We had our first taste of “normalcy” by leaving all the chaos to go to a town with power. It wasn’t completely normal because we don’t usually drive an hour away to go to a book store, get some more fresh groceries, and sit in a Chick-fil-a for two hours to enjoy the peace and quiet, a place for our kids to play in AC, and time for the Durrants to catch up on emails because neither of them had any service back home (they have Verizon for their cell service and we have ATT). But sitting there, doing Duolingo, replying to emails, and just vegetating was exactly what our spirits needed. We headed back, hoping to be home in time to feed people, but there was an odd amount of traffic leaving Lexington so we didn’t get back when planned. I texted my friend and told her she could start on dinner if she wanted to. She said, “We can just do our own thing tonight.” So I ended up making grilled cheese for the Durrants and us. It is my favorite comfort food.
The next day, we had everyone over for breakfast. We thought the Rogers were coming, but they had left town. We ate a very gourmet breakfast of cereal and oatmeal and were discussing the next week of a powerless Evans when our neighbor, Kandie, came over. “Y’all, I just got power.” Lindsay and I had a hard time believing her. I don’t know what we expected. All of our main power lines had been switched off so our homes wouldn’t be hurt with surges and what not, so we really had no way of knowing the power was on. But, sure enough, her AC was running. I turned around to turn our generator off and our power on, but Max beat me to it. Andy had run through the process with him so he’d know what to do if Andy was gone, or in this case sleeping post night shift. I wanted to wake Andy up to celebrate, but sleep was such a scarcity for us that I thought letting him sleep in the AC would be enough of a celebration. I couldn’t help but tear up I was so happy. I felt bad for our friends, the Woods. They were over at our house for breakfast, but their house was still in the dark. She was pretty discouraged. I couldn’t blame her. When we got a text Wednesday evening that it would be another week, I was pretty discouraged too, but every time I heard about another street getting power, it got me excited. I knew that it meant we were closer, however long that might be, to getting power.
Of course, I got the laundry started, the AC going, vacuumed the upstairs and downstairs, ran the dishwasher. I was THRILLED to get my house back in order… but here we are a week later and I don’t feel like I’ve fully accomplished that. Of course, on a normal basis, it always seems impossible with four kids running around to get the house perfect. After I mop today I’m going to explain to my perfectionist heart that my post-hurricane-home-recovery is finished.
Here’s the group we fed every day- our dear friends keeping it real. 
Some of the hurricane cleanup included cleaning out our trashcans that smelt like rotting corpses from all of the rotten food we had to toss out that first day and then of course our trash guys not coming on their designated trash day. 
Andy worked hard all week getting the garage back in order. It’s never looked better. 
We had everyone over one last time for lunch on Monday. We fed them hotdogs, using the buns my dear friends had brought from Columbus
We started venturing out more, but as you can see from the background here– our city is still struggling to clean up. 
Trees ripped up by the roots from this thing. 
A normal thing: I went to play pickleball with some friends… we showed up and the tennis courts had been trashed by these trees. The pickleball courts were untouched.
I spent all day Friday cleaning my house. The Woods were invited somewhere else for dinner and the Rogers had left town an hour before our power turned on. So Friday evening was the Durrants, us, our Bishop (who had been eating by himself all week), and Andy’s coworker and her new husband. It was a lot less people than we’d been feeding all week, so that felt weird, but it was really nice to get to know our Bishop better as well as Andy’s coworker. The kids didn’t miss a beat to getting back to their video games. It had been a nice digital break, but they’d earned the time to relax. Saturday morning, Lindsay came over and collected her food from our fridge and freezer, so I also started moving my kitchen back into… the kitchen. She came over to watch conference with me because they still didn’t have service. We still didn’t have internet, so I hooked my phone up to the TV and ran conference from my phone. We were still pretty distracted… and tired, so it’s definitely a session I’ll have to rewatch. That evening we were given the BEST treat. Our dear friends from Columbus drove all the way over to us to bring treats and snacks for those working on cleanup and fresh fruit for our families. They fed us dinner (chicken pot pie and street tacos from Costco). It was so nice to not have to cook a meal but seeing their faces lifted our spirits more than anything. I can’t believe I didn’t take a single picture while they were here. I was just enjoying them too much. Harvey asked Izzy when she was coming back. It’s hard for a four year old to wrap their head around why someone would have to move away.
Miracles
Sunday we were invited to a friend’s house for conference brunch. I brought some paper plates and fresh honey dew to share. She had made cinnamon rolls, breakfast casserole, and more. It was delicious, but it was so fun to be able to catch up with people and see how they were doing. One sister in our stake that I had met just before the hurricane said that a tree had fallen into the home they were renting. She showed me the pictures. The tree fell right over their bed but stopped just above them. Then their daughter’s room was even worse, but her little crib was safely nestled under some drywall that the tree had smashed in. I started tearing up again (my emotions have been all over the place these past two weeks). She was full of faith and hope and telling me all of the tender mercies they’d seen. I know God’s hand protected that little family. This wasn’t the first similar story and it wasn’t the last. God was looking out for his people. I tried to go to Walmart on Tuesday and wound up spending two hours there. I had a pickup order, but invited another family over for dinner that night spontaneously (they were still without power) so I decided to go in to get a few more things to help feed them. After collecting what I needed, I went to the checkout line. I was second in line when their systems went down. Apparently some car had crashed into a power pole. Just what we need people. Anyway, I waited for another half hour thinking that maybe they just needed to reset it, but when they came out and told us it may be another hour, I decided to give up and try the pickup order. I waited another half hour in the pickup line. They had to check everyone in manually. I wasn’t mad at them, it was beyond their control. When they came out with my stuff, I helped them load it into my car. I asked the young man how he faired with the hurricane and he said, “Yes ma’am, we were safe.” I said, “I’m glad to hear that. The worst we had was living without power. When I see and hear about these homes with trees in them, it makes me count my blessings.” He replied, “Yes ma’am. A tree fell through our home, but by faith my sister felt that she needed to leave her room and it was about two minutes after she left that the tree came through.” I teared up right then and there outside on the Walmart parking lot with this darling stranger. This was one of the many miracles that I heard about. Not to mention the fact that our own house had zero damages.
Unfortunately, I arrived at home and realized I was missing all of my fridge items. So not only did I not get the extra stuff I went into the store for to feed my friends, but I didn’t even get the normal stuff that I probably could’ve figured out how to feed the bigger crowd with. I guess it worked out though, because my friend forgot she had a photo shoot she was working during dinner time so we’ll have to reschedule. I heard she got power back on later that evening, so slowly but surely we’re getting through this.
I went to the gym Tuesday morning. It was nice because it was a normal thing, but it felt wrong when there was still so much destruction around us. I went to a dental appointment on Thursday morning and again, it was nice, because it was normal, but I was so wiped out from the emotional and physical toll that the past two weeks had on me that I fell asleep. Right there. In the dentist’s chair. With the hygienist’s hand. in. my. mouth. I only woke up to her saying sorry because she poked me (which I didn’t feel). The graphic below explains my exhaustion. I was making fun of myself to the hygienist and she said, “I know. I’ve been tired… and CRANKY.” I said, “Hey! That’s part of the post-disaster mental clouding too.” Understanding it seems to make it a bit more bearable.
Maverick was able to get his arm recasted just as scheduled.
The kids had two days of school this week, but the county said they wouldn’t mark anyone absent, so Max said his class was pretty bare. Even still, he was glad he went. I think getting some measure of normalcy will help heal all involved in this crazy time. This weekend, Andy will be back at coaching football and helping with the hurricane cleanup. I volunteered to receive phone calls for the disaster cleanup. And the kids have birthday parties. Just a normal-ish Saturday. I hope that those that did get displaced continue to receive the support from their communities and the government and that as a city we can put ourselves back together.
I started writing another blog post titled, “Blessings, Miracles, and tender mercies.” But as I wrote these other blog posts, it was too hard not to include the miracles while sharing about our day to day stuff, because truly they were all around us. Some tender mercies were already listed, like having the kids sleep downstairs, not knowing how crazy the storm would be. Andy having his high school jeep so he wasn’t dependent on an electric powered vehicle and he could also traverse the sketchy roads to cover someone else’s shift. While my friends pretty much lost all service, Andy had decent service and I almost always had one bar. Of course I helped relay messages for my friends, but I think having that little mercy kept me going despite the chronic migraines and heavy stress. The beautiful view of the stars because we had no light pollution. Getting to know neighbors we’d never met before. Getting to know our friends even better.
Miracles included the protection of friends, ourselves, and our generous friends lending us the generator. We had loaves and fishes experience with our food and even the gas that we used for the generator. The generator was supposed to use four gallons every six hours. We ran it twelve hours and it still only used four gallons… until gas became more readily available, then it began using what we expected it to use. We fed nearly 30 people at least twice a day, sometimes more and our fridge and freezer remained full through the week. Not only that, but we estimated how much food we’d need for the amount of people we were feeding and somehow we almost always ended up with leftovers… how does two pounds of sausage fill 30 people’s breakfast burritos??
Some of the many blessings include losing six pounds, seeing how awesome my husband is, the kids playing outside and coming up with so many creative games. No fighting going on between the kids the entire week. One day while playing with his friends, I overheard Max saying it was “The best day ever!” Living next to the Durrants and enjoying each other even after it was all over (maybe I should put that in the miracle category?). In fact, it was hard to stop eating meals together. Lindsay texted me Monday and said, “Are y’all coming over for dinner?” I had just picked up Panda Express… which is apparently a post-hurricane tradition for us now. The fact that we have a post-hurricane tradition is a little disturbing, but hey, I guess we’ll run with it. The second Lindsay could start baking, she brought over homemade cinnamon rolls and fresh bread. Did I tell you she cooked homemade biscuits on our traeger during our blackout? She’s a rockstar in the kitchen. Another blessing were the tender scripture and prayer meetings we had with our kids. It made the gospel so much more tangible for them. Their comments were profound and inspiring. I laughed one night, because I asked the kids if they wanted me to read them a bedtime story. Max said, “Can you just read the Georgia Power website?” They had a wonderful time playing with their friends all day every day, but evenings were when it kind of hit them that things weren’t normal. Taking ice cold baths was not their favorite. I appreciated them at first when I was so stinking hot, but as it cooled down, it was not fun to get in those icy showers. I also think the darkness was a bit daunting for them– having to brush their teeth, bathe, etc all by the light of a little lantern.
I hope Andy can take some time to write his thoughts about all of this, because he was truly a rockstar during all of it. He worked in 95 degrees at the hospital that had no running water while everyone else was sent home with pay. The ER kept running. Not only were the other specialties at home, but they were getting per-diem. Meanwhile, Andy told me they’d feed him at work. Come to find out– they were feeding them “MRE’s.” But the icing on the cake was that he’d have to get his pay deducted if he took one. He said, “Uh. No thank you. I would never pay to eat one of those.” Luckily, he was getting decently fed at home. But it really does answer the government’s question of, “Why can’t we keep doctors in the military??” Maybe if you started treating them better…
I’m so grateful for this man, my friends and all of their help, and especially for the linemen who worked tirelessly to restore power to Georgia. They are truly heroes. I know they got paid for it, but they were working crazy shifts and sleeping on cots, so it was money well earned. I teared up whenever I saw one of their trucks and still have the temptation to blow kisses in their direction… Andy says I should, but you know. I don’t want to break their hearts. 😉
