We FINALLY heard about OUR house. My neighbor's son called a few minutes ago. He was standing in front of our "house".

It was as we expected, pretty much. I wanted a new roof, but it looks like the roof survived, lol. However, it is supported by beams. The walls are pretty much blown out. Inside it looks like a bomb went off. We are told our home is "totalled." The destruction appears to be mainly from water, and flood damage is excluded by our homeowner's policy. We had additional flood coverage, but it was pretty basic and does not cover anything but the basic structure. Don, our neighbor's son, thought the remains of our home would need to be bull-dozed and construction would have to start over. There are no repairs for what he saw. He didn't think we could salvage anything.

He did say the basic structure of the kids swingset survived and I praise God for that!!! That provided good "occupational therapy" to Gregory and it will be easier to replace the slides rather than the whole thing - I hope.

God is good and our trust is in Him.

The kids are struggling with the news. We tried to prepare them, but they are devastated.

An elderly lady here in Michigan, where we have found refuge this past week, makes quilts for missions and she gave us 4 of them. I told the kids the making of these quilts was appointed by God for them, for just this time, and that He knew we would need them. I told the children that Jesus wanted to hug them and that whenever they wrapped themselves in their quilts, they were receiving a hug from the Lord. They are both just laying on the floor, wrapped up in their quilts. We all needed those hugs.

So many times over the last few days I have wanted to run back to Gulf Breeze and scrounge through the mud to try to salvage our stuff. However, the Lord keeps whispering to my heart that He will provide and that I should look up instead; He doesn't want us grubbing in the mud for scraps. We have received such an outpouring of hope, prayers, offers of help and encouragement that we are completely overwhelmed. God is so good!

I don't know what the future holds, but we feel so loved by so many and are trusting like children in the strength of our Heavenly Father as He works through the wonderful people He has brought into our lives. Thank you all of you who help sustain us!

Tomorrow we will try to get closer to home. Emergency management is still asking that we not return yet if we don't have to return. So we are headed for North Carolina and our dear friend Deb Stanton who has taken it upon herself to coordinate help for us. We are so blessed!