3 years later

It has now been 3 years since my life was changed by Mother Nature.  Three years ago Hurricane Katrina swept through and changed life as we know it for everyone. What I thought was going to be a 3 day trip to Texas has now changed into a 3 year adventure.  Three years ago we were preparing for a wedding and a new life together as man and wife, I was about to use my degree in Advertising and join the largest advertising firm in the South, Chris was finishing college and life was good. Since Chris and I had just moved back to New Orleans, we were saving money for the wedding, so we were living in the back section of my grandparents house. The news was describing that this storm could be "the big one" that they have been warning about for years, but of course they said that about all of them. We all grabbed only a handful of clothes and 7 adults and 2 dogs piled into 2 cars and started the long drive to Tyler, TX - which was our usual place to evacuate to.  We left 4 cars behind in the drive way and drove away.  As a precaution before we left, I placed a few bath towels by the doorways, just in case we got a little water. 

It was a Sunday when we began the drive. Traffic was like never before. Both sides of the interstate were going in the only direction allowed, out of the city.  We got to the hotel and watched joyfully that the hurricane didn't hit the city directly. We rejoiced - then it happened. News that the levees broke and that our beloved city was flooded came on the television. Scenes of despair of trapped victims of mother nature soon came later. My cell phone was left at home, the cell phone towers were down anyway, so you couldn't reach anyone who had the 504 area code or any other one that was related to the surrounding areas. We couldn't get in touch with Chris' family for a few days. We then realized that we were stuck in Tyler, TX and that life as we knew it was over.

From Tyler, we moved further into Texas to Irving and were in another hotel for about a month. While there, I started working at The Peanut Gallery in Coppell because it was right across the street from the church we were attending.  The people in that church were amazing. Someone gave my grandmother a wheelchair, we were given clothes and the eventually shelter. A lady who had a rental house in The Colony let all 7 of us stay there rent free for 3 months. Then we stayed there for a while longer.

Then the wedding - what were we going to do? We had to book things a  year in advance in New Orleans and we didn't know about Dallas at all. Then the news came that the church where we were supposed to get married at and where we had attended for all of our lives was destroyed and was not reopening. We decided that we wanted to get married in New Orleans no matter what. We had to make some changes and scramble around, but we did it, and it was beautiful. It was truly the happiest day of my life, which would repeat with another happy event exactly 1 year later.  The month before the wedding, Chris and I rented a house in The Colony and brought my grandparents with us. By that December, we ended up buying a home a few streets away.  Shortly after that, our attempts to grow the family were successful and we announced that we were expecting. We decided not to find out the sex. We decided that the best thing for the baby was to stay where we were because we weren't comfortable with the quality of life that we would have back home.

I have purposely left out the details of the condition of our homes in New Orleans and the tragedies that we saw first hand.

The year that followed was difficult. My beloved grandmother passed away and then 9 days later on my 1 year wedding anniversary, Preston was born. It was a great joy, but sad because grandmother never found out that it was a boy. She passed away on my mom's birthday - which happened to fall on Friday the 13th. 

Since all of this has happened, my grandfather still lives with us, my brother-in-law has been living with us since before Preston was born as well. We have a full house. My grandfather now has Dementia, my mom moved back to New Orleans and so did Chris' family.

Life is busy, but we are adjusting.

Three years later and my mom is now driving along to Tyler, TX because the city is in a State of Emergency. 

God Bless New Orleans.