PTL...it feels like fall

Vita Mix Kefir pancakes
alla generator for breakfast


Sisters doing hair...cure
woofie Kathlena

Yard clean up...a great way to
pass the time.

Another great way to pass the time
is napping...Kathlena taking advantage
of cooler temps.

Emily and J.Michael catching up
on some good books.



Today we awoke to a nice reprieve from the hot muggy temperatures Houston usually has this time of year. We had a wonderful day outside. The trampoline was reassembled as the yard is beginning to look like normal again. It has been nice to see so many neighbors out walking and riding bikes. Strange how different life would be with little to no luxury electronic entertainment of course I not give up my computer!) ...it seems many are using what little power they have for necessities only and spending more time outside. In some ways the past few days feel like we have stepped back in time. It is so quiet and it gets so dark at night as there are no street lights. It seems that we are living in a national park...wildlife included. I think even the deer are confused as they have so much greenery to feast on!
Our dear friends stopped by on their way out of town today bringing us 2 tanks of gas for our generator. It was so nice to see friends and we greatly appreciated their generosity...thank you Wes, Mitzi and Bami ya'll are too good to us. We have been without phone even cell phone service except for text messaging since the storm hit. It was a real treat to see our friends and talk to them. We have been able to make a few calls to family to let them know we were okay when we headed out on our gas runs but other than that we have had little contact with the outside world. Posting to the blog has been good to be able to write and preserve this time of making memories.
We had some great family time last night...Andrew was talking up a storm telling us stories about his life at "the home". We are just starting to get a glimpse of what life was like through his eyes. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish fact from tall tale as he has quite an imagination, but he so enjoys talking to us about it that you can't help but think part of him misses this place that was once his home. Once again we were given the opportunity to reinforce that we are his family and that we will always be his family. We are his home now. It was sweet to hear him say this to himself and smile. One day at a time we are gaining his trust and he is becoming more sure of his place in his home.
With each of these connections I am reminded of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8;13 Love is patient, kind, bears all things... We are to be the representative love of Christ as Andrew's (and all of our children's) parents. Imperfectly we strive for this daily. There are many days that it seems so little progress is made then days like the last few are a reminder that time is one of our greatest tools. It is not the leaps and bounds but the daily stacking of tiny grains of sand that build up the reservoir of trust and love in our children's hearts. It is our great desire to have our children's hearts so that upon the Lord's calling them to repent and believe in Him it woudl be with joy and grateful hearts that have been sown to love the one who gave them life and sustains our every breath.
Andrew has been saying prayers at the dinner table for a few months now. It started out as a simple prayer thanking the Lord for the day and our food. He is now growing in grace and sees so much more to be grateful and thankful for that his prayers are quite lengthy...it is so very precious. He has such a tender heart and throughout this time since Ike has taken away our power the Lord has shown his awesome redemptive power in our family and especially in our little boy, Andrew, as he begins to be able to tell us in his own words about himself.
Ike has shown his fury to take away many of life's conveniences, but through this we have been given a tremendous gift of T-I-M-E together and strength to endure that overshadows the loss. For many of our neighbors south of us, the hardship is much greater than loss of conveniences, but loss of loved ones and property. We continue to pray for those in need in the aftermath of Ike and happily wait patiently as there are many who need power restored more than us as they are trying to put the pieces of their lives back together. Many are returning to nothing or flooded homes that will be long roads to recovery of normal life. Today, we are thankful for the cooler temperatures that most assuredly bring relief to the many men who are working diligently to restore power to the greater Houston area. Thank you to the unsung heroes who are pouring into the Houston area now to work countless hours to help restore power to our area.
Just as I was about to post this we realized that we are now without water. Hopefully, this is just a tempory back up generator failure and we will wake up tomorrow to the water being back on. Life without power is doable but life without water is extrememly difficult. We will see what new mercies tomorrow brings.