Hurricane Harvey

Harvey came and went, but our city and state will not forget him anytime soon!  Harvey caused unimaginable devastation.  The last I heard, over 135,000 homes, buildings, and schools were damaged or destroyed.  Families are displaced, some who lost everything.  Every.Single.Thing.  But I won't focus on the sad stuff.  What's been so amazing is to witness the outpouring of love people are showing each other and our city.  People are coming out of the woodworks helping, and even saving, complete strangers.  Water rescues, home demo, meal delivery, laundry, you name it. 

I stole this from a blog I read, but it's so good:

“We are thankful that thousands of years ago, God poured out something stronger than flood waters. He covered us with the shed blood of Jesus Christ and commissioned us to, above all else, love our neighbors well.”

My parents, unfortunately, took on an inch or two of water throughout the house.  Under normal circumstances, that would be heartbreaking.  While it is most definitely not a fun situation (to put it lightly), we cannot help but feel so very thankful that they are safe, that most of their belongings were salvageable, and that it wasn't much worse.  This is a picture of my parents' street, driveway, and front yard that the neighbor took before the water reached their house.

Meanwhile, the Loddes were stuck at home and found creative ways to stay busy!  In an effort to keep this post lighthearted, here is a series of pictures to show how we kept ourselves entertained.


The night before the storm came, we went out for Mexican food.  Perry tried a lime, and wasn't a fan! :)

For the next few days, we mainly just played inside, read lots of books (Perry is really into books these days), played with baby dolls and Easter eggs (two favorites of Perry's lately), snuggled, and watched countless hours of news coverage...

We FaceTimed with my family while they were cooped up at my sisters' house.  Perry and Rhett loved looking at each other on FaceTime!

We took lots of mommy-and-me selfies...

We experimented with bigger bows, and I'm obsessed!  I don't know why we hadn't done this sooner!  I guess I thought her hair was too short and fine to hold them in.

We went on a couple of short walks in the rain around the neighborhood to check things out...

We had Happy Hour at our neighbors' houses on Monday and Tuesday, who each have young kids/babies.  The only picture I got of this is of Perry and her friend Alexandria playing...

Once the sun came out , the water started to subside in some areas, and places started to open again, we ventured out of the house a couple times for tacos and a Target run...

We helped demo my parents' house...

My parents stayed with us for a couple nights while they were "homeless", and Perry loved the attention...

We celebrated Uncle Peter's birthday with steaks, birthday cake, and a terrible Aggie loss...

Hurricane Week came to an end, and back to work we went.  It is very strange to be back in a normal routine, knowing that there are so many people who need help and have nowhere to live.  I drove around a nearby neighborhood that was demolished to deliver boxes and supplies, and it broke my heart to see house after house after house with piles of debris in the front yard.  Their lives were turned upside down by this storm.  All we can do it be there to help our neighbors and friends.  And pray.  We love you, Houston!