A Tough Year

I'll try to return to blogging about "home" topics again soon. I don't want to overwhelm you with hurricane posts. I know that it is hard, sometimes, to identify with something that is so far away. Go to my Hurricane Katrina blog to keep up with what's happening locally.

This one really scared us who are here on the Gulf Coast. We stayed for the storm, too. She blew us around at about a Category 1-2 strength in our area, with 12 foot storm surge. But, if Katrina had hopped East by just 40 miles, our family would be one of those with a flattened house....and maybe worse. Only four miles away from my home there are gutted houses along Mobile Bay.

That's just too close for comfort.

Do you ever get to a low point when things just keep going wrong? Like on one of those days when everything bad is happening, until you finally say, "What's next?".

Well, I'm having one of those years...

Last August, Tim lost his job in a very unexpected way when a fellow employee sent an email to the district level, just packed full of lies, because she was in trouble herself and wanted to divert attention. Tim was fired by that district guy, who had never met Tim, didn't look at his past record of working at the company for over 3 years without a single blemish, and didn't ask Tim any questions. Out of the blue, the district guy sent an email back to Tim's store, and he was fired. It's one of those big employers that won't reverse a decision like that, so we were out of our sole income, just like that.

The day after he was fired, our insurance policies were cancelled by the company. But we didn't receive notice of that for a while.

Only 2 weeks later, Hurricane Ivan hits, causing over $9,000 in damage to our home in Alabama and to our house in Florida that was ready for sale (we moved six months before to be closer to Tim's new job - he'd just been promoted). It was a Category 4 storm and crippled our area to the point that it is still very much in disrepair, a year later.

In April, a record flood causes our entire back yard to flood, flooding our neighbors' house but thankfully not ours. We only lost our chicken coop and a chicken. More stress and worry, but we were okay.

In June, Tropical Storms Arlene and Cindy arrives. More preparations; more excitement and a little stress. We're getting tired of these storms.

In July, Hurricane Dennis arrives, causing $6,000 in damage to our Florida home, which had just gotten fixed and ready to put on the market again.

Now, Hurricane Katrina.

Along with all of that has been the little things....like late bills and flat tires (hurricanes cause that) and all the other things that go wrong, nagging at your psyche until you want to become a hermit and hide away.

Of course, there have been countless blessings, and we have not starved or been naked in all this time. Our babies are healthy, we are happily married, we have a home....

But I feel that Hurricane Katrina was a last straw of sorts. I just feel so beaten down. I think that's why I'm focusing on helping her victims and refugees. For one thing, I can identify with them. But for another, it helps me to not focus on me.

It's been hard to be upbeat for the children, who really have no idea of what just happened. It's hard to be upbeat for Tim, or for me.

When things get this tough, we know logically that God is still there.

But sometimes we just can't feel Him.

by Lori Seaborg