At the start of the month, we were recovering from life without power for 6 (!) days following a big storm that blew through. The storm itself came in and out in a matter of an hour, but the damage left behind was pretty intense. We later discovered that Longview had actually been hit by a little tornado. Most of the damage around town, however, was just due to very strong winds. We spent a few minutes in the hall closet, with Violet curled up on her bed right outside where we were. We chatted and prayed and tried to remember that we had a lot to be thankful for during a storm. We have a strong house, an interior closet, and a warning. We prayed for people who may not have a house at all during the storm. (Thankfully, in spite of many trees down around town and varying degrees of structural damage, no people were hurt!) When we emerged from the closet, we were shocked to look out and see that our neighbors each had huge trees come down across the street, toward each other! As we explored, we found a really strong gas smell, so we backed off, called the gas company, and went to explore town. Apparently the fallen tree disrupted a major gas line, so they were out fixing it immediately and well into the night. We returned to our darkening house, found candles (which we were instructed not to light, per the gas leak) and flashlights/headlamps. It was a pretty cool evening and we assumed we'd be back in power by the next day. Monday came and went. We bought dry ice for the fridge and freezer. But by the end of Monday, we heard from the power company that we might not have power until Friday (!). Although we held out hope that they were wrong, it did not come back on until Friday at about 5pm. It was a long week, mostly because of the uncertainty and chaos of each day. We would wake up hot, I'd go get McDonalds coffee and a small jug of milk and return home for breakfast. Then, the rest of the day was full of hopping around from place to place. It was too hot to be home. We visited Luke at LeTourneau, swam at a friends' pool, ate dinner at another friends' house, spent a few afternoons at the Coppingers' after loading our groceries in their fridge, went to church, etc. Although it was challenging to not have a/c, or a fridge, or internet, or white noise machines, or fans, or phone chargers.... the hardest part was the chaos and unknowns of each day. Granted, each day is full of unknowns for all of us anyway, but I found myself really feeling for people who wake up with thoughts like - What will I feed my family today? Where will I get food? Where will we go? Who will take us in?... Needless to say, we definitely celebrated Friday night with loud white noise, early bed times, air conditioning, fans, and Netflix! Like I told Sharon during the week, "It's ok. It could be worse," to which she replied, "Yeah, but it could be better!" It took a few days to catch up on laundry and settle back in to regular life before camps started. We had a lot of camps this month!
1. LeTourneau camps! Isaiah got a double dose this year. He did a Jr. Engineering camp in the morning and Medieval Times in the afternoon. William was his companion to both camps. The Jr. Engineering didn't involve as much creativity as he would have liked (more about following directions), but he enjoyed the week a lot. 8-5 every day wore him out, but he came home bright eyed and eager for more at the end of each day. Noelle and Lucy did an art camp, where they made paper mache, pinch pots, melted crayon art, and more. It was Lucy's first camp, which thrilled her! They were joined by the Caldwells and Elia. Super fun. And I had been looking forward to my 20 hours alone in the house for month. I spent almost all 20 ours in the school room, watching movies and clearing out and organizing our shelves and cabinets! It was delightful!
2. Passage. This one was for Luke. After writing a grant for Theology Camp, he and several others began working on Passage years ago. This summer, it came to fruition, and God really blessed their efforts. The teens were greatly encouraged and impacted as they walked through the theology/study, service, community involvement, and fun activities. We were so thankful that Passage was a hit this year!
3. Swim Lessons. Only the girls this year since Isaiah had too many other things going on. They were so happy to discover that Elia was in Noelle's class and Jesse was with Lucy. All 4 of them loved having a buddy in class. Noelle, again, spent as much time under the water as possible. She also worked on strokes. Lucy regained her confidence in the water and did a lot of "pancake flips" from front to back to front float.
4. Mission Longview. Luke and Isaiah got to work on this one. It is a hometown mission trip put on by Alpine, hosted at LeTourneau, and involving a handful of churches. Isaiah really loved getting to hang with the One Hope guys. Luke really enjoyed leading kids on a bus trip in a poor area of town, teaching and guiding them through the experience. The mayor of Longview came on the last night, and it was featured in the local newspaper. It still feels funny to send newspaper links to grandparents every few months... We're in the newspaper again! Ah, small town life.
5. Other happenings - I got a guitar! I'm working on some chords and hoping for lessons in the fall. We finally solved Violet's UTI issues with a new vet, a full month of antibiotics, and prescription food. Goodness. So much money and so much effort. But, she is going 11-12 hours without needing to go out, so that's pretty awesome. Luke turned 39. Whoop! We celebrated with steak, meat tools (gift) and a lovely carrot cake. We love our almost-40-year-old!!
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