BF to AF

In the past week, our life has completely changed.  It has been one of the most devastating, the most trying, and the most rewarding times, all at once.  They say people are their best when they are at their worst, and we have definitely seen that.

42 inches of water is a lot.  Especially when it is in your new house with everything you own.  But as the cleanup process began, and the stuff went to the curb, we could see that we have much more than the stuff. 

I am amazed by our families, our friends, and the people of Nashville.  In the last 8 days, we have...

• found a gracious new home - we're staying with Patrick's parents (and I'm not sure that Abbey the pup is going to want to go back to living with just us...)
• completely gutted our new house from the 5 foot line and down with the help of old friends, new friends, and people-who's-first-name-I-only-know
• had a visit from my parents and brother/sis-in-law who made a very quick long trek from Texas for mostly emotional support
• been offered more help than we know what to do with from complete strangers - Tennessee has shown exactly why it is the 'Volunteer State'
• slept on the floor of a stranger's house because we were trapped in our neighborhood - and met the most wonderful people you can imagine.
• been fed every single day by gracious restaurants and more volunteers - more help than you can imagine
• had complete strangers tear up and drag out disgustingly wet and muddy carpet and sheetrock for us
• learned exactly how fortunate we are to have the jobs we have - and why InfoWorks truly is a Best Company to Work For
• cried
• had every single piece of our stinky river clothes - every piece of clothing we own -washed by amazing amazing friends.
• laughed - thanks for the slightly inappropriate songs-about-rain filled CD, Beth
• cried
• prayed
• cried
• and hugged a lot of people.

On Sunday (5/2), after we evacuated to higher ground in the neighborhood to a stranger's house, a friend sent us a text message of a picture of the local news coverage of the flood.  Since we were without power and couldn't watch and since they had only been to our house once, we thought that surely there was no way they could have actually seen our house in the aerial footage...but they did, and this is what we saw:

Since the flood took my camera cord and my card adapter, I don't have any AF (After Flood) pictures to show you yet.  But, I do have some BF (Before Flood) moments that I was already planning on showing you before our lives completely changed - when things were a little more normal.

This is our Abbey now that she has a little lot more personality and energy:

I was also planning my first recipe post BF, so my guacamole recipe will be coming in the next couple of days...depending on how the contractor-lining-up process goes.

Thank you all for your love, support, and prayers; we definitely need it all now, and we know we'll make it through this, and when we do, we can only be stronger, right?