Catastrophe. That’s quite a word. It’s the epitomy of a word trying to describe the worst of a circumstance and even with this word it’s still not enough to truly explain the loss.
Flood, almost 4 feet deep = Catastrophe. The catastrophic nature of what happened back on May 19 doesn’t begin to describe enough the significant loss Keith, Athena, me, and my mom went through.
Athena literally no longer has a bedroom. Our house only has 3 bedrooms in it. Two on the main floor – Keith & I have one and my mom has the other. The bathroom in the basement is completely gone – the vanity under the sink literally broke apart it was damaged so bad. Then the big large room, where one end held my office with two desk, EcoTank Epson printer, all of my Bibles, Bible commentaries and Bible dictionaries, plus all my quiet time notes with many years worth of writing. All of it is just gone.
Yet, through such a loss, even the night of the flood, I was trying to find the blessings God was bestowing upon us.
First and foremost, which is the most important of all, no one was hurt. The fact Athena’s bedroom is in the basement meant she was down there from the moment it started to flood. All the What If’s that plague the mind. What if she hadn’t woken up when she did? What if the water had made it to where it was above her mattress and woke her up completely startled? Would she have been so incoherent from sleep that she slipped and fell? Maybe hit her head and fell right in the water, passing out? No one got injured – huge blessing.
Blessing 2: Our pastor came over around 3am that morning and helped us get a few things from the basement to try to save them. Unfortunately, most of what came up still had water damage inside the bins, but gratefully some didn’t. We’re so grateful he was willing to come over and help us in this time of need.
Blessing 3: Our GoFundMe campaign. So far to date we’ve been able to raise over $3500. We’ve had donations ranging from a few $20 donations to the highest at $1,000. For us that $20 donation is just as meaningful to us as the $1,000 one as that’s $20 more than we had before. I know it may be hard to believe, but even a $1 donation is appreciated because that may be all the person can afford, yet they still chose to donate a $1 to us. Keith and I can’t begin to express our gratitude for how helpful everyone has been.
Blessing 4: Prayers. We thank everyone for the constant prayers as we’ve been going through this. It’s amazing what prayer can do because through all things anything is possible with God.
Blessing 5: A very nice family from church has bought Athena a new twin bed frame with drawers underneath, a new mattress, new comforter, new sheets, new pillows, and also gave us a dresser their no longer using. The wife and her daughter delivered everything but the bed frame yesterday as it hasn’t been delivered to them yet. When she called me and asked what Athena needed, I never realized that she’d do this for our daughter. Athena is so beyond thankful. Keith and I can’t begin to truly express just how grateful we are. The wife also helped us on demo day of all the walls, which was so huge because otherwise it’d have just been Keith and I. Talk about exhausting work.
Blessings. The 5 listed above are just the ones that stand out the most. I know there are others as well, but this post would get rather long. 😊
Please continue to pray for us. Also, we’d greatly appreciate it if you’d share our GoFundMe Campaign. Thank you.
