Praise God!! We Survived Irma!

Dear Friends,  It is with great joy that I write to you today, Wednesday, Sept, 13th, 2017, 3 days after Hurricane Irma stormed through our state and beyond...we survived!! Praise God!!!  I have so  much to tell you about how gracious and kind and merciful our Lord is...I hardly know where to begin!

If you read my previous posts regarding this storm HERE (Just A Quick Check In)  and Here (The Calm Before the Storm), you will know that we were as prepared as anyone could be for such a monstrous storm.  After watching the forecasts for over a week of how powerful and dangerous Hurricane Irma was going to be, people would be very foolish not to be prepared as much as possible. But I know that not everyone is able to purchase generators and gas stoves and other items...the most important thing is to just get somewhere safe and stay there until the storm is over.

Irma roared over our community during the night Sunday and early Monday morning, and was still blowing pretty fiercely off an on all day Monday.  Our power went off around 10:30 p.m. Sunday night.  We listened to it howling, with tall pine trees in the forest next to us popping and cracking and falling all night long, which sounded much like a war zone, and just prayed that nothing would crash into our house and that our roof would stay intact. When we got up Monday morning at first daylight we assessed whatever damages we could see, and we were so extremely thankful that no "evil" had "befallen us", (Psalm 91:10-11)...and that it appeared God had indeed given His angels charge over us and our home...and even our neighborhood...and had spared us the worst of the storm.

Soon other vehicles tried to drive down our road, and we all realized that it was impassable due to the many fallen trees.  What I love about our community is that people all look for ways to help one another...

 And soon neighbors who didn't even know one another were out there with chain saws and chains and trucks and pulling the trees out of the road...

And then the real miracle happened for us...one of these neighbors whom we have never met turned out to be a kind of "angel in disguise" for us.  When my hubby mentioned that we needed some help in hooking up our generator to our house so that we could run our well/pump as well as keep our refrigerator going, this wonderful young man spoke right up and said that he was an electrician, and that he had the necessary parts to connect it, and would be right back to do it!

Within the hour he had gone to his home, got the parts, and came back and expertly installed it...and refused to take anything for his work...(but we insisted and paid him anyway).

You, know, I learned something about "don't judge a book by its cover".  Sometimes we have a tendency to look at those who are all "tatted" up and think judgmental thoughts...and God taught me a valuable lesson here...Sometimes angels come with tattoos, beards and blue jeans and ball caps in the middle of a storm...

This huge pine tree (on our property) fell on the power lines next to our property...but did not break them so there was no live wire  hanging, Thank the Lord...

The trunk of the pine tree you see laying down below is right next to our kitchen window/end of house. I have watched that huge pine tree leaning for sometime and was concerned that it could fall on our house. Thank the Lord again...it fell away from our house...

This picture is just typical of the many tall sand pines in our woods that snapped and cracked and fell all night long...

This pine tree tree is just barely held up by a smaller oak tree, and is dangling precariously across the road.  We pray it doesn't fall on any vehicles driving under it.  We need someone with a larger chain saw than ours to cut it.

 This is the tree (below) that fell on the power line beside our shed.  Thankfully it missed the shed.
Clay Electric came and cut it off the line.

Thank you Clay Electric, and all the others who came from far away to assist in getting our area back up and running again...

 Amazing...

After the storm, this molting cardinal discovered our new bird bath and decided to take a nice cool bath...

 Isn't he interesting looking with his funny molting feathers?

Our #3 son cooking an omelette on the Coleman Stove for breakfast...

 This Male Cardinal wants to know what all the fuss has been about...

 The butterflies have been enjoying the wildflowers...and don't seem at all concerned about the storm we just passed through...

We had hot dogs and beans for supper...

Hubby enjoying our picnic on the back porch...where it was much cooler than inside the house...

Me cooking our supper and pretending to be 'camping out'.

And today...so thankful that we finally got our phone, cable, wifi back on...and then while I was writing this our power came back on!!! Praise the Lord!!

So many things to be thankful for with this storm.

None of our family members or friends throughout the state suffered any real damage or injuries that cannot be fixed.

God truly had His hand upon us and sheltered us "under His wings" (Psalm 91:4).

He provided everything we needed to get through this time without extreme discomfort or inconvenience.

He brought strangers to our door to help us with the things we needed...perhaps "angels unaware"

(Hebrews 13:2)

and taught us to open our eyes and see how He can provide for us from unexpected sources.

I know this has been a long post. I apologize for being so verbose,

but I cannot withhold my praise and thanksgiving to God for how He has provided, protected, and blessed us through this whole ordeal.

Psalm 145:1-3

"I will extol You, my God, O King;

And I will bless Your name forever and ever.

Every day I will bless You,

and I will praise Your name forever and ever.

Great is the Lord, 

and greatly to be praised;

And His greatness is unsearchable."

Amen!