As many of you know, last Sunday, our house was flooded, along with many others in Nashville. We are still a little shell-shocked. Our house has been gutted thanks to so much help from so many people. We got it worse than some, but are in much better shape than some. I would upload photos, but for some reason, I can’t get the photo card to read - which is not good b/c all the photo documentation is on there.
We got into a canoe. In our driveway. We had about 30 minutes to prepare. That was more than some people had. No one expected the water to rise as fast as it did. Ricky and Tom (my sister’s fiance) and Garrett. Yes. My sweet, brave and dimply-cute Garrett carried almost everything we had on the floor upstairs. Garrett even slipped (the floor was incredibly slick) and fell and just kept going. He was like a little man. So…all of our clothes are fine. Our books and toys…fine. Almost all that was left was furniture and they even stacked alot of that up on top of other furniture.
Before I go any further, you should know. My brain stops working in a crisis. Once I was downtown when a tornado came through and did major damage to the building I worked in and they evacuated us and I giggled the whole time. Yes. Totally inappropriate. So…I got the job of packing a little clothing. Um. So for myself, I packed pjs and a weeks worth of underwear and 3 pairs of shoes. ???? Gracie and Griffin ended up with no shoes packed for them. Ricky…I don’t know what got packed for him. It was crazy. I was probably in there for 20 minutes but in my mind it seems like I only had 2 minutes. I just kept wandering aimlessly around the house.
Garrett and Gracie went out first. Gracie sat our our friend and neighbor Robby and Garrett sat in the bottom of the canoe by himself. I came out after they had dropped them off with Griffin in my lap. I was terrified, so I can’t imagine how the kids felt. The current was river-like. Did I mention that I got into a canoe. That was floating. In my DRIVEWAY? Anyway, we went to my sister’s house that is around the corner and up on a hill, along with 4 or so other families. We had no electricity, cell or phone service. It was crazy.
On Monday, we just waited for the water to go down. We finally got into the house about 2 and when we first went in, it didn’t look so bad. I thought, wow, we’ll only have to replace the floor. There was an area meeting at 4 and I went to that while Ricky cleaned up. We’d dropped Garrett and Gracie off at Garrett’s friend Alex’s house - whose family has been a God-send to us. Griffin was…I don’t remember who was with Griffin at my sister’s house, maybe Tom. Anyway, after talking to and listening to some people there, I knew we had to come home and start getting stuff torn up. I had gotten a message from my sister-in-law that Ricky’s family had all these generators, box fans and a dehumidifier. I have to admit, I really thought at the time they were over-reacting. They were JUMPING on taking action before we even know we needed it. I am so grateful that they didn’t wait for us or we would have been MUCH further behind where we are.
God blessed us by sending the right people at perfect times who either knew exactly what to do or were willing to have someone tell them. We had over 25 people there between 5 and midnight and they moved all of our furniture to our covered deck, tore out all the floor and padding, pulled up all the baseboards, took down door jams, took out closet systems and one of the bathroom cabinets, tore out the drywall up to the 4ft mark and cut out all the wet insulation. I have never, in my life see so much work being done so fast. Everyone was in great spirits and seemed to be enjoying it. Especially three of the teenage boys that were there that were having TOO much fun beating up my drywall. They worked at warp speed.
The next day we sent some of the crew that showed up to help us, down to our neighbors, Danny and Katrina. Their house was flooded up to about 5 ft (ours was about 1 ft). Danny pulled me and Griffin out of the water. While he could see his house going deeper and deeper under. He wasn’t trying to salvage stuff, he was rescuing people. With a smaller, but very dedicated crew, they finished pulling all the cabinets - kitchen and bathroom out (they’re gone - we couldn’t salvage them), the small amount of drywall and insulation, took out all the insulation under our house and under the bay windows, took our shower out and cleaned up so we can spray it all today with an anti-microbial, anti-fungal solution.
Our house is a shell from 4 ft down. But I have Never. Felt. So. Much. Love. In. That. House. God has blessed us in immeasurable ways and will no doubt, continue to do so. I hope to let you know about many of the miracles we’ve seen later - besides just getting out when we had NO idea it was going to get that bad. I will go ahead and share one. I forgot to move our wedding album that was under our bed, so everything got moved up, except what was hiding under our bed. It was the only thing I was worried about, because it can’t be replaced. The photographer has destroyed the negatives. When Ricky and I went into the house, I went straight to the bedroom to see if it had made it. I pulled out a box that was still dripping with water and literally disintegrated when I lifted the top. I started crying and looked at Ricky and said “we lost them”. When I peeled the top off and lifted our album up. I was dry. DRY. UNHARMED. In pre-flood condition.
Everyone has been asking how you can help. First, Please stand in the gap for us. Pray for us and all the people of Nashville that are going through the same thing EVERY time you think of us. Stand in the gap and fight for us. As far as physical/material possessions, I’m going to make a list when I can. Here are some things I know we’ve lost:
All our pots and pans
Bakeware
Pampered Chef baking stones 
Breadmaker
Sound machine
There are alot of things we don’t know about yet; lawnmower, appliances, hot water heater. Our air conditioning unit won’t work so we’re going to get them to come look at it. We’re going to need a lot of building materials: drywall, insulation, cabinets, paint. So if you have a connection… I hate doing this, but have been advised to do so. What we need most right now is financial. We have food, clothing, a place to stay but we (and most flood victims) are not covered by insurance, so we’ll be doing all of this on our own. FEMA is coming in but we’ve been informed they’ll be offering us loans, not grants. I don’t know that is a fact and am hoping it’s not right, but I’m not holding my breath. I’m trying not to get discouraged by the expenses we’re about to face and I know God will supply all of our needs.
Thank you. Everyone. We owe a debt of gratitude we can never repay.