Back to Normal-ish after Harvey

The Katy area was hit particularly hard with Harvey, both during the storm and afterwards with the dam releases. Katy ISD cancelled 11 school days as our area began to recover. By the time the kids returned to their normal schedules and school routines, it was almost like starting the school year brand new again. Normalcy would be a long time off, but we resumed activities as best as we could.

Kaitlynn was excited about her 3rd grade year at Woodcreek. She was making new friends and loving her new teachers but also working hard. I never get tired of seeing the work she brings home. Since she was still missing her Daddy terribly, I made sure to volunteer at her school activities so that I could spend extra time with her.

I was a parent volunteer at Kaitlynn's 3rd grade field trip to the science center. They had multiple stations set up to let the kids experiment and play. It was so fun to hang out with my girl and her friends on the beautiful fall day, which also happened to be "Wear Your Favorite Jersey" day at school!

Connor was preparing for his final year of recreational football in 6th grade. With the 2+ weeks off from normal practices due to Harvey, he made sure to get in some extra workouts at the Woodcreek playground in the evenings while Kaitlynn played and I walked laps. He also met up with his buddy Jayden for some workouts at the junior high.

When it was time for school photos, both kids did their part to dress up nicely. I never ended up receiving the pictures that I thought I ordered from the schools, so these at-home iPhone photos turned out to be our only school portraits for the fall.

Ander Oak

About a week before Harvey hit the Houston area, we hired a work crew to begin extensive remodeling at our vacated rental house on Ander Oak so that we could put it on the market for sale. They were doing several minor maintenance and cosmetic repairs as well as repainting the entire home. The crew had just gotten started with the painting when the work came to a screeching halt due to Harvey.

Unfortunately, the Harvey rains wreaked havoc on the area in northwest Houston where our rental house is located. With most area roads and freeways blocked due to flooding, I was unable to check on the Ander Oak property after the storm finally ended. But online reports on social media indicated that the Anderson Woods neighborhood was heavily impacted. I checked in with our former tenant of the property, and he had been sent a video by a neighbor showing water completely surrounding our house. We were forced to accept that we likely had flood damage at the Ander Oak house, so I began the process of filing a claim with our insurance company as well as FEMA.

A few days passed and I continued checking road status to find out when I could go check on the property. I was anticipating the worst but wanted to begin the cleanup process as soon as possible. Finally, I just decided to take my chances and make my way to the house. The kids were with me and I warned them that we might not be able to reach the house, or if we did, we might be faced with a mess when we got there. I had to take a few detours but I finally reached the Anderson Woods neighborhood. I was completely unprepared for what I found.

We had to park blocks away from the house because the street leading to our house was still underwater. It had been DAYS since the last rain, and I couldn't believe there was still standing water. There were cars lined up and down the streets and people everywhere. I didn't understand what was going on until it hit me -- these cars and people were here cleaning out their flooded homes. Block after block of flooded houses and volunteers doing the difficult "mucking out" process, a phrase we later began to hear too frequently, referring to the massive cleanup effort of flooded homes. The kids and I were stunned at the devastation.

We had to walk past the still-flooded street and all the way down to the cul-de-sac to reach our Ander Oak house. It was such a devastating sight to see these struggling homeowners bringing out all of their damaged belongings and flooring to the curbside. House after house of ruined furniture, carpet, drywall, and anything else that the dirty floodwaters had touched. It was now all garbage.

Along our walk, the part of the street that wasn't covered in floodwater was instead covered in a muddy mess. We could see the mud/water line on the fences in between the flooded homes. It was difficult to imagine these beautiful homes being filled with this nasty, dirty floodwater. The elevation seemed to vary a little based on the side of the street. Some houses had been flooded 12 inches while others looked to be over 2 feet.

The longer we walked towards our house, the more my anxiety was building at what I would find. I knew that our left-side next door neighbor had flooded 2-3 inches, so I wondered how bad it would be at our house. When we finally reached the house, I scanned the exterior for any signs of flooding like a water line, muddy residue, etc. I didn't see any obvious signs, but I told the kids to stay on the driveway in case we might have an electrical issue.

With a deep breath, I stepped onto the front porch and peered into the windows. It took me a moment to focus and figure out what I was seeing. I was looking down towards the floors to see how wet/muddy they were, but instead, all I saw were paint cans and upright ladders. I remembered that the painters had been mid-project before the storm. Then I noticed something surprising - a gleam in the hardwood floors. But it wasn't a dirty floodwater gleam. It was the normal shine to the floors. As in, the floors had not been damaged! I let out a squeal and said to the kids, "I don't think it flooded?!"

We ran (sloshed) around to the backyard and I looked into the back windows. Same thing - no residue and NO floodwater. I was astonished! We walked inside and surveyed all of the downstairs rooms, and sure enough, there was no evidence of flooding. I couldn't believe it.

I was overcome with emotion -- devastation for my neighbors I had just witnessed mucking out their homes, overwhelming relief that our house had been spared, and quite frankly, confusion over how we didn't have water in the home when our left-side next door neighbor did. The kids and I stopped to pray right there amidst the paint cans and drop cloths, thanking God for sparing our home and seeking his comfort for the people hurting all along our street.

I walked next door and talked to my next door neighbor on our right side. At the height of the storm, she had evacuated the neighborhood wading through waist-deep water in some areas. She informed me that the floodwater had risen from the creek right behind our houses. It flowed up and under our backyard fences and into our backyards (which explained the video I had seen with water surrounding our house) and then down the street, passing our houses which had a slightly higher elevation. She also told me that one of the other neighbors was convinced that our homes were spared because he had gone through and opened the gates all along our back cul-de-sac, allowing the rushing, rising water to flow more easily downstream and not rise up over our foundations.

It was an emotional experience, hearing the stories of our neighbors and watching them begin to recover from the aftermath of Harvey. Driving away that afternoon, we saw neighborhood after neighborhood of complete devastation. In the weeks to come, there would be countless piles of debris and discarded furniture on every curbside as far as the eye could see. Our house renovation was understandably on hold, but we had never felt more fortunate.

Harvey

It was the last week of August, and I was preparing for my final days at my part-time job at Total. I was wrapping up some knowledge transfer from my project role to the employee who would be taking over my responsibilities, as I was preparing our family for our move to Dubai. During my last meeting in the office, there was some chatter about a tropical storm that had gained strength and appeared to be heading towards Houston. "Be ready," I told my project replacement, who had never experienced a big storm since living on the Texas coast. "You might want to hit the grocery store and gas station soon, before the rest of Houston buys everything out!" I was only partly joking.

On my way home from work that afternoon, indeed I stopped at the gas station to fill up and the grocery store for a few supplies. I wasn't overly concerned. After all, I've experienced many of these Houston-area storms in the near 20 years that I had lived in the area. Hurricane Rita, Ike, and of course, the worst storm I'd seen, Tropical Storm Allison. While at the gas station, it appeared that others were heeding the storm warnings as well. Lines were starting to form at the pumps and in the stores. I was thankful to have beaten the rush, and I began paying close attention to my favorite weather stations and bloggers.

Fast forward a few days, it was beginning to appear that this new storm named Harvey was no longer a potential threat but a definite cause for concern. The forecast was shaping up to be quite the rainmaker, regardless of where the path would end up. As Houston has experienced severe flooding often, the usual precautions were being taken and most folks were preparing for a rough few days.

Generally when preparing for a hurricane, so much attention is given to where the storm will make landfall which is always uncertain. In Harvey's case, not only was the landfall location a question but the storm path post-landfall seemed to truly puzzle and concern the forecasters.

Computer models were indicating that the storm would hit another weather system, causing it to stall and continue dumping crazy amounts of rain over the greater Houston area. It was an unprecedented situation, and the entire Texas coast was on alert.

Hurricane Harvey was forecasted to make landfall late Friday. In anticipation of the storm, most local schools cancelled classes for the day to allow families to take necessary precautions. Since Jeff was working in Dubai and I was by myself with the kids, I considered driving up to my parents' home to escape the storm threat. After studying the forecast and talking with neighbors, I decided that I would be fine at home and had the support of friends/neighbors if needed. The kids and I went to an afternoon movie and noticed the clouds moving in. By Friday evening, we were stocked with food and supplies and we hunkered down to wait out the storm.

Friday night, I put the kids to bed and waited for the storm to approach. It looked like the worst part of Harvey would hit us sometime Saturday. I went to bed and woke up early Saturday morning around 4:00 am. The weather alerts on my phone had just started to sound, so I turned on the local news and began watching the storm coverage. As I continued watching, suddenly my iPhone weather alerts as well as the television newscast alerts began going into overdrive. Tornado warnings were hitting the area, and one particular path of tornados was headed our way.

Around 5:15 am, I heard the meteorologist on TV mention that a tornado was heading directly to WoodCreek Elementary, which was right around the corner from our house. I jumped up and began rushing upstairs to wake the kids to take them to our downstairs closet. At the top of the stairs, I paused, wondering whether I really should wake them. After all, they were sleeping soundly and how likely was it that a tornado was coming our way?

At that exact moment, at the top of the staircase, I heard a sound I will never forget. I grew up in tornado alley and have been told about the "freight train" noise my entire life, but I've never heard it in person. It was the most eerie sound -- a super loud whistle, definitely sounding like a train right outside my house. I stood there, paralyzed in fear, at the top of the stairs. It was probably only a split second, but a thousand thoughts went through my mind. Primarily, if I'm hearing this noise, then isn't it too late to get my children to safety?

I went into Connor's bedroom, and mustered up the calmest voice I could. "Connor," I said, with noticeable shaking in my voice, "Wake up. You need to get up right now. Go downstairs to my closet. Now." I tried so hard to keep the fear out of my voice. I saw that he was awake and then I ran into Kaitlynn's room. She doesn't wake easily, so I said the same thing to her and picked her up to carry her downstairs. I barely made it downstairs carrying her because my body was shaking so violently from fear. We all made it into our master bedroom closet as we could hear the wind and rain picking up outside. I kept my "game face" on, explaining calmly to the kids that there was a tornado in our area. I was worried that they would see how scared I was, so I suggested that we FaceTime Jeff to say good morning.

We waited in the closet a while and when a break in the rain finally hit, I went outside to survey any damage. Turns out that we lost a fence, and there were several other homes in our neighborhood that were impacted as well. The tornado that went through our neighborhood ended up destroying a massive RV business not far from our house. I felt so lucky to have escaped without injury or major damage!

As it turns out, the tornado was a minor event compared to the weather events of the days to come. The rain fell, and fell, and fell, beyond anything we could have ever imagined. On the 3rd day of nonstop rain, I broke down into tears seeking comfort from Jeff over our middle of the night FaceTime call. It seemed like the raIn would never end. I cried out of fear, worrying about our family and both of our homes and how they would fare in the rising flood water. But mostly I cried for the countless families all around the Houston area who were dealing with unimaginable pain and suffering. The stories on the nonstop local news coverage were so horrifying and depressing that I had to force myself to turn off the TV to save my state of mind. Luckily we never lost electricity but the days seemed endless with the incessant rain and bored kiddos trapped inside at home.

I lost track of the number of days we dealt with Harvey's deluge. Things all around us seemed so surreal: waking up to the sound of frequently passing airboats navigating what were previously our nearby residential streets; stepping outside to see a low-flying Coast Guard helicopter directly overhead in our far-inland neighborhood; seeing drone footage posted on social media showing that our neighborhood was now an island with no escape route except by boat; watching live news coverage of a dangerous and heart-stopping water rescue at our local corner Shell station.

I wasn't sleeping much due to worry, as well as the constant iPhone emergency weather alerts from tornado warnings and catastrophic flooding. The kids were sleeping in our master bedroom closet, simply so that I wouldn't have to keep waking them throughout the night when a new alert popped up. Even during the daytime, we were in and out of that closet more times than I could count. I was comforted by numerous friends and family from afar, all checking on our well-being. I think it was around Day 5 when I woke up and the sky finally seemed brighter. The weather forecasts were saying that the worst was over. We were cautiously optimistic.

With only light rain for a while, the kids and I decided to pull on our rainboots and walk through the neighborhood to see the state of the area from the days of rain. Everything was soggy and waterlogged, and some streets were still impassable. Buffalo Bayou runs right through our neighborhood and had completely flooded the recreation area as well as the roads connecting us to the freeway.

It was another day or two before our local grocery store began to open with limited hours, and it was even longer for the surrounding highways to finally clear of the floodwater which had covered our area. Story after story emerged of flooded homes, helpless families, and a community coming together to help those affected. The name Harvey has since become synonymous with flooding and devastation, as the hurricane and tropical storm wreaked havoc on the entire Texas coastline and greater Houston area. My single account of our Harvey experience can't possibly begin to convey the emotion, destruction, and toll taken on so many lives from the storm that forever changed the cities and people of the greater Houston and south Texas areas.

As the "survivor's guilt" began to set in for those of us that were mostly unscathed from the storm, I was given some of the best advice I have ever received from one of my closest friends:

"Sweet friend - let your heartbreak motivate you to action first chance you get, but don't let Satan rob you of the joy of a positively answered prayer. God spared your family and your home - what a blessing. Use it to bless others."

Such powerful words and encouragement that helped me through the coming days as our area began to recover and rebuild.

Missing Sweet Daddy

Once Jeff left for Dubai in early August, we knew it would be a while before we saw him again. The plan was that I would travel to Dubai in early September to stay with Jeff, tour schools and neighborhoods, and generally get to know the city to decide if we could see our family living here. Then, Jeff would make a visit home sometime in early October. The time between Jeff's departure and first visit home was about 7-8 weeks, and the kids were missing him terribly. From putting the kids to bed each night to the coaching and assisting with sports and practices, Jeff's absence was felt strongly in our home. Kaitlynn often referred to herself as having a broken heart, which in itself was heartbreaking.

At some point during the long absence, we decided to create a countdown so that the kids would know when they would see their Dad again. At first the number seemed so high and felt discouraging, but the kids loved waking up each morning and changing the number. It felt like something tangible they could do to manage the separation.



Of course, they were happiest when they could see and talk to Jeff over the phone. FaceTime calls were such a blessing for all of us. We regularly talked with him on FaceTime right before bed and right before the kids went to school. They enjoyed so much hearing about Jeff's adventures in Dubai and sharing their own updates from home.






Late summer / Early fall

Here are some miscellaneous photos from our late summer and early fall. Without Jeff around, I had full days and nights of working around the house and hustling kids from practice to practice. The kids were missing their Dad so much that we made sure to stay busy.

Kaitlynn, in particular, was really struggling without her Daddy around. Somehow the topic of roller skating came up, and I promised to take her to learn to skate as a way to get her mind off of missing Jeff. We went to a rink for little kids in Katy. It was too small for big kids but it turned out to be a good place for Kaitlynn to learn how to roller skate for the first time. She had a blast and I was so happy to see the big smiles.

Since we were operating under the assumption that we would be moving at the end of the year, I made sure to arrange several play dates for the kids to spend extra time with their closest friends. It was hard to think about moving away from such sweet friendships.

We were delighted to have a visit from Collin in the fall. He was in town for a visit and came over to clean out some of his things he had left behind. He had been working hard in North Dakota for a while and saving every penny earned. All that money was just burning a hole in his pocket and he had to spend it on a cool new toy. It looked quite out of place in our garage but it sure is pretty!

The kids are always so happy to have time with their brothers because we just don't see them very often. And because Collin was a good sport, the kids found a new game partner to take advantage of.

Projects

Now that Jeff was working overseas in Dubai and both kids had resumed their normal school schedule, it was time for me to get to work on several projects to prepare for our upcoming move to Dubai. We were still tentative about the permanent move, but there were several things I could start working on to make sure we were ready, if and when we made the final decision to move.

The first project I tackled was to begin cleaning out our home. Goodness, it just overwhelms me how much STUFF we can accumulate in such a short time. We had only lived in our Katy house for 5 years, but the closets were overflowing with so much unnecessary junk that I couldn't wait to clean out. I started upstairs with the kids' bedrooms and closets and then moved on to the harder areas downstairs. I worked methodically room by room, closet by closet. Some things I sold online or saved for a garage sale, but mostly I ended up bagging up everything to take to Goodwill. I can't even begin to describe how much stuff we sold or gave away. It made me feel so ashamed at all of the material things we had accumulated that we simply did not need.

It took several weeks to work through the entire house, but it felt SO GOOD to purge and clean out the entire house. I had to save the garage and attic areas for Jeff, but the rest of the house was starting to shape up nicely for our potential move.

Another project I had to take on right away was our rental home in northwest Houston. It was our very first house together, and we have been leasing it for the last 10 years or so. We had the most awesome tenants for the last 6 years, and then suddenly they decided to move out in August. It felt like a sign, that it was time for us to finally sell this house as it had become difficult to manage the property from afar. Before we could sell, we were going to fix it up so that it would be more appealing on the market.

The interior needed a lot of work to be ready to put on the market, including all new paint on the walls and cabinets, new carpet in the bedrooms, and several little maintenance projects so that the home was in top condition. Luckily our realtor was willing to do some of the heavy lifting and he turned out to be a huge help. We lined up the contractors for the work and got started in mid-August. We were on a tight schedule to get the house ready and on the market. Little did we know that our timeline would be dramatically impacted in the weeks to come.