Homeless

This is Dave: Today is Maria's birthday. She turned 27. We went to lunch at Applebee's on University Avenue with Dennis/Selena/Ivy/Evan, Shawn/Kim and Jon/Joanne. It was a bit chaotic and a tad demanding to mediate between three segments of our social lives, but it was a nice time overall. Maria is a dear...a lovely woman. She's just full of light and life and I love her. We're still homeless and living at Dave and Karen Wilson's house. They will be coming home Tuesday, however, so things will change a bit. We're trying to figure out what to do next. Staying here long term probably isn't the best solution. We're looking for a house to rent, but then we'd have to furnish it to some degree, which would be a pain. So, we're not sure. I'm praying that God will give us a fully furnished place to live in until we have a home to go to. As far as the house goes, so far it looks like we aren't going to rebuild. Our damages are around 50% of the assessed value, which means it could go either way depending on how you do the math. We could write the numbers so the city would let us rebuild, or we could write them so the city won't let us rebuild. If we can't rebuild, then the SBA will give us a 2.687% 30/yr mortgage on a new house, which is an amazing deal. We then would put our insurance money towards our river house and hope for a buyout from the city in the near future. We'd probably have to roll the remaining mortgage from the river house into our new mortgage until (if) the city bought us out. We'll see. I'm praying that the insurance company will just total the house and give us the full policy limit amounts so we can just pay the mortgage off and buy another house. We still don't know yet, but moving seems like the best idea of all. Calvin has a tooth coming through. It's his bottom right side tooth. Amazing that he's growing so fast already. I sat him up and balanced him today...then let go. He managed to balance himself for at least a few minutes. It was quite impressive! Violet just wanted to knock him over...silly sister. He also got into a plant today and had ripped leaves into a number of pieces and was sucking on some of them before we discovered his mischief. He's so mouthy and grabby. Especially when you take his diaper off...he goes for the gonads with all his might and just yanks on those things. It's quite funny. Boys... Violet is just a doll. She can speak in such amazing sentences. She really seems to 'get' the language. I can't seem to love her enough...I always feel overwhelmed with love for her. I guess that's what daughter's do to their daddies! I love to lay down next to her and hug her when she climbs into bed. So sweet. Tomorrow night Ray and Dennis are planning to go to our house to cut the axle off the boat trailer so we can order a new one. They are also planning to pull our small boat out of the water, since we don't have a truck. It is a really big help!! People have been very generous, indeed! Tomorrow is another day. I'm going to sign off for now. I'll leave you with a neat Psalm I found that relates to our situation: Psalm 93 The Eternal Reign of the LORD 1 The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty; The LORD is clothed, He has girded Himself with strength. Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved. 2 Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting. 3 The floods have lifted up, O LORD, The floods have lifted up their voice; The floods lift up their waves. 4 The LORD on high is mightier Than the noise of many waters, Than the mighty waves of the sea. 5 Your testimonies are very sure; Holiness adorns Your house, O LORD, forever. I praise God for His awesome mercy and faithfulness! Good night. - Dave

got flooded out of our house

June 2008 isn't a good month so far. Our house got 2 feet of water in it from the record flood that measured 102 ft. There is way too much to explain. A lot of it is in pictures. We lived with Gary and Barb Anderson for a few days, then we moved into Dave and Karen Wilson's house. Violet said "where did everybody go?" because this is the house where we have small group. Lots of people from the conference grounds came to help us gut the house and get the wet stuff out this week. Its amazing how much work got done. We don't know how/if we can rebuild or what because of the city's new code saying they won't issues rebuilding permits if the house sustained more than 50% damage of the house's assessed value. Who knows, we're still waiting on answers. Calvin is almost 6 months old. He started cutting a tooth through his gums yesterday. No wonder he's been so fussy!!! Tylenol seems to be helping a little bit. Violet is a little gem and a charming sweetheart (when she's not whining!). She said something SO funny this morning. She first said (after eating a huge bowl of oatmeal) while walking all goofy and holding her butt saying in a whiney pitiful voice, "Mamaaa, I need HAFTA go poopie" So I took her, and after she finished, she looked in the toilet and said in a really excited voice "wow! poopie! Looks kinda like worms!"She must have gotten that from the worms that we feed this family's turtle. hahahaa