Hurricane Ike…life without power

Time with Dad building

We survived the storm. To be honest we all slept through the worst of it. Thankfully, the Lord gave us rest as we would need it to begin surviving without power. It is funny to me how quickly we forget what life is like without electricity. Things I rarely think about anymore that run automatically by electricity…like our septic system suddenly become the most important necessity. I am not even sure that I knew how or what the septic system was powered by or how it worked, but I can tell you we do now!
When Rita hit three yrs ago David and I survived four days without power or water. The Lord provided for us through a friend the use of a generator that was the key to surviving the last 2 days. Before we had the generator we cooked on a propane gas burner and had to go in search for water. Everything was abandoned and closed in total darkness except for The Home Depot. Home Depot had lights and water and we were able to fill some bottles and ice chests with water enough to take a bath and cook. It was rough…so when we heard about Ike we made much better preparations.
Although, we did not buy a generator…still thinking we could do without this large short term investment, but when a friend (thanks, Kenny) told us of a group selling generators up at 1488 the day after the storm hit we decided this was the Lord’s provision. We did however have both sets of parents on standby to meet us with a generator to borrow, but we were not sure we would be able to come back once we left and we decided it was time we had one anyway since hurricanes seem to be a way of life in this part of the country.
Living without power has made us grateful for the yearly camping trips we try to make as a family. Our camping trips have been great times of “electric age” de-tox and gave our children the opportunity to practice real life survival skills. My husband grew up tent camping with his family, which cultivated a love for the outdoors and a knowledge of survival skills that is often lacking in our generation. In his wisdom my husband saw the need for his children to be trained in survival skills…knowing how to help themselves in times of crisis and to help others in need. In our current situation it has paid off. Our children have not been panicked, but have been a blessing and have seen this time as an adventure and opportunity to work together towards a common goal…making the most out of little. How valuable this time has been for them to see how the Lord continues to provide for us daily and how He has protected us from harm.
Judging by our yard we thought that our area had not sustained the damage that was predicted. After driving around our neighborhood we saw otherwise. Many homes had trees on top of them including our neighbor just two doors down from us. Huge pine and hardwood trees laying in the streets and yards with 5-10ft root balls sticking up in the air of an 80ft tree. Power lines are down all over the place, and even utility poles snapped in half with transformers on the ground. We also thought that flooding was not so bad until we saw that many homes in our subdivision had water up to their porches…their entire yard a lake. We came home praising the Lord for his protection we did not deserve, but He clearly gave us.

Our driveway

The backyard

Tree behind the tree house...
fortunately it fell away from the
treehouse.

One of our neighbors yard under water

Near our subdivision...in the
words of Andrew "this is not beautiful tree"

Not good!

Whole tree just pushed over

All four of our children have weathered the aftermath of the storm with a good attitude and a serving spirit. Much of their routine is the same other than more time with Daddy and some extra yard clean up. I must say it has been nice to have so much time together without easy computer access and other electronics. I definitely see how much time we spend doing individual pursuits and have had a renewed commitment to the simpler life from this experience. Emily and I have had fun washing dishes together instead of using the dishwasher and Daddy cooking out on the grill with the dutch oven has been nice since we are all working together to make it. Sleeping arrangements have changed slightly as we had to centralize by putting all of the children in one room in order to devote enough fans to keep everyone cool enough to sleep. Boys are in their regular beds while we moved Kathlena’s mattress to the floor in the boys room and both girls are sleeping on it. It has worked out great so far…they actually like being all together and have a great time working out what music they all get to listen to before bed.
So far temperatures have stayed relatively mild and nights are getting cooler. On our second night we have had to open a few windows and prop fans in them in order to get the inside temp down as it had gotten over 80 degrees in the house and as Emily would say the air was “smuficating”. The growing problem besides the septic issue is the uprising of mosquito armies that are threating to carry us away. Kathlena was nearly airborne but we got to her in time *smile* This might be the straw that breaks the camels back that leads to us evacuating north for some family visits.
We have gained limited internet access through a wireless signal (hence this getting posted) but our best access is outside in our front yard a.k.a. the red zone of the mosquito army! We have also been able to gain access to a short list of area stores and gas stations open. Last night we drove to College Station before we found gas and could only get 18gallons max as the station had limited it. It was enough for us to recoup the gas we had used for the trip and fill up two gas cans that we needed for the generator so it was worth trip…not to mention a/c for 3hrs!!!! All four kids slept for most of the trip and upon our return at 11:40 we were stopped by the Sheriff as we were about to turn off of 1488 because a curfew had been placed on our area for 11pm. He let us go and was very nice…it was somewhat a comfort to know that law enforcement was keeping an eye out for looters and suspicious activity. The reports we are hearing for power to be restored are anywhere from 2-4 weeks. After Rita we were without power for 6 days in our area, but we had rolling blackouts for 6wks following. Entergy our electric company has said this is “the worst natural disaster in their history…a catastrophic failure of their power system” as 99% of their customers are without power.

*had more pictures to post but connection is so slow and times out easily so this is all I could post for now...will try again in the next few days.

We are really staying

Looters beware!

Back porch secured as much as possible...yikes hope those
windows make it!


Trampoline secured to the tree...no worries
Andrew.

Whew!! we did it and still enough room for 2 cars!

Wow! the yard looks so bare. Nice job mowing J.Michael.

Basketball goal...we'll see if this worked!

Baby is secured...both of us!

Emily is chronicling the Hurricane Ike experience

Playhouse secured thanks J.Michael for all the help! Good Job!

Okay today has been fun tying all of our yard furniture to trees and shoving everything else into the garage. Emily and I have also had fun baking (making our own hurricane peanut butter oatmeal cookies--the kind you can grab and eat and keep on working while you are cleaning up from the hurricane) and cooking so we are prepared to minimize cooking over the next few days.
It has actually been a beautiful day...hard to believe this huge storm is bearing down us. We will soon see how bad it will really be...pray for A and K as this may be very scary for them. So far A is really excited...well except for the thought of the trampoline flying around! As one of my friends encouraged me "it will be a good time of bonding for your family"...to hear the fierce storm, but we are together now they are not alone. I don't know what storms sounded like in Arkhangelsk but, I know they have never been through a hurricane so it will be a first for all of us. We have enjoyed our crash course in meteorology over the past few days. It has also been a wonderful opportunity for us to talk about the awesome power of the Lord, his creation, provision and protection.

I am not sure how long we will be without power or internet so this may be the last post for a while.

Update
It is now 9pm as I am just now finishing this post. The wind is picking up, but it looks like it will still be a Cat. 1 by the time it gets to us, which means 85-90 mph winds, likely tree limbs down, but not likely structural damage--still possible to have trees down but less likely. Since the storm might be coming straight over us, it could do more damage than we think, but it has slowed a bit over what was forecasted a few days ago.

Bracing for the Storm

Thank you to the many friends and family who have been calling and checking on us. It does seem that Ike is bearing down on us and evacuations have started today in Galveston and south Houston areas. For now we are staying put and starting to prepare with the necessities in case of power outages.
When we first moved here we were greeted by Rita as our first real experience with a hurricane on the home front. We evacuated then, came back the day after it hit to no electricity and water for a week...camping in our house--now that was an adventure. The worst was no water which thankfully our subdivision has rectified by purchasing a backup generator(through our subdivision fees) so that in the event of power outage we will at least be able to have water.
The difference in Rita and Ike is we are on target to be on the wet side and closer to the eye of the hurricane where we were on the drier side with Rita hitting east of us. Our biggest concern is downed trees since we live in a forest with lots of shallow rooted, 80 foot pines. We are securing what we can and praying for the best for us and our fellow Houstonians.

Prayer Requests:
People on the road now evacuating.
People on the coast securing property and leaving.
Ike will not gain strength it is currently at a category 2.

Hurricane Ike Storm Tracker

National Hurricane Center

Sleepless Nights

For the past 6 weeks Kathlena has been getting up during the night sometimes as many as 5 times in one night. She doesn't seem upset although when she first started doing this she would be crying and calling for us, but I think this was more of she was lost in the house. Sometimes she will say she needs to go potty, but then doesn't go or has already gone in the pull up. For a while we started thinking she was sleep walking as she seemed so out of it, but we really do not think so now. We knew that back at the O she was woken up during the night to go to the bathroom, but for the first month with us, including in-country time, she slept all night including a 2-3hr nap. I have started thinking perhaps she is dreaming and wakes up to check on us and that eventually she will realize we are always there. On the other hand I thought perhaps since she is growing and taking less of a nap and more active therefore she is waking up because she is not so tired. Thus, I decided we would try going without a nap and see if she would sleep all night. Normally she goes to bed between 8-8:30pm and wakes at about 7:30am with an almost 2hr nap during the day. Here is a clip from our no nap day. We should have filmed Daddy, because everyday is a no nap day, and he's usually the one up with her 3 or 4 times nightly.




*when viewing video background music can be turned off by scrolling to the end of the blog and clicking on stop/pause button on the playlist box.

Learning through play

One of my most favorite activities with young children is to provide opportunities to play like real life. Whether it is playing kitchen (like today, see pictures below) or playing with dolls to demonstrate real life activities of going to the dentist or doctor or being a Daddy. A and K love this type of modeling play. Today we played "baby". I wrapped A up in a big blanket like you would swaddle a newborn and held him close...even letting him suck on a bottle or thumb. This was particularly special for me and A as we missed those years together so, for us to "play baby" was good for both of us and sweet loving time redeemed. Daddy also got to have this play time with A. Time that we can look into each others eyes and smile, snuggle, and show affection. It also gives opportunity to talk about babies...what they need, how they communicate and how as you grow that communication changes from cries and grunts to sounds and words...language. The Lord is so good to allow us to redeem the time in small ways...I praise Him for these moments of lost time recaptured through play and fun.

Daddy's hold their babies too.

Babies need to see their mommy and daddy smile at them

while looking into their eyes.

Babies need to be held and loved.

Babies need to eat.

Babies sleep alot.

Junior chefs in training

Chopping up veggies for soup. (a.k.a. our insect counters)

Prep work complete ready to cook.

K making a chocolate pie.

We have also been working on making masks to display emotions and explaining facial expressions to display certain emotions then talking about them. We have seen some real progress in helping A and K deal with all of the changes they are undergoing now and how to properly respond emotionally. Andrew likes to show us his "mangry" face which is his mad and angry face but it is only for a moment because he cracks up laughing...his smile can't be "mangry" for long. Another favorite is his disobey face which is a serious attitude face that is turned away with arms crossed. This face has helped him understand how to have self control and choose not to display a disobey heart and face and choose to obey. It has also helped him to recognize these emotions in others (his sister) too, including characters in books thus giving us more opportunity to talk about these attitudes and emotions.

Andrew is also beginning to talk of being like Papa/Daddy. He wants to do the things that his Daddy does. He is wanting to be big, strong, and protect his sisters like a young man. He is also very loving and caring to Rabbit whom he likes to play "night, night" with and tuck into bed. A and rabbit also like to jump on the trampoline together and go for rides on the like a bike and tricycle. Occasionally, rabbit disobeys and A has to discipline him and train him to obey because that is what Daddy's who obey the Word of God and who love their children do.

Adoption, Language Development and Homeschooling

I have found a common thread throughout my research on IA (internationally adopted) children and language development. Most if not all of the research and expert advise in language development are based on children being placed in the government school system at the age of 5. Most of what I have read points to the difficulty of newly adopted IA kids coming into the schools without enough time to have a proficiency of the language to proceed in academics by the "normal" track thus requiring specialized care in the system. Many of these language development articles point to how you can get your kids labeled correctly in the system i.e. understanding your kids MA (mental age) vs. LA (language age)-new term being coined for IA kids in the school system who in the past have been mislabeled with younger MA but no true cognitive delays only speech/communication, but in time they catch up only it is hard to shake the MA label once it is attached. The most glaring remedy for all of these issues to me is simply....HOMESCHOOL. Even if it is only for the first year. Homeschooling gives the extra years without the labels plus it fosters the family life over institutional life in a government school. The additional time with family can only continue to reinforce attachment without introducing new people who will have 40 plus hours a week with your child.

Interesting to me are the assessments made about children in orphanages with large age-related peer groups and few caretakers as one of the main reasons for language delay yet, this is the situation in our government schools today and at ever increasing hours a day. Children grouped by age and in ever increasing numbers to one or two adults according to this study results in language development delays. "No matter how caring or well-equipped an orphanage appears to be, placing a large number of children in the care of a few adults is a recipe for delayed language".-Orphanage Care and Language While I realize for many children a stable loving family is a huge factor in making up for delays I can't help but think that increasing the number of hours with that family would have exponential results especially in the first year.

A full week of firsts

Wow! this has been one of those jam packed weeks that I have so much to write about and no time to write. Once again the Lord has provided opportunities for some unique firsts for our family. Here is the summary.

Last Saturday(August 23) we made our first trip to PawPaw and Grandmommie's (Grammy-mommie for Kathlena) farm. Kathlena has taken the liberty of renaming two grandparents now! Her cuteness let's her get away with it too. Well we had a great visit at the farm riding four-wheelers, golf carts, playing in the kiddie pool and picnicing. It was a nice day...not too hot and a great time to sit back and relax and just enjoy the day. We had a little shower come through about dinner time that made for a fun run for the barn time...just adds to the fun memories.

This week our B4 FIAR book was My Blue Boat. It was a great book for us to learn about the ocean, boats and colors. Andrew has become quite proficient in his primary and secondary colors in English. We checked out some great books from the library on colors as well as practicing his colors with a game called Brain Warp. Mostly, we reinforced what they had learned by recognizing colors in our everyday life and taking the time to point it out and name them. Andrew loved learning about boats and his favorite boat was the speed boat just like his Daddy. Mommy preferred the sailboat while Kathlena liked all the boats. Watercolor painting was another first for Andrew and Kathlena they loved mixing colors and seeing the colors change and creating their own masterpiece. All three of us enjoyed this activity and painted pictures (see pic below). We used stencils to create our boat and lighthouse outlines.

Thursday

Andrew, J.Michael and Daddy went to their first Astros baseball game together courtesy of a generous man that David works with. Thank you, Gary! So, the boys got to have an afternoon of "take me out to the ball game" filled with peanuts, hot dogs, and ice cream with the works. It was so fun to hear Andrew talk about the game and to see Father/sons make memories. We had tried to explain to Andrew about baseball and where he was going but, it seemed to only be words without meaning...I guarantee you that when he hears the word baseball now it has a specific meaning for him and a sweet memory with his Daddy and brother.

Saturday

We were given the opportunity by some dear friend and fellow Aggies to attend the opening season Aggie football game at Kyle Field. David and I have not been to a game since we left College Station over 12 yrs ago. This was actually a first for Emily and J.Michael too. Everything has changed so much at Kyle Field from what I remembered...12yrs is a long time. We all had a great time...it was hot but we had great seats. We were close to concessions and bathrooms...a real bonus with little ones. While the Aggies couldn't manage to hold on to victory...the Shiflet's enjoyed the warm Aggie atmosphere especially the Fight'n Texas Aggie Band. Another amazing performance! We even ran into some people we knew from Hillsboro years ago...small world. Thank you Parker family for your generousity and for blessing us with another fun first to celebrate together.

Father and son watching the game together.

Kathlena is excited about the game!

"Saw varsity's horns off!" "Short!"

Daddy explaining the game...football.

2008-09 Fight'n Texas Aggie Band...whooop!

Our almost family portrait...Emily taking photo.

Kathlena fading almost as fast as the Aggie victory.

Sunday

Another special first was Kathlena in big girl panies all day long; away from the house without an accident. WAHOOOO! We are so proud of her progress. We are still working on the nighttime/nap training but a really big move in the right direction for day training. Thank you to all who have sent me tips on potty training I appreciate it.

Today Monday

Labor Day we had our first Shiflet 6 backyard baseball game. It rained on us a little but we still managed to get some hits in and have some fun. Here is a video entitled "Who's on First" and "Base Running Practice"