We Survived!

It's been awhile since my last post... we can thank Ike for that. Through this whole crazy hurricane experience the Howrens learned quite a few things:

1. Pioneers we are not. Fortunately we were one of the first to get our electricity back after only 48 hours. However - those 48 hours nearly killed us! As a matter of fact, we took off for College Station on Sunday just to escape this hot house and restless kids (and adults). I complained last month for paying $771 for our electric bill and this only showed me that I'd pay twice that to just have electricity. Kind of put things in perspective.

2. Like father like son. The storm blew in around 1 a.m. Saturday and we never heard a peep out of Finn or Kev (exept some snores heard over the winds). Kev was supposed to "man" the downstairs while I slept upstairs with the kids. I'm not exactly sure I'm confident in his "manning" skills anymore.

3. Like mother like daughter. Grace and I didn't sleep a wink the entire night. We were huddled together in our bed braving the storm together.

4. Beautiful moments are made out of scary times. Grace was literally shaking throughout the storm she was so scared. To be honest I don't think I've ever been that scared either. We didn't have any relief from the winds coming from the bayou and it shook our house and rattled our windows to the point that I thought we would be blown away at any moment (which once again proves the amazing sleep powers of the men in our house). To try to ease both or our minds we both started singing songs. It was one of those moments I'll treasure deep inside and pull out later in life when Grace is gone. I'll never forget holding my trembling child singing "Amazing Grace" and then sharing our prayers together for everyone's safety.

5. Manual labor stinks. We've spent the last couple of days helping family and friends clean up their yards. Next time our yard guys come I'll be giving them an extra drink, hug and a raise. Thanks Olibio!

6. We are incredibly blessed. We escaped without too much major damage. We lost a tree, a fence, a gate, quite a bit of our roof and endured some leaking water... but nothing we can't repair. My heart breaks for those that went home to nothing. We will keep them in our prayers.

I'm not sure that we'll stick it out through the next hurricane. I might just pack up the kids and leave Kev here to sleep. Grace feels like she's on vacation since she's out of school all week. I feel like I need a vacation! Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and offers of shelter. We just might take you up on it next time...