Gettin' Ready For The Big 3-2!!!

Hello again! I've been thinking all day about tomorrow...my 32nd birthday! I guess after 30 they just become another day. God was merciful on my 30th. As crazy as it sounds, he sent Hurricane Rita and it took my mind off of the whole birthday thing. I told you it sounded crazy...Cat. 4 hurricane or 30th birthday??? At the time, I didn't know which was worse. I think maybe the whole age thing affects women more than men. All the men in my family age really well, so they don't have to worry about it! Not that the women in the family don't age well, but I've definitely bought my share of 'anti-aging' products since I turned 30. Isn't that crazy? I guess I should just be thankful for every day that the Lord has given me. It's one more day to thank Him for all He's done!

Since I mentioned the hurricane, I suppose I'll share my testimony about that for those who don't already know about it. Hope you're ready for a good one! On Sept. 24, 2005 Hurricane Rita hit southwest Louisiana with a vengeance. It was my first real experience with hurricanes, so I didn't really know what to expect. What I did know was that I had just seen the devestation of Katrina all over the television and it was only a Cat. 3 when it made landfall! Needless to say, I was a little scared! We evacuated to north Louisiana. We are blessed to have family members on both sides that live within 30 miles of each other. The storm hit on Saturday night and we didn't get to make the trek back to assess damages until the following Wednesday. This is what we pulled up to:

This was a huge pine tree that fell on our carport, storage building, master bedroom, master bathroom, and even clipped the edge of the neighbor's house. It was a massive tree! As you can see, the roots were so big that when it fell it buckled the concrete driveway.

When the carport fell, it narrowly missed my car. There was exactly 1 inch from the roof to the hood of the car! This was the first miracle that God did for us!

I don't know if this picture shows it clearly, but this was the view of the tree from the back side of the house. The little white building was the storage building and the brick was our master bedroom. The wood post in the foreground is where the privacy fence had been. There were no fences anywhere!!! However, this resulted in us meeting our neighbors and getting to know them very well. I don't know if we would have otherwise!

The crazy thing is, when we got home we had no chainsaw, no nothing! I was at a total loss as to what to do. Then off in the distance two houses down, I heard the buzz of chainsaws! I walked through the muddy yards and found a whole crew of men cutting a tree out of a neighbor's house. I asked them if they could come cut ours out. Come to find out, they were a volunteer group from a Baptist church in, get this...Pigeon Forge, TN!!! They told me that they could add me to the waiting list. When I told them that my husband was in a wheelchair, they immediately came over and began cutting away at the tree. It was such a miracle that they were there at that time! It was at that moment that an overwhelming peace came over me. I knew that no matter what came of this catastrophe, God would prevail! I knew His hands of protection were on us right then and there. Here's a picture of the volunteer crew that cut out the tree:

After the guys cut the tree out of the house, they all gathered in a circle around me and Bill and proceeded in a group prayer. I love it! As diddy would say, 'Ain't God good?'. Needless to say, we have fully recovered from the storm. Believe it or not, we actually look back on it as a hidden blessing. We were able to update the house, build a new, much bigger storage building, build a game room, and many other little things that I could go on and on about! I really hope that this testimony will encourage everyone who reads it. Just remember, no matter what 'storm' the devil tries to blow you over with, God is in control and ALL things work together for good to those that love the Lord!!! Amen, sister!