Empty but so full

I have resolved in my mind that I may never have the words to effectively communicate how difficult the week of the move was for me as we moved from our neighborhood to a temporary home until July. (our temporary home desires a blog post all in itself!) I recall Monday (over 3 weeks ago) sitting on my kitchen floor, okay I wasn’t sitting but laying clear across my kitchen floor with a pounding migraine in tears asking the Lord how was everything going to get packed when my body was so empty emotionally and physically.  It was at this moment the the burden seemed too heavy to carry and the wonderful part of this is I wasn’t. I wasn’t caring the burden alone at all. The Lord has woven people in our lives and I was reminded that I had many people praying, offering to help. Arrangements had been made for the next 3 days for Olivia to be picked up during the day, boxes had already been carried out by men sacrificing their time, I could certainly go on and not touch the surface on how many people have blessed us over the past year.   Just as I may never communicate the words in how difficult the week of the move was, I certainly couldn’t begin to explain the depth of gratefulness that we have for each one of you that have asked and helped this past year or so in this processes and continue to ask.

 So as the week of the move closed in and the walls echoed with the emptiness, memories continued to flood my thoughts of all the fun times we had in the house and in the neighborhood.   The house was so empty, but yet so full of sweet memories.  Saturday, before we shut the doors for the very last time we spent some time leaving our family mark at the house.  We collected the kids and went to the attic. This in itself made me chuckle. Whenever we had  pulled the attic door down in the past the kids would stop, drop and run to see if they could join whoever was in the attic. It was the unknown!  After we made it all in the attic we  took turns putting our hand print on a board. After we left our mark we gathered in the living room to pray for the new family Ben, Sarah and baby Rhys.  This offered a sweet closure to our family for our home. I new as we shut the doors to our home at Brewers Glynn that  it wasn’t so much the home that we loved, it was all the memories of the kids growing up and sharing our lives with the people around us.  Although this home was empty now it was so full of sweet memories and in a few short days it will again be full and soon will hold memories for another family.

Saturday we took the kids into the attic to place our family mark. We all took turns putting our hand print  on the board and we wrote a scripture verse on the board.

Before we closed the door,  we spent some time praying as a family together for the new owners Ben, Sarah and baby Rhys

When we walked into the Attorney's office to close on the house we hugged the buyers, like we had known them for years. We have had the blessing of following one another on facebook, twitter and our personal blogs walking through the process of buying and selling. It was a blessing to watch the excitement of a family buying their very first home. We had the privilege of having a faces to pray for through the selling/buying process.

Prom 2011

We are without the Internet currently with our temporary move so hopefully we will be up and running soon. Thank you Lisa for taking the pictures and making this easy to post.

Play Ball!

Well, the spring sports season is in full swing (no pun intended) here in NC.  Maddy and Logan are both playing ball this spring.  This is Logan's second season in Coach Pitch Baseball and Maddy's first season of Softball.  They are both having a great time and have improved a lot since their T-ball days together.

Billy and I both help out coaching each of their teams and we love the opportunity to be with the kids and meet new families on the team. 

Here are some pics of the kiddos in action over the past couple weeks.

Play Ball!

Billy praying with the boys before the game

Logan plays short stop and pitcher

Grandma and Grandpa came into visit and Olivia was enjoying having them all to herself at the game.

The Shay boyz came to cheer on Logan and the team.

Maddy is enjoying her first year of playing softball. She plays third base

I must say pretty good stance!

(Thanks lisa for this pic) The Shay boyz came to cheer on Maddy at one of her games too!

Tornadoes 2011-Raleigh NC.

Saturday afternoon the tornadoes covered our area. Billy and I had a house full of neighborhood kids in our home as we glued ourselves to the TV in order to see the route the tornadoes were taking.   We briefed the kids on where we would go and to go quickly.  The rain came and the wind rocked our trees back and forth. Billy and I paced the house looking at the sky and the trees while keeping the kids contained in one room. The tornado hit just a few miles away and destroyed everything in its path. Our power was out for several hours and the sun came out shinning within 20 minutes after the storm.  We had no idea of the destruction until our power came back on and we started to see the news reports and pictures.  We found out Sunday morning at church that some friends of ours, The Evans, home was one hit in the storm. However, they were in church praising the Lord for life and claimed Gods provision for their lives. Their house is pictured below.   Monday, I went over to the Evan's home to see how we can help and when I stepped out of the car, I couldn't contain the emotion.  Seeing pictures doesn't help you prepare for the damage and seeing the owners' faces.  Some homes were moved completely off their foundation and others were just a mess of sticks and debris. When you walked on the street or grass, the surface cracked with crumbled glass, nails and broken items. I did run into Amy, we hugged and I shared how sorry I was for her loss.  She quickly said it's just stuff that can be replaced and she was so thankful that everyone was alive unlike some folks just a mile from their home where lives were lost. She was pointing out things from their top floor in their home to me and said, "its crazy how one wall remains untouched, the mirror isn't even broken or tilted. A laundry basket, TV and books on the bookshelf remain untouched but everything else is gone." 

Can you believe that after all she had gone through in the past several hours Amy asked how I was doing with the move?? Amazing lady, unable to even give her a clear answer because I was blown away that even in the midst of her loss she was thinking about others. News reporters collected around us taping our conversations and Amy was so gracious to them and gave praise to the Lord for protection and the care from the community in efforts to clean up.

When Tuesday rolled around my mind and heart couldn't bear the thought of going on with my daily life and packing for PA when the need was so great in our area. Olivia and I left the house with tons of water and a willing heart for the Lord to use us in someway. Although deep within I just wanted a pair of work gloves & to get out and work but it wasn't safe for Olivia to get out.  So we went to a few streets that had damage but didn't have much help yet with response teams and Olivia helped hand water out to the neighbors that were cleaning and working. We had the opportunity to talk and pray with a few folks.  Everyone that we talked to including one home that had already been declared as condemned said they were blessed.....blessed.....yes you heard that right....blessed.  wow, my heart aches and my perspective challenged. 

This is the Evan's home, the front porch propped up with a column that had fallen and the house exposed like a doll house.

debris laying by the road

This is a shed tangled in the power lines their barn suffered much damage but the horse seems to have

faired ok.

You hear the sound of chainsaws and helicopters in the area

massive trees like this one up rooted in seconds that had stood for years

You can' t even see the floor plan of this house. Kids looking for their toys in the yards among the debris.

This house was lifted completely off the foundation and slid to the side. 

Make shift volunteer stations providing drinks and snacks for the relief effort.

Tree's across the area snapped like twigs by the force of the winds

Power lines are down across roads and transformers sitting in yards and streets along with mangled messes like this tower

Where do you start when much of the area looks like this? insulation tucked in trees and massive amounts of stuff everywhere

This car did not belong in this driveway.  It was rolled by the tornado to this home a few houses down.

power is still out for many even today

It appears almost every roof in this area has a blue tarp or a yellow/green condemned flyer on the front door. Most homes have all of the windows blown out

This was a home, just can't even make sense of the damage

Powerful moment to see N.C. Baptist Men covered the area, caught this group gathered around praying for a homeowner that lost his home.

There are several people still in serious condition at hospitals and many have passed in those few minutes that the storm swept through.  Please pray for all those effected in the storm.  We have had a dry forecast since the storm but today we have severe thunderstorms on the radar which can certainly be difficult with disaster relief and cleanup. Also, keep in mind praying for folks as they deal with the emotional impact of having severe storms this afternoon.