tablets of human hearts

Day 102

Whew. Another exhausting day. I took the day off from work because we had several workers coming to the house. As I waited for arrivals, I took advantage of the time, cleaning the upstairs bedrooms and getting them ready for the carpet cleaner (we had ground in sheet rock dust in the carpets) whom I scheduled to clean the carpet in Mark’s house and in our upstairs. As I cleaned, I even hung some things on our newly painted walls (after wiping them down from all the sheet rock dust). After the plumber arrived and got to work (he had a long list of items and will need to schedule a second day to finish everything: replace our hot water heater, hook up the kitchen sink, garbage disposal and dishwasher, cap pipes in our half bath and reroute pipes for the sink, cap our wet bar sink since we’re not installing it, and hook up the downstairs bathroom sink, the master bathroom sink and tub) I took out my paint stuff and painted the dining room ceiling. Later, the marble man arrived to give us an estimate of reinstalling our marble bath tub and building shelves on our bathroom counters out of marble. We discovered, to our dismay, that our bathroom cabinets are two inches too wide for our marble counter tops. Thankfully, he said it would be easy to build a shelf and cap the ends to cover the two inches. He also said that he should be able the mold the marble (which has bowed a little since we took it apart) back to its shape. Once he left, I resumed painting and painted our hallway and entry. Like the living room, we were able to get a close enough match on the paint that we do not have to repaint everything. The plumber didn’t leave until late and I finished painting almost as late. But, aside from trim, doors and touch ups, we are now finished painting the house! Hurrah! I am very thankful. We have made very good progress. So many who have had significant damage to their homes are still unable to live them still. The majority of damaged homes I see in the neighborhood are still studs inside.

Speaking of thankful. I remember a some folks I forget to mention my thankfulness for in my email on the 26^th of November (I knew I would forget someone – that is why I asked for forgiveness ahead of time). I’m thankful for my father in law who drove from San Antonio and stayed a week to help Jon on the house. I am thankful that he let Jon borrow his suburban when our van was acting up on Jon’s trip to Texas to pick up our shepherd, Scout. I am also thankful for my daughter Heather, who has scrubbed and rescrubbed kitchen and bathroom floors, removing bayou muck and later sheetrock dust and globs of sheetrock mud. I am thankful also for Jon’s parents and his brother, Bubba and his wife Vonnie, who opened their homes to our kids and Bob’s kids immediately after the storm.

God is good and He works through the hearts of those who love us.

Thank you, again, all of you, for your love for us.

Grace & Peace

Day 101

We moved back into our house on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. We actually started staying at the house Monday night. Mark’s house (where we’ve been staying) is on the market for renters. This morning, I finally sit in my dining room again for my morning coffee and time with the Lord. My dining room walls are painted a lovely green once more and even though the room still has concrete floors, a workbench piled high with tools and paint supplies, tape still on the trim and construction dust every where, it is again my favorite room in the house.

My Beth Moore study “Breaking Free” has a chapter on “Beauty from Ashes” that focuses on the book Songs of Solomon and how we are the beautiful Bride of Christ. As I gazed upon my pretty green walls, waiting for me to hang curtains and other pretty things on them, I remember my earlier analogy of our mold filled home compared to ugly sinned filled hearts.

The process has been slow, tedious and painful to rip out the damage and restore it, but oh, I see glimpses of the loveliness that is rising from the “ashes” (or in this case from the flood waters). Isn’t that how our awesome Father is? He carefully, often slowly, tediously and yes even painfully, removes the ugly sin from our hearts and lives and restores us to something lovelier. Will my house be exactly the same when I’m done? Of course not, but it will be even more so mine. So is the heart that the Lord restores. It will not be the same as before (Oh blessedness) but wholly belonging to the Lord and guaranteed to be lovely. Then our precious Lord may gaze upon us and say “How beautiful you are my darling, O how beautiful.” Songs of Solomon 1:15

Blessings.

Grace & Peace

Day 90

I am so grateful for all the wonderful help we’ve had along the way, as we recover from the damages of Katrina.

I am thankful for Bob, who returned on the reconnaissance trip with Jon, helped rip out smelly carpet and kick holes in our walls to slow the growth of mold, and was there every day for the first couple of weeks, tearing out molded sheetrock, wet insulation and ruined cabinets. He is back again helping Jon to hang kitchen cabinets over this four day weekend.

I am thankful for our Pastor, Rocky, who has been there every step of the way, often with the help of his oldest son, Matthew, hanging sheetrock, taping, mudding, sanding, and texturing, and this weekend helping to hang kitchen cabinets.

I am thankful for the two navy groups that each spent a day at our house, cutting trees and cleaning limbs and branches in our backyard and side yard.

I am thankful for Heather and Sam who clean muck covered bathroom floors.

I am thankful for Daniel for hanging the insulation in our house and helping to prime and paint, and for him and his friends who have hauled trashed, bagged trash, and tore down broken fences and hauled them to the trash pile.

I am thankful for Mark and Brenda who so graciously let us stay in their home while we worked on ours.

I am thankful for the groups of church teams that have come down and helped us hang sheetrock, mud and sand, and this weekend I am thankful for another group of three that are hanging the doors in our house.

I am thankful for everyone who has sent encouraging words during these past three months who have sent money and gift cards to help out, who have sent books to replace some of the ones Jonny lost, and who have sent stuffed animals to give out to children who lost their homes.

I am thankful for the school district that is raising money to replace and rebuild a playground at one of the affected schools on the coast.

I am thankful for all the people who come down to the coast to help cut down trees, haul flooded vehicles, gut homes and rebuild. I am thankful for all the food, supplies, clothing, coats and bedding that churches have sent. I am thankful to see FEMA trailers all over, because that means people have places to live while their lives are rebuilt. I am thankful for all those who work in gas stations, home improvement stores, grocery stores, appliance stores, furniture stores and all the other stores that have been a part of our recovery. The employees are working long hours, with not enough other employees and too many customers with so many needs.

I am thankful for each and every one of you, for your prayers and your encouraging words.

I think I have mentioned everyone. Please forgive me if I left something out. It is not because I am not thankful, but rather because of stressed induced forgetfulness.

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Blessings to you all

Grace & Peace

Day 88

Happy Thanksgiving.

Grace & Peace

Day 86

We’re painting! Hurray! Jon and I took leave this week to get our house ready for the kitchen cabinets and flooring. We have primed all the drywall and have painted the laundry room and kitchen. We changed the color from dark blue to greens. Pale green for the laundry, spring green for the kitchen and garland green for the dining room. I hope I like the new green in the dining room. The previous green was rosemary sprig and it was my favorite room in the house. The new greens are cooler than the rosemary sprig, so I’ll have to wait until we paint the dining room to see how I like it. I also painted the downstairs bathroom, but since the clerk at Walmart used a medium base for the color, rather than the light base which we had previously, the color is slightly different and now I will have to repaint the entire room because the colors don’t match.

Tomorrow, Jon and I hope to paint the master bathroom, finish repainting the other bathroom and paint the living room. Over this past weekend, we were visited by the previous owners of the house. They were in town visiting friends (bringing in needed supplies) and stopped by our house, hoping we would allow them to see how it fared. We invited them in, showed them the waterline (which still exists on one of the living room windows) and see the work we were doing. They were simply amazed; like us, they never considered the possibility of the house flooding. During the course of the conversation we discussed the repainting and I expressed our frustration in having to repaint the entire living room (and its 20 foot ceilings). They told us, much to my delight, that the paint they used should still be on file at the Benjamin Moore store in Gulfport. What a time and effort saver it would be if we could match the paint color. I called the Benjamin Moore store and was able to get paint for the living room and the hall/entry.   We’re hoping it matches.

It’s hard to believe Thanksgiving is upon us. Jon will pick up Heather at college tomorrow. She hasn’t been home in two weeks so it will be good to have her home. We’re planning on celebrating Thanksgiving at our church. We do have so much to be thankful for. We live in a country where we can worship and work in freedom. We have opportunities to travel, to learn, to dream and to enjoy life. We’re not in constant fear of our safety or the safety of our children. We can read what we want, speak what we want and believe what we want. When others are hurting, we reach out with love and compassion. We pour out our hearts to help in whatever way we can.

Give thanks, with a grateful heart, Give thanks, to the Holy One.

Give thanks, because He’s given, Jesus His Son.

Let the weak say I am strong.

Let the poor say I am rich.

Because of what the Lord has done for us.

Give thanks.

Grace & Peace