Carrie Cox’s Corner

The flip flop floated by and so did the cooler. There was nowhere to go and no way to get there, so I just let ‘er drive while I played a few songs on my piano that was still emerged in about six inches of water.  Hurricane Harvey is considered the wettest tropical cyclone in our history. 60 inches of rain! The 100 year floodplain that our neighborhood is near could not handle all the rain in just one weekend, and since Houston is barely above sea level, it decided to give half the county, including our home, ocean front property. Stressful time…for sure. The first level of our home was completely ruined. Our cars were flooded out and ruined. I vividly remember looking out our second floor window and seeing our neighbors wading through water on the street with a garbage bag of their things held above their heads. I will never forget that image It is vividly painted in my mind. It  was so hopeless. Fast forward to a week later, when I was driving a borrowed car and had a wreck. The next evening I get home and our cat is actively dying, convulsing, and suffering! I tried to help her, but she just ran away from me and died. That was it. That was the last straw-the cherry on top of a truly craptastic time. I lost it. I remember crying on Nathan’s shoulder, “I just don’t want anything else bad to happen.” (famous last words, eh?)

But you know what, looking back now, I can honestly say, I am thankful. The morning after the flood I was reading my Bible and read in Psalms and it mentioned the Lord riding on the food. I could just see Him on a surfboard riding in. Somehow that crazy visual encouraged me. Just when you’re feeling a bit forgotten, here comes the Lord surfing to your front door. You know what else encouraged me? People.

The day after the flood the sun came out, our bayou started to flow, and our roads dried up, and as soon as it did, in came some amazing friends to start the clean up. Many men from our church came and ripped out the wood flooring, the sheet rock, the carpet, the….well…everything. My friends came and helped me pack up my kitchen, my dishes, my clutter. They helped me sort through the ruined and the salvageable.  They took my clothes to be washed (because both my washer and dryer were ruined), they brought cleaning products, they scrubbed,  and they even brought barbecue to feed everyone working. Wow! These are good friends. I didn’t know what to do, but apparently it wasn’t their first rodeo, and if you live in Houston, you need at least one good flood story to your name.

There is this story about our old pastor, Jack Wood, who needed to finish the work on the new church building. He was praying for money for renovations, but instead of a donation, he got a flood because of a hurricane that came through. He used the insurance money to finish the church instead of immediately fixing up his house. While the waters were running through the door, he cut up a watermelon and let the juice run down the table and also run down his mouth. You’ve heard of when life gives you lemons, well, this story is when life gives you too much water, eat a watermelon lol.  My husband grew up with this story, so as soon as our downstairs filled with water, he goes and rescues the watermelon and takes a picture of himself eating it with the water below him. He was proud. We had our own watermelon story.

Our kids put on their swimming clothes and went to the slide in the backyard and pretended it was a water park. I’ve learned now that that is a bad idea with flood water, but thankfully I didn’t know that then, and they were able to have a blast and make some watermelon memories of their own. 

So here’s to watermelon stories. They sure are sweeter after the fact! 

Fast forward to a year later, our home was able to be restored, and you know what? It looks better now than it did before. We had plans for renovations, for opening up the dining room and filling in the sunken living room, for redoing the cabinets in the kitchen. I’m sure it was all talk and dreams, but after the storm-when everything was torn out, we were able to remake it and rebuild it just the way we wanted it. We were able to make some good financial decisions with our insurance claim, and it really helped to change our life for the better. That storm ended up being a big blessing. So today, again I’m thankful for the storm.

P.S.

Now, I am so very thankful that our “storm” was without any loss of life. I think of the horrible storm that swept through the east coast this season-that wasn’t an adventure-it was a travesty. So many lost everything, and people in their lives.There are some things in life that don’t really have a silver lining. I sure don’t want to hurt anyone by talking lightly about floods and storms. They can be utterly devastating. So if you are in a season of a terrible storm, a tempest-where there is no watermelon, no waterpark, not even any white light from the son where life will never be the same after this. I see you. I send you love, and all the prayers in my heart that God will comfort you when no one else can.