Yesterday morning we awakened to increased winds,
rain and falling temperatures. Throughout the day the rain slowly turned
to sleet and then snow, the wind increased to hurricane speeds and the
temperatures dipped below freezing. Through the night the snow continued
to fall, the snow plows cleared the roads and I found it incredibly
difficult to sleep with the thumping sound of ice hitting our windows as it
fell from 50 stories above. It was unnerving! Today, Gayland and
I did venture out during lunch where I was able to snap a picture
of the snow that accumulated on the ground overnight. As you can see the
majority of it melted as the sun came up. Amazingly, the
temperature was not as cold as we expected and the
skies were a perfect shade of blue. It was a glorious day in New York City.
As I stated yesterday, we received our first batch of mail, which was the highlight of the week (aren't we easy to please?).
Today, we received two boxes of goodies from our families and just in the
nick of time. I received warm pajamas (see picture below where I'm
sporting frog jammies and fuzzy socks), a sweater, scarf, gloves, house
shoes, books and a *bracelet. G received pants, socks, a fleece, sweater
and knit hat (see his gorgeous look below as well). Rumor has it; we have
another box of goodies arriving tomorrow, which we are so excited about!
It's the smallest things these days that make us so stinkin' excited!
*When my step-dad was fighting his deadly battle
with cancer, Drew (my brother) and I gave my Mom a James Avery bracelet with
the Bible verse "I can do all things through Christ who strengths me
- Philippians 4:13". Imagine my surprise when at the bottom of
our package I found this bracelet. It just about sent me into a crying
fit but I decided that would not be beneficial to anyone and instead called my
Mom to thank her for the incredibly kind gift.
Another Day of Giving Thanks -
With Thanksgiving two weeks away, I love counting the blessings that are bestowed upon us each day. Today is no different! There are three things I'm
thankful for today: Friends, Family and the Generosity of sharing.
Friends:
Most of you know Gayland and I made the decision to elope last year.
While waiting for the shuttle to take us back to the airport for our return trip to Austin, we struck up a conversation with another couple waiting with us and learned they too lived in Austin and
were on the same flight we were back to Texas. Over the next four or five
hours we talked and made a commitment to meet for dinner the next week. That dinner meeting happened and as they say, the rest is history! Kristin and Curt are two of our favorite people on
earth and our dearest friends in Austin. In true "Kristin spirit"
she had an idea for us to FedEx our car keys to them and they would pick our car up from the airport, take it to our house and send us any items we needed
from home. When determined it wasn't safe for Gayland to fly back to Austin, we decided to take Kristin and Curt up on their offer and last week sent the car keys packin' back to Texas. This alone is a very generous offer but wouldn't you know when they got to the airport on Tuesday to pick-up the car, we had a flat tire that Curt had to fix it on the side of the road. Unbelievable! And to add insult to injury,
they live clear on the opposite end of Austin from us so to get to the north
side takes effort and planning. Of course, all of this was done without
one bit of complaining and in true spirit of love and friendship. There will
never be words to express our appreciation to Kristin and Curt for their
generosity (and we are thrilled to receive a few last items from home soon)!
Family:
Our families have been unbelievable! From our parents to aunts, uncles
and siblings, the outpouring of love and concern has been humbling. We
are so thankful to have such amazing people that Baby P will get to grow-up
loving and learning from!
Sharing Stories:
I received a note yesterday from an old high school friend about his
family's similar story to parenthood. Their journey was much worse than ours
with intertwined tragedy but the ending is happy and completely inspiring.
I am humbled and thankful this friend entrusted his story with me as
hearing of and from people that have had similar struggles to parenthood and
now enjoy healthy, vibrant children years later, eases the constant fear we live in.
Lastly, I want to say something that is weighing
heavily on my heart and mind tonight. Yesterday, it was beautiful
watching the weather turn from rain into snow but my heart grew heavy when the
local NYC news stations began reporting about all of those in outlying areas
that were going to spend another night without heat, electricity and in some
cases water. It truly is unbelievable!! And today, in Midtown
Manhattan, as Gayland and I were walking to the sub shop for lunch we saw something
astonishing...a line of cars five blocks long waiting for gasoline. I
could not believe my eyes and neither could G. There are no words to accurately communicate the destruction Hurricane Sandy and now the Nor’easter caused
New York and New Jersey. Though our situation is significant to us,
when we turn on the news and see how many people have lost everything (and I
mean "everything"...their homes, pets, vehicles, etc.) I find it hard
to continue blogging about what we're faced with. Please know we're aware
in the whole scheme of life we truly are blessed to be where we are with the
opportunities we are given. I want to keep up with this blog for selfish reasons;
this truly is therapy for me since we're not in Texas or Tennessee with our
friends and families. With this being said, I hope you will pray for
those in this area that need it much more than we do.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: When you have come to the edge of all light that you know and are about to drop off into the darkness of the unknown, Faith is knowing one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly. - Patrick Overton
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