise my children in a place with such wonderful, friendly people, a place I'm proud to call home.
