Here's a rundown on the past few months:
House
This is what the house looked like the morning of June 14, 2008.
Of course, later that same day, the house was nearly covered with water. Six weeks later, when the water had finally receded, this is what we were left with:
Now, seven months after the levee break, the house looks like this!
Mom and Dad made the decision to rebuild last October and haven't looked back since. We're all thrilled to be back! They made some adjustments to the floorplan to make it perfect for them. Mom and Dad will now have a master bath and walk-in closet, the laundry was moved from the basement to the main floor, and the former living room is being converted into two bedrooms. The biggest change is the addition being put on the south side of the house, where the deck used to be. This will now be the living room and comes straight off the kitchen. It's full of windows, so it's going to be pretty!
I can't say enough about the Apostolic Christian Church, which is the church I grew up in. Their mission/outreach group, World Relief, adopted my family and have been providing all of the labor to rebuild. You can't even begin to describe the appreciation for this. They've been working so hard on the house, through cold, snowy weather. I really shoud devote a whole blog post to that! The expected completion date is late spring/early summer. I'm hoping I'll be able to come up and help them move into our old, but new house!
Life in General
I can't believe how time is flying. We're already at the end of January!! Before I know it, it will be spring break, and usually after spring break it's all downhill from there. I LOVE my job. If you don't know, I teach preschool special education in a public school district. I have two classes - a morning and afternoon session. My morning session is integrated, which means I have kids with special needs and "typically developing" kids. I have 10 in that session, and six in the afternoon. I love seeing every one of them every day. They are an absolute delight. Every day I'm guaranteed 16 goodbye hugs and kisses, plus lots of hand holding. Does it get any sweeter than that? :)
Honestly, it's just been a weird few months. I enjoy my job and have lots of good friends, but miss Iowa, especially with the flood, nephews, and other family. It's just been one of those "dry" times in life. I don't really have any major stress or complaints, it's just been, well, dry. Life has changed in several ways and I'm trying to keep up and adjust to all of those changes, some of which has been easy, and some that's been hard. I'm working on some of my own changes, too, which is good! I have no idea what life is going to hold for this year, but am attempting to trust God with that!
Enough for now! I'm in a new Sunday school class studying Christ and Culture and have some thoughts on that. I'll post some thoughts after tomorrow's class!
Thanks for reading!
