Today seemed rather uneventful to me. A trip to WalMart to replenish supplies of bleach detergent, mustard, and grape juice. Gas in the car. Open the house. Pull on the boots. Put on the gloves and mask. Trudge through the trash inside to empty out the next cabinet. How long will this be our routine, anyway?
Ollie called, asking if I was going to teach today. I didn’t even know what day “today” was. And my teaching notebook was a drenched, moldy mess under one of the piles of rubble. “Maybe next week,” he said. “The kids miss you.” I miss them, too. Surely I can find a book somewhere. Surely I can carve out some time to prepare lesson plans. Surely. Not by next week. But surely.
Our neighbors finished today. Not with cleaning out their house. They just finished. They left everything behind and moved to Arizona. He said I could have the dolly and doghouse, but there wasn’t much else worthwhile. It was a sad time. Tears from the girls. One of those “shake hands and grab a quick hug,” manly kind of goodbyes for us guys. We will miss them. After they left, I opened his garage door to get the dolly, and to my amazement, he had left behind all his tools. They had been under water - that was evident. But I planned to soak my own in diesel and try to clean them up. I couldn’t let these tools be destroyed with the house, so I boxed them up and set them out with mine. I also rescued his collection of rods and reels and a utility wagon. I don’t know where I’ll put it.
We went to Kel and Christina’s for supper. He let me hook up my computer to his internet so I could update the website and check emails. I also checked the FEMA website for an update on our damage claim. And there it was. FEMA’s decision on how much we are worth. It seems their inspector decided that our house is fine to live in. Habitable. And besides, the damage is all the responsibility of my flood insurance anyway. Sounds like my kids when we discovered an “infraction of the rules,” so to speak. The inevitable chorus would begin, “It wasn’t me. I didn’t do it. Must have been Nathan.” Kel and Josh were real good at blaming Nathan, because they knew that we knew that Nathan would try anything! Anyway, FEMA decided. Now we know how much we’re worth. Drumroll here … $714 apiece. A grand total of $1428.
I’m really glad that we don’t have to depend on FEMA for peace and happiness (or money, either, for that matter). I keep going back to Philippians 4:19 and holding on for dear life! “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
Father, I know in my head that you can supply all my needs. I believe in my heart that you will. Please help my emotions – my “what-if’s” – catch up. Amen.
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