My heart is sad this morning for a dear couple who were friends of mine at Harding, Jordan and Kari Clark. Their little boy Drew passed away yesterday at just 15 months after a four and a half month battle with neurological problems. He had been having a constant seizure for months and no medication could control it. They still don't have a definitive diagnosis and it might be awhile before they find out exactly the cause. Their faith through this ordeal has been so amazing to me. Kari's blog entry yesterday could be part of Hebrews 11. She and Jordan want to continue to encourage others through their heartache and make sure God is glorified through the life of Drew. What warriors for the Lord they are! I have their blog marked in my favorites under "The Clark Family" if you would like to read their story. Please pray for them as they deal with what I know will be hard weeks, months, and years ahead.
I got an e-mail last week that another friend of mine from Harding, Mark Trainer and his wife Shauna are going through a similar situation. Their year old daughter Hailey has been diagnosed with brain cancer and starts chemo this week. Statically her prognosis is not good, but they too have an amazing faith and know God can move mountains. Please pray for healing for Hailey and strength, comfort, and peace for Mark and Shauna. Her chemo will last about 9 months. They also have three other older children as well and I know will feel pulled in so many directions. Their website is http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/haileyanntrainer
I know we serve a BIG God and I just pray this morning for him to take Jordan and Kari in His arms and comfort them as only He can. I also pray for complete healing for little Hailey.
On the way home we stopped at Steak-n-Shake for lunch. I miss this place from my Harding days and it turns out Ty absolutely loves their shakes. I made Jake wear this hat for a picture (he wasn't happy) and got a picture with him under my favorite sign. Good ol' Steak-n-Shake!
Around 2:00 a.m., the winds really started blowing and branches started hitting the window so we moved into the closet. Luckily, Jake stayed asleep for much of the time. Our electricity went out between 2:00 and 3:00 so we switched to my little battery powered radio. It was the radio I used when getting ready in high school! My dad brought me a box of my stuff from home about a year ago, and I found the radio in the box. It definitely came in handy. The local news channel broadcast over the radio so we listened as the storm hit Galveston and moved through downtown Houston. At that point we hadn't seen the worst of the storm just the beginning winds. Ty and I tried to sleep, but the howling of the winds and crackling of limbs kept us awake. We stayed in the closet until around 8:00 or 9:00 the next morning when the winds finally began to die down. The picture below is Jake in the closet before the storm...he thought it was a fun hiding place!
After the storm it still rained all day, but Ty went out to assess our damage. We were so blessed! All four of our fences held, and we didn't have any big trees come down or do damage to our roof. Our house is surrounded by tall pine trees so we didn't know what to expect. All of the neighbors around us had damage so Ty helped some of them move trees off roofs and clean trees off the street. In our backyard we just lost the banana trees and some other small trees. You can see the debris everywhere.
Here is a house down the street from us who lost a fairly large tree.
We cleaned all day Saturday and had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch and dinner.I let Jake run around in his diaper since it was so hot. He had so much fun in our dark house! Saturday night we went to sleep as soon as the sun went down and slept with the windows up. We had a slow, stead rain all night long and I slept so well! I think this fall we'll have our windows up much more often. The fresh air is refreshing! Sunday morning we woke up and packed and drove to Ty's dad's house in Marshall, TX. We knew we wouldn't have power for awhile and were already tired of peanut butter and jelly! Here's the line of cars getting gas in Lufkin on the way there.
Ironically, Marshall had lost power too, but Larry had a generator and cooked out on his gas grill. It was so nice Sunday nice to have his famous brisket for dinner! Monday we drove over to Louisiana to see Ty's cousin Kip who was on leave from Iraq as well as his aunt and uncle and grandparents. We also got to see Ty's two brothers and their families, a little family reunion of sorts. Tuesday Ty looked online and the Centerpoint website said our neighboorhood had power so we thought about heading home. Ty talked to some co-workers who said there was still limited gas and food in Houston so we decided to come over Oklahoma for a few days and then head home. On the way here Ty talked to our neighbor who said although most of our neighborhood had power, our street did not. That was last Tuesday. Almost a week later, we still don't have power and we're still in Oklahoma. Ty's been able to work from here on his laptop which is a big blessing.
We were blessed this weekend with a visit from my parents. I hadn't seen them since May so we were so glad to see them, and I know they were more than ready to see Jake. Jake shined all weekend and learned some new tricks to impress his Oklahoma grandparents. My mom taught him to give her "knuckles" instead of "five," and Jake thought that was so cool. He also learned how to climb up in the kitchen chairs by himself and then even on up to the table. He is such a little climber. Last weekend he even climbed out of his crib for the first time...I think we're in trouble! He started using a few more words as well this weekend. He is usually very content just to sign whatever he wants, and we've been working so hard to get him to use his words as well. He said several different words for my mom including "Bible" which she thought was the best. He also said "Gigi" and "Papa." Originally, my mom was supposed to be Grammy, but my nephew Hendrix instead on naming her Gigi and the name has stuck.
