Goodnight Irene & {good riddance}

Irene.

You were an unwelcome guest.

You blew in with hell's fury; banging on our doors and windows.

You brought a few of your wicked tornado sisters with you to torture and torment.

For hours you continued to disturb many,

Cutting off power & pushing over 100 year old trees and utility poles like they were toothpicks.

You dumped your waters to flood many businesses and homes, including my own,

before deciding to move on.

Go goodbye and good riddance Irene

we are so glad you are gone.

You may have tested our patience and have broken our spirit for a while

but I want you to know;

although you destroyed many of our possessions and precious mementos

we will move on.

You could not take or destroy the faith or bond of this family

and that is my reason to smile!

***

We, like I am sure many others, were without power for almost 36 hours and lost 2 freezers full of food and almost everything being stored in our basement.  Jim & I have started the process of cleaning out by simply throwing much of our possessions up and out the basement windows.  Rubbermaid bins full of possessions were tossed and flipped around in the dank waters and destroyed.

These photos show about 1/3 of our basement contents.  About 75% of my craft stash was down there and is all lost, and yes, some of our family photos have also been destroyed.  The photos of my children when they were babies and tots is the hardest loss to swallow.  Even now I am a bit weepy, but also feeling ashamed.  So many more people have been touched by Irene.  Many have lost much much more, are still without utilities & some have lost their lives in Irene's destructive wake.

One thing I do know is that we are strong.  We will overcome this.

I will be forever grateful that we as a family were not harmed physically

and will continue to pray for others.

Possessions can be replaced, food can be bought.

The kindness of friends and family throughout all of this is humbling.

The caring of my blog family has also been extremely reassuring.

Thank You All

especially those who sent well wishes and concern via Face Book and emails with prayers and concern.  Your kindness is forever etched in my heart!