{The Great Flood}

It was 3:45 am and I heard Drew crying so I knew it was time to go feed him again. I heard the rain still pounding outside, but really didn't think anything of it. Then I went to get out of bed and put my feet down and I felt it. Water. I immediately yelled, "Chat! My feet are in water!" He flew out of bed and we realized that our house was flooding with the torrential downpour that Houston had that night/morning.

{Our front porch}

{Our driveway and garage}

{Picture from our doorway to the left}

{Our backyard as water receded}

{Our driveway in front at about 10:00 am}

{Front yard}

{Another front yard picture}

{Water finally receding and going down}

{To the right of our house}

 

We got anywhere from 1 to 4 inches in every room of our house. I initially thought "no big deal" but then I quickly learned that inches of water can ruin a house. By the next day, every floor in our house was buckled. The walls were wet. Mold started. It smelled so bad. We started up the fans and dehumidifiers which helped a ton with the smell. We lasted a few more days in the house, but realized with the mold, it wasn't good to keep kids there. So by that Sunday, the boys and I moved in with my parents and Chat headed out of town for work.

The insurance adjuster came that weekend as well and took measurements and pictures of everything. We had to complete our inventory list as well of anything damaged. And now we are waiting to hear about what we get from them. FEMA came as well and we got a little bit of assistance from them for housing, but not much. Only about a month. This has been a very expensive ordeal.

We also moved all of our stuff out of the house and into storage. By last Friday, we were able to get a short-term lease at an apartment and once Chat got home from his trip, we moved in there. It was by far one of the hardest weeks of my life -- packing up the whole house, taking care of three little ones and then moving into an apartment. I was maybe getting 3 or 4 hours of sleep and was literally on my feet from about 6:00 am to 11:00 pm every day. Drew was demanding as all infants are and I had about three days to pack up our entire house. Thank goodness for the neighborhood mom's group. I sent a Facebook message out asking for help and in an hour I had about 10 moms packing up my whole house. They got about 70% of my house packed in under three hours. I will be forever grateful to them.

So much happened in between all of that, but I don't know if I have the energy to write it or maybe I don't really want to bring it back up. It really was so challenging and I struggled. Some things it is better to just forget.

We have been in the apartment for over five days now and trying to find a new normal. We are on the second floor so it is exhausting going up and down with the kids and an infant carrier and taking the dog out when alone with three boys. But we are coping. It is only two bedroom so Chat and I are  sleeping in the den. We should be here two to three months and then our house will be either repaired or we will move into a rent house for the next 18 months and possibly tear our house down. It has now flooded twice and I honestly start to cry when thinking of having to do this again. I won't. It has been physically and emotionally exhausting and I can't imagine going through this again.

So we are in limbo a bit and living out of boxes. We are picking up a lot of take-out and using paper plates and plastic ware. But we are in one place and I am not having to put another thing in a box for a while. Well at least two months. Ben is probably having the most trouble with everything, but we are getting through.

I am not sure when I will update again, but hoping to have a plan soon !