i love my quiet mornings....after the rush of getting the kids ready and out the door for school.  on the days i can, i sit and drink my coffee; i turn on music to one of my favorite songs.  i day dream about life and scroll through endless pictures of beautiful spaces....until my phone rings with a subcontractor ready to meet.  and my day begins and the day dreaming ends...until tomorrow.

One Year Later.

 

man, life can be tough.  but guess what, we survived it.  one year ago, i didn't really know how quickly life could change.  it can knock you off your feet.  but it can also stand you right back up.    thank you for your thoughtful notes and prayers.  i can say, without a doubt, we are loved.  we have our home again....and that's one amazing feeling.
 XO, shannon

life.

it's hard to put into words what last week was like.  i awoke at 4:30 AM on sunday and looked out my living room window and saw our cars about to be submerged with water.  i ran to get warren up; he raced outside in boxers and crawled through the tailgates to save our cars.  as he waded back to the front door, we stood in shock.  we went to the garage and opened the doors....inside we saw a swimming pool of what use to be our stuff....it was floating, our refrigerator was turned upside down.  fear filled our eyes as we stared in shock, wondering what was going on.  i ran to find my cell phone to start calling our friends.  we began running through the house, wondering what to get, and what to do.  i was not calm.  my precious children slept in bed totally unaware of what was about to take place.  warren looked at me and grabbed my hands and said "shannon, i love you.  water is about to come into the house.  we have got to go."  i ran to the children's room and woke them up.  i handed them backpacks and told them to put their favorite toys in them.  taylor cried and walker stood in shock still half asleep, not knowing what was going on.  i ran to the kitchen and saw that water was pouring in through our floor vents.  i opened the chest with our pictures in them and ran to put them on my kitchen counter.  it was time to go.  we carried our children in our arms as we waded through the waist high water.  my cell phone rings, it's one of my best friends who lives a block away...panic is in her voice as she says her family is trapped and they cannot get out.  water has risen to the stairs of the second floor.  they are rescued by a boat.  my phone rings again, it's my in-laws saying, we can't make it to their house b/c the bridge is flooded.  we race to our dearest friend's house in the neighborhood.  i don't know how their house did not flood.  as daylight comes, we look outside her windows and see X marks on all of the houses on the opposite side of the street.  we walk to the end of the block,  it's unreal.  what once was a street, is now a lake.  we watch as the water rises and breaks the window's of homes.  our friends back their john boats into the water and take off to save the ones that are still trapped.  helicopters loom above us.  it's something i will never forget.

i have been forever changed.  i have seen my home's walls being cut in half, my floors being ripped out, my kitchen being sledged hammer, our belongings being picked up and thrown into a dumpster.....
i have seen true love from family, friends, volunteers, church members, and strangers.  i have cried, hugged, laughed, cussed...you name it, we've done it.  our community is so incredibly strong.  they have lifted our hearts and prayers.  we are humbled and our lives have been forever changed....thank you for everyone that has reached out.  we feel incredibly blessed and loved; if there is one lesson to learn in life, it's that there is so much good out there....