A Whirlwind of Events

This post may fall more in the mishaps category than in the musings, but there are definitely some of both. Last week was a blur of trying to set up the house, hunting down grocery stores and markets, and attempting to keep an emotionally edgy infant happy and well fed and rested.

Friday afternoon, our house still looked something like this:

Box City

And Abram was happy for awhile doing this:

Praise Baby dvd = 30 minutes uninterrupted time unpacking

We closed up shop Friday evening around 10pm, settled into bed, and were excited about the morning's plan to go get pancakes in downtown DC and maybe hit up a farmer's market for fresh produce. Here's where the real whirlwind happened:


Just as we drifted off to sleep, the DC/Maryland/Virginia area (known as the "DMV") was blasted with a massive storm system complete with hurricane force winds (clocked at least at 75mph), hail, lightning, and rain. We heard lots and lots of banging and hung tight for about 30 minutes until the storm died down. Almost immediately we lost power. We slept the night in our muggy house and then got up and investigated. Huge uprooted trees sprawled across neighborhood streets. Our storm door was stuck open having been broken by the winds, a massive broken limb loomed threateningly over our car. We made a plan to go to DC and get breakfast as planned. We needed to get to some AC and we needed food (now unable to cook with no power). It also happens that the DMV was/is having record breaking high temperatures of around 100 degrees, heat index higher than that. Our stale air house was no place for a baby. Reports were that 3 million people on the East Coast lost their power. The power companies were loaded down with just damage assessment alone, having to retrieve live power lines wrapped around trees, cars, and telephone poles before even attempting to restore power to customers.

Well, it seemed that everyone else had the same idea. Our whole town was seemingly without power and everyone was on the road, taking shelter from the heat in their cars. Jon said we were "first world refugees", wandering aimlessly in our cars on streets and in neighborhoods just trying to go somewhere, anywhere, following and being followed by hundreds of other cars. We made it to DC to get breakfast several hours later. Here's Jon and Abram in line at Market Lunch restaurant in DC's Eastern Market:

Jon was unable to use his trimmer or clippers after the power loss so was sporting the Mountain Man look here

The pancakes made with blueberries and buckwheat ("BlueBucks") were definitely a highlight of my day. We gobbled down this breakfast/lunch and headed to grab some caffeinated beverages at a nearby coffee joint. We were also all about time-wasting - the roads and highways were jam packed and we were pretty sure our power was still out.

Here's Bram at the coffee shop. He's amusing himself with his foot in his right hand and his water cup in his left. He was a little worn out by this point in the day.

We headed home after leaving the coffee shop to check on our house to see if by some miracle our power had been restored. Sadly, it had not. We packed up everything we would need for the night and threw all our refrigerated goods into a cooler and headed back out. Feeling very unsettled and vagabondish, we started making calls to our only friends in DC to see if we could take shelter for the night at their houses. Jon's colleagues reported they were also out of power. Our main contact at church was already housing several other people that night. We felt out of options.

I texted my friend Whitney who I knew lived in Virginia to see if she had power before I remembered she had left for a Florida vacation the day before. She was not even aware there had been a storm at the time. Jon called our friend Rob (the one with the full house) to ask for phone numbers of church members we could call and beg for help. I texted my friend Kelsey just a plea for prayer that God would provide a place for us. Having only been in the DC area 6 nights, we felt pretty alone in this swarm of people with nowhere to go. Texts were flying from my phone to other family members and friends from home in OK for another reason as well:

Very far away from the hubbub of the DMV, one very special girl was born Saturday afternoon in Georgia. Meet my niece Eliza "Ellie" Grace! My sister Julie had gone into labor about the same time we lost power Friday night and gave birth to this adorably sweet girl.

Ellie definitely brightened our little family's day that day. Ellie is evidence that the world is bigger than just me or my problems. She served as a reminder that God is good and He is working in people's lives all over the world. He took care of Ellie and He would take care of us. I needed to trust Him that day.

I'll spare you from every little detail, but just a few hours later we had not just one, but 6 or 7 places to stay that night! Whitney's church small group had 3 families that offered up houses in VA; Kelsey's sister-in-law opened her home in MD. Two families from our new church offered places to stay after Rob sent out an email. My sister Sarah's friend from highschool opened up his home in downtown DC. 

Exhausted and tired, we battled traffic to get to downtown DC to stay at our temporary home. My sister's friend Matthew was out of town, but his wife graciously welcomed us in to their guest bedroom. We were able to park our car at their underground private parking space, grab food at a nearby diner, let Abram play with their cute puppy, do laundry, take showers, and I was happy to get on the internet to see more pictures of my precious niece. We got decent sleep and were able to make it to church the next morning. Our church also happens to be in downtown DC as well, so our temporary home was even conveniently located. 

Sunday afternoon we headed home to check for power again. It was still off, so we sat down to eat lunch in our kitchen and make plans. As we were eating, the AC kicked on...our power was back! It also happened to be my husband's birthday. He declared, "What a great birthday present!". I'm thankful to be married to such a grateful guy. Speaking of gratitude, this weekend was really a test of my heart attitude. I battled to be thankful to God for the circumstances we found ourselves in. Thankful for what He had already given, thankful for the lessons in flexibility and helplessness He was teaching me over the weekend, thankful for the mercies He graciously gave me to get through each day/night, thankful for the biggest blessings that are not contingent on life circumstances, like salvation in Christ and peace with God.

Even though I'm honestly relieved to have the last 2 weeks of my life over with (moving cross-country, moving in/getting acclimated, power outages), I hope to honestly be able to thank God for the hardships this weekend. I'm asking for grace to believe a truth I read in the book Choosing Gratitude by Nancy Leigh DeMoss this morning:

"I have learned along the way that, regardless of how I may feel, anything that makes me need God is (ultimately, in the truest sense) a blessing. Be it disappointment. Be it physical suffering. Be it mental or relational anguish."

The reason hardships are a blessing is the fact that they make me remember that I need God everyday. This weekend was another time in my life among several lately that I couldn't fix the problem on my own. I couldn't make our power come back on. I couldn't call a nearby friend and go to their house, because we don't have any nearby friends (yet!). I couldn't come up with any good solution to the predicament we found ourselves in. All I could do was pray and ask for help. It was a reminder that I need God everyday, not only on days with power outages. I need Him today to give me grace to persevere in the faith, to keep a spiritual mindset, to choose faithfulness over faithlessness.

And because I can't help it, here's a hot-off-the-press picture of Ellie snoozing peacefully at home. Could she be any cuter?