After The Flood

Day 326 in my "Year In My Life Through Pictures" blog series

My brother, his wife and his son came in for a few days from their home in Chattanooga. They came mostly to help our mom with getting cleaned up from the flooding. I must say my brother, nephew, our mom and my niece did an excellent job today and got everything taken out of the flooded room at my moms. They worked very hard to accomplish what they did today.

I had to work but went out when I got off. I was asked to bring my truck to get a lot of my NASCAR collectables that were stored in her room that flooded. I knew that some were going to be damaged, but did not know to what extent. Let's just say that most were and that not much will be salvageable as collectables any longer. If I had somewhere to display them I could clean the cars off, but the packaging is ruined, which makes them a lot less desirable. Actually it did make me feel dejected when first seeing the loss, but I started putting it into perspective. They are only diecast cars and other items, not someones home or family heirlooms. If I wanted to I could replace every last piece that was damaged, unlike the families that have lost much more. I then thought about the people of Joplin Missouri who were struck by a F5 tornado yesterday, nearly 120 lives were lost. My attitude has really changed about the cars that were flooded. It's not like I was doing anything with them anyway and also not like I should have gotten them out from under my moms nose long ago as well.

The picture is of the stripped room that was flooded. There is still a lot of work to be done. I sprayed the whole room with bleach water to kill the mold and any other germs that may have taken home in there. The walls will have to be stripped, the flooring will have to be smoothed out, the insulation replaced and all new walls and floor put in. It is no small task, but it will get done. That is much more than a collection of memorabilia, so another perspective eye opener. A rather large pile of my moms "stuff" lies on the other side of her road awaiting picked up by whoever the government contracts to pick it up. Some things will not be able to be replaced, some she will not want to replace and some should have been tossed years ago.

I do know that my mom needs prayer through this. She is feeling the effects of the stress and likes to get kind of antsy in her speech sometimes. Anxious is the word that come to mind with a bit of pride thrown in. So, please pray that she calms down and actually sees God through this. Pray that God puts people in her path and in her life that will show the love of Christ and help her in ways she never expected. Pray that she will see her need for an actual relationship with Christ above anything she has ever thought about. Just pray for her and those that are placed in her life in this time frame, including me and the rest of the family.