Andrew's 6th Birthday

The birthday boy! Look at how much he has grown!

September 20, 2008 4 months later.

May 29, 2008

Here we are trying to blow out candles

Still trying and finally all 6 are out. Good job.

Having fun with the blowouts.


Our faithful photographer! Thank you Emily for video too.



Pawpaw helping get toys from their packages.


Kathlena watching so patiently.


Andrew woke up today 5 no more but 6! We have talked all week about birthdays and how fun it will be to be 6yrs old. We had a real time trying to find his birthday cake though as most bakeries are still not up and running yet from the hurricane power outages. But even this became a first birthday memory. When we finally found a chocolate-chocolate cake at Kroger Andrew excitedly told all around us that it was going to be his 6th birthday tomorrow.


We had planned to have a small party and were so thrilled that both sets of grandparents could make the trip. He had a very special day with "Cars" decorations. It was so neat to see him open presents likely for the first time on his birthday. He wasn't even sure what to do but quickly caught on.


Kathlena wanted to blow out his candles so she had a turn after he blew them out too. It turned out to be a little warm but we managed to have a nice party outside and then quickly headed into the house for A/C. Here are some pictures from Andrew's special day. We love you, our sweet son!

Family Portraits...finally!

Well after many tries here are the best of, cutest, and funniest pictures.

Power Restored

Kathlena is glad that power is restored because
generators are loud and hurt your ears!

Many are still without power and you can see why from this
picture.

PTL we have our full power restored to the house and by some miracle we actually have internet too! Hats off to ENTERGY for their quick repairs. I missed my photo op of J.Michael and Andrew sitting at the end of the driveway as the convoy of Entergy trucks were leaving our subdivision. At the time we only thought that they were surveying the damage but they were in fact repairing it. Our neighbor across the street came over to tell us he had power and see if we did. At this point we were still running the generator so David switched it over to find that we indeed did have power and we were so excited!!! It seems slowly we are getting back to normal. Our friends the Hoods are bringing us more fresh supplies of fruit, veggies, and perishables today which are huge luxury items in these parts right now. Thank you sweet Hood family for caring for us during this time.

We are so grateful to the Lord for His mercy during this time as many are returning to nothing but slabs/piers...total loss. We are just now getting a newspaper and able to see some of the pictures from downtown Houston and Galveston. It seems unbelievable. Our favorite beach house we like to visit and had planned to go to in Oct. we are afraid is not even standing. We are so disappointed for the owners and for Andrew and Kathlena as we had hoped to take them to this place that they had only seen pictures of in their photo albums from us. David found some pictures from the beach house that a man who is a Volunteer Fireman is taking of damaged areas in Galveston for homeowners who are still not allowed back in the area to see what is left. Here are the picks from Treasure Island where we stayed at Tuck's Landing...it is still standing and appears to be in good shape!! We may get to go on that beach trip after all...We'll see.

David is working on his post on How to hook up your generator to power the house. Complete with pictures too! Here are a few more pictures from our fun "vacation" this past week.


Kathlena plotting to take Chase's bone...nothing left to do
but harass the dog.

Kathlena caught in the act...Chase gives it up quite
easily.

Chase say "Cheese" Poor Chase he is glad for power to be
restored so he can get back to his less entertaining lifestyle.

Okay guys everybody off I am not a horse!

Okay maybe I am but I am not posing for this
embarrassing picture and I am going on record
that dogs should not be ridden like ponies!
Thank you Emily for capturing all of these sweet moments
for us while we were keeping the camp running! You are a
huge blessing to your family.

I married the smartest man

Daddy teaching kids about the different wires and J.M. standing

next to the now wired in generator.

We woke up today to a dismal start as water was still off and we knew our septic system was already to the overflow point. It did not seem like it was going to be a good day. This of course did not stop the ingenuity of my dear husband who only saw this as another challenge to his already highly skilled survival mode repertoire. He began the day by building us an outdoor latrine that would immediately alleviate the bathroom issue. While I greatly appreciated his hard work I personally was not sold on using this open outdoor facility, but continued to use my pan in the potty invention from the night before (I will never look at a foil baking pan the same again).

So my hubby not being satisfied with the potty situation set out to find a sunk pump to at least pump out our septic enough to use. Fortunately, the water was restored around noon so things were looking up! While out David spoke to his Dad who told him he could talk him through wiring the generator into the main circuit panel to the house. David picked up the necessary items and came home with a renewed vision to get us back up and running...we would not need to evacuate and by the end of the day it would almost seem like pre-Ike time.

Tomorrow David is going to post how to hook up your generator to your house's main circuit panel with pictures included of the materials you need. His Dad (who is one of the three smartest men i know, my Dad being the other and of course my husband) walked David through the process of splicing in the generator to the circuit panel of our house and voila! we have power including sewer sprinklers up and running!!! We are back to somewhat normal living...bye bye extension cord mix master highways!

A welcomed site our sewer sprinklers running. Sewer sprinkler

high water alarm, but a good sign as it means we have power!
Most of the day went on as usual. Cooking on the back porch using the dutch oven and eating outside on the picnic table. Although tonight we ate at the dinner table for the first time in several days as we had light to eat by and fans running. I need to get more dutch oven recipes this was so fun and consumed so little fuel. We could make one bag of charcoal go a long way!

The new outdoor kitchen and Dutch oven dinners

Emily spooning up our

stew.

Andrew helping bail bath water...he works for Reeses pieces.

Thank you big boy...what a great helper you are.
The boys have had a great time building the Rokenbok and just having some fun brother time. Kathlena manages to get in the mix some but looks forward to her afternoon stroller naps.

J.Michael catching up on the

comics and keeping cool.

J.Michael takes time out

from helping Dad to hold

his younger sister!

This sign has been posted at

the front of our subdivision

since the day after the storm.

Yep! we are in the right neighborhood!

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.