This has been a stressful and crazy week for most of the people that I know. We had Hurricane Matthew come at us and disrupt our schedules, routines, work and even our fun. Life is just starting to get back to normal and so I feel like now is the time to share a little about our week. We were watching the storm on Tuesday and I absolutely hate that portion of time when you can’t tell if it is coming or not. People start to panic and the community is running out of gas and water and bread. Charleston becomes crazy  town.

Anytime a storm is coming it makes me remember a hurricane that came the year that we were married. I panicked. I was an official married grown up. I was worried about a storm coming and destroying all of our stuff. All of our new stuff- the stuff that we had just gotten for our wedding and the stuff that we did not have money to replace. I packed up everything- EVERYTHING. I had boxes and tubs in both bathtubs and in our cars.  Every wedding photo…who am I kidding… every photo period. The most painful part was that I literally packed up all of our dishes and silverware. Wrapped every single glass and plate in newspaper. I was trying so desperately to protect the life that we were just starting.

Guess what happened next? The storm turned and never even came to us. I spent hours upon hours unpacking and putting our house back together. I decided right then that I would not leave in the future unless they were sure a storm was coming.

Hurricane Matthew was projected to affect us. We wanted to have a plan in case we had to leave.  We searched for hotels and came up with nothing. Either they were all booked, were not pet friendly, or were way too expensive. We searched numerous cities- anywhere that would get us far enough away. I sat at my laptop trying to have a regular school day with the kids, while searching for a place to go. I was constantly sending texts to Otis trying to get us organized. In the midst of this craziness, a friend text me and said that if we needed a place to come that we could come stay with them. I jokingly told her that we were trying to find a place and not to tempt me because finding a hotel wasn’t going so well. She assured me that we were more than welcome, I text Otis and it was set. I did laundry like a crazy person and we packed up. While we were packing, we had another couple text and offer us to come stay with them. We thanked them and told them that we had a place lined up.  We loaded up our cars with luggage, keepsakes, pets, and groceries and headed to their house on Wednesday morning. We were not even out of our area when Otis called me and said the news stated that the storm had turned away. We went back home and decided to wait one more day.

The indecisive storm turned again and we were loaded up and headed out of town for the second time on Thursday Morning.

We spent four full days in lovely North Augusta. There will be another post later about our time there. This post is about feeling blessed and overwhelmed, remember?

We came home Monday to no damage to our home and we came home to power, which in itself is a huge blessing.

I am feeling exceptionally blessed and overwhelmed that we have such amazing friends. We loved these people before, but man staying with someone for 4 days with your kids and dog is an entirely different story! 🙂 We are forever thankful to Seth and Amy for being there for us. That other couple that offered their home as well….Daniel and Kelsey…they ended up taking in some other friends that were also struggling to find a hotel. I literally had tears in my eyes as I thought about how blessed we are.  Both of these couples are youth pastors that we have met through camps and retreats. Otis and I both had and have our fair share of “family issues”. Sometimes it really hurts. I tend to take a lot of things personally and cannot fathom why people would not want to be an active part in the lives of our  beautiful kids! (however that is also another post for another day).

Family are those people that love you and are there for you because they choose to be. I am so very thankful that God has blessed us with such an amazing family like Seth, Amy, Kelsey, and Daniel. My heart is overwhelmed. These people are all dear friends that have held us up in prayer numerous times. They have encouraged us and been there. This week they just happened to also literally put a roof over our heads. We are truly framily.

Don’t ever doubt the impact that you can have on the life of someone else. All relationships start somewhere. A stranger today might just be your closest family in the future!!

P.S. Check out Amy’s blog-  lifewithsethandamy.blogspot.com