Keeping Our Heads Above Water - Chapter 8

January 5, 2016

This is Raymond, the dumpster guy.

When he first brought the dumpster out a week ago, he dropped it in our driveway...got out of his truck...looked at the disaster called the Etheridge House....took off his hat....and I swear I saw tears forming in his eyes.   He grabbed me, hugged me and whispered in my ear, "I am SO sorry."

I've never met this man before.

Yesterday, Item #58 on my list of things to do included calling Raymond to come empty the dumpster.  It was completely full of sheet rock, water-logged furniture and junk. 

Our neighbors on either side of us whose garages also flooded, had come down over the weekend and cut their sheet rock to allow their walls to dry out and breathe and we were all using Raymond's dumpster to hold it all.

For some reason, I thought we had one FREE dump with the monthly use of this dumpster.....I'm pretty sure I got that idea from my husband who told me that to soften the financial blow to my brain.  So I was shocked when Raymond said it costs $350 every time he brings a new dumpster out.  I paused....and prayed.  And as I started to negotiate with him, he said, "It's been taken care of, Liz.  You don't owe for this dump."  He went on to say, "Your neighbor Pat Sayers called me this morning and paid for it.  You don't owe anything."  I could barely tell Raymond "Goodbye" cause I was crying...again.  I was so overwhelmed and grateful by the generosity of my neighbor, who used a fraction of this dumpster for her garage sheet rock, that I just could do nothing but give thanks.

And friends, there have been many Pat Sayers' this past week in our lives.....doing random acts of kindness for us.  A dumpster charge may not sound like much to you, but its EVERYTHING to me.

And I will continue counting my blessings....just as I have every day.....for people whose lives have intersected with ours for such a time as this......like Becky, Mary Lee, Kathy and Phyllis who rolled up their sleeves yesterday and tackled a nasty garage in the cold on January 4 because they love.  They love BIG.

Keeping Our Heads Above Water - Chapter 7

January 3, 2016

 Yesterday....Chuck and I took a day of rest.  A Sabbath really.

We headed to church.  A place we desperately needed and wanted to be.....a place we could catch our breath and be still.  And as we stood there singing "How Great Thou Art", I meant those words like never before: 

"O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder,

Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made

I see the stars; I hear the rolling thunder

Thy power throughout the universe displayed."

It was a week ago, at this very moment, we were being helped out of our flooded home by our neighbors.  It feels like a hundred years ago...that moment....that incredibly long dark night where I sat in the bed with my husband, our cat Kruger, our dog Molly and we waited.

We waited as we heard the water coming in under the walls, under the doors, under the floor like it was pure evil flowing slowly into and invading our space.  I could hear it knocking things over in other parts of the house; I could hear the floor burping and gurgling beneath me.....and I turned the Cindy Crawford Infomercial up louder so I didn't have to hear it and I prayed....Fervently.

And it was no accident my friend Jill handed me a book this week titled "Fervent" by Priscilla Shirer that she had been reading.

"Prayer is the portal that brings the power of heaven down to earth.

It is kryptonite to the enemy and to all his ploys against you."

Priscilla Shirer

And I'm keeping my kryptonite in my pocket today....and every day....as we head into a new week of unknowns.  Of restoration.....reconstruction....debt.  It simply takes the word "Hello God" to open that portal to heaven, I've learned.....and you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be whispering those words a lot in the coming days and months ahead. 

Yes....I'll be praying Fervently....and I can't wait....let me say that again...I CAN'T WAIT....to see what God has in store for us. 

Keeping Our Heads Above Water - Chapter 6

January 3, 2016

Chuck and I have been blessed with so much.......

So when I opened up my computer this morning and saw that our sweet daughter-in-law Jennifer had started a "GoFundMe" account for our expenses incurred by this flood, well.....I've got to tell you....between tears of gratitude, I felt the sting of guilt.  There are so many...SO MANY....around this lake who have been hit so much harder than us.  So many who haven't had the support, the friends, the family, the church to rally around them, the arms wrapped around them and lifting them up and loving the heck out of them like we have.  I have felt every-single-day this week as if we have been given gift after gift after gift after gift......

We will be okay.  We will survive this storm better than we started.  We're already better than we were before the rains started this time last week....and I'm not talking about wood floors or sheetrock or kitchen cabinets or furniture.  I'm talking about relationships...about open eyes....about crazy love from your hand to ours...about your prayers heaven-bound with our names on them.  We have been humbled and blessed beyond words.

And yesterday our kids came in and kicked some bad butt on this house of ours.  The front door was warped and not shutting...so our friend Beau cut a beam that had floated up into our flower bed from someone's dock, jacked it up and whalla.....our door shuts and locks now!  Who knew we'd be blessed by a piece of someone's dock....

And the grandchildren and their friends, with hammer in hand, a Christmas ornament box as a trash can and a shovel, did some major restoration on this house of ours.  They are the coolest, hardest working kids ever!

We moved the furniture from one side of the house to the other side of the house so renovation can start tomorrow.  We power washed rugs on the deck all day (thanks Chuck Armstrong!!) and we met with the contractor to determine what this is going to cost us.  OUCH.

Flood Insurance.  Unfortunately, normal household flood insurance you add to your homeowners policy is simply not available here.  FEMA emergency flood insurance is the only coverage available and its minimal in coverage.  Very minimal in coverage.  It wouldn't have covered our expenses here if we had had it.

And at the end of a long, hard-working day.....as the sun started its way down, we played.  We fished, we paddle-boarded, we canoed in that ugly green canoe in what once was our backyard.....and will be again one day.  All is well in the Etheridge home.....because we have love living here, friends. 

Keeping Our Heads Above Water - Chapter 5

January 1, 2016

I've been rotating 2 pairs of jeans and 2 sweatshirts for the past 5 days....one "Go HOG" sweatshirt whose "S" fell off long ago and one "Mexican University" hoodie I picked up at Goodwill years ago.  Much of our clothes got wet in this flood and it was long past time to do laundry.  Things were starting to smell wompy....

So today......my friend Cheryl and I spent the day entertaining the residents of "The Laundromat". 

Did you know they charge $3.00 to wash a load of clothes in Mt. Vernon and $0.25 for 8 minutes of dryer time?  DANG.  I'm naming tomorrow as "Fix-The-Washing-Machine-Day" at the Etheridge houseboat.  We need to really focus and concentrate on getting those pine needles and mulch out of my washing machine ASAP.

But if I have to spend quality time at The Laundromat, I can't think of anyone I'd rather spend it with than Cheryl.  She's just crazy enough to make this entertaining....like not locking the washer before starting it.  The little Chinese lady at the machine next to mine started speaking 157 miles an hour in a foreign tongue and pointing frantically at my machine....where water was gushing out the bottom of the washer onto the floor.

And dropping and breaking the unopened bottle of wine on the floor that we had planned on sharing while the clothes dried.  Oh yes....it's always fun with Cheryl.  Always.

So much happened today at The Laundromat that I will share later, but for now, let me just say that I ran into God doing laundry at The Laundromat today too.  He had a few hearts to wash....and the ol' Boy was making miracles happen right before my eyes....and He was singing at the top of His lungs "You're FREE!!!" to the people that visited that place today.

Today.....today was a GOOD day!

Keeping Our Heads Above Water - Chapter 4

 January 1, 2016

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Someone told me yesterday it was New Years Eve and I about called them a liar.  I had totally and completely forgotten this was the last week of 2015.  All I could think was......

THANK GOODNESS!

I'm ready to end this chapter and start a new one.  It's been a wild year.....and ended with a bang.  Actually, more like a gurgle...gurgle...gurgle.  So, as we start this brand smackin' new chapter in the book of our lives with 365 empty pages ahead of us, I'm going to cling not only to Isaiah 43:2 above in the difficult weeks and months ahead, but to a quote my friend Regina shared on Facebook this week:

And I fear I have given you the impression I have been a ROCK STAR through this whole wet process this week.   I haven't been.  I have cried buckets of tears.  I have gone from being a mighty warrior to a blithering ugly mess within a micro-second.  My emotions are all over the board and I can't seem to contain them in a nicely confined little box where I'd like to keep them.  I am living life...no different than anyone else.  And sometimes life is ugly....and wet....and full of Grace.

Yesterday was Chuck's first day to see inside the house since we left early Monday morning.  There was just no way to get his wheelchair through the water until yesterday.  And this was the face he made when he came out.

And these are the beautiful faces of my girls....my treasured IF: girls who showed up at my house yesterday to pack up much of our smaller stuff and get it out of the way.  There is so much I want to tell you about each one of them but there just isn't enough space.  There is so much you NEED to know about each of them...and it would change your life if you knew.

And this is Cindy and Maaike.  Cindy has been at my house every day this week working, packing, shoveling, hauling for 8 hours every day...bringing plywood so Chuck's wheelchair didn't get stuck in the gravel at the temporary house and cooking us dinner.   There's not enough words in my vocabulary to tell you what this girl means to me and what all she has done for us.  Maaike owns a large dairy a few miles down the road which was hit by a tornado three weeks ago.  THREE WEEKS AGO.  Yes....her dairy was hit hard and she lost beloved cattle....she lost barns....she lost a lot.  And she's standing in MY house sweeping up water.  WOW.

I have never lived anywhere like this, friends.  I have never worshiped with people like the people at First United Methodist Church in Mt. Vernon.  Where people help people because they don't know how NOT to......where you hear them whispering prayers as they sweep water out of your house or emptying rotten food from your dead freezer or taking your wet clothes and towels home and washing them for you.  I have never been "graced" with so much GOOD in my entire life. 

And as I start filling in Page 1 of 2016, I start it with Thanksgiving.  I have a deeply grateful heart for these people I call FAMILY.  They have provided us everything we need....MORE than we need....and God is using each of them in a very mighty way right now.

So bring it on 2016....I'm ready for ya.  I'm covered up with GRACE. 

Keeping Our Heads Above Water......Chapter 3

December 30, 2015

There is so much I want and NEED to tell you about Chapter 3, that I'm finding it hard to know where to start.

 So, with grateful tears in my eyes as I type this,  I'll start where Day 3 started.....holding hands in a circle in a very wet driveway to pray before the day started with at least 10 people showing up at 8:00 am from our church, our community, our neighborhood, all to work.....on our house....for free.....because they love us.

Dear Amazing and Wonderful Heavenly Father.....This storm that was meant to hurt us, has only blessed us....over and over again as I look at the faces of these people who have arrived at my doorstep on their holiday vacation, because they have hearts full of compassion and love.  Your love in them, Father....and these tears falling off my cheeks right now are tears of JOY.....not worry....not fear....not loss.....but pure Joy.  And I thank You for each and every one of these people You have placed at our doorstep this week....Dean, Melissa, Corrine, Coleman, Cameron, Nick, Brent, Zach, Dan, Cindy, Terri, Brian, Becky, Larry, Beau, Beau's Dad, Troy, Doug, Jack, Ellen, Brady and many others.  I know no other words other than "Thank You.....Thank You."

Yesterday is a blur.....my Supervisor Dean organized these guys to measure up 2' on every single wall in our house....make a chalk line....knock out the Sheetrock....haul the Sheetrock to the ugly green canoe and take it to higher ground.

This went on all day....while my girls, Terri, Ellen, Cindy and I went through my very, very embarrassing messy closets and made decisions on what was salvageable and what wasn't.   There's an intimacy about sharing that one closet in your house where you open the door, throw items in and shut it real fast and I think as close as these friends and I were before, we're closer now because they visited this closet of mine.

There were hard things to let go of.  And I'm not talking about expensive clocks or antique pieces of great value.  I'm talking about my very first doll...her name was Softie....same as my nickname my Dad gave me when I was born....who I had to let go of yesterday.  It was tough to put her in the unsalvageable bag.  Very hard.

And then there was our company purged files in a different closet that couldn't be saved....and I pray a second prayer of never getting audited.

And I'm going to repeat the scripture I mentioned yesterday to you....Genesis 50:20, "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good."  Let me just say friends, as I stand in a home that barely resembles the home it was this time last week, I am humbled...because so much GOOD has come from these last three days.  Relationships I thought were dead, have now been restored.  New friendships have been formed.  Existing friendships are stronger.  And in my book, relationships are far more important than a Softie doll or a little missing Sheetrock.

And at the end of the day, when all the workers have left and I'm standing in the middle of what would appear a sheer mess but all I can see is sheer LOVE everywhere I look, another truck pulls up with two men in it who just drove in from Dallas after working a full days work, to work a little longer on my house....because they love.

And I'm beyond humbled......

Keeping Our Heads Above Water - Chapter 2

December 29, 2015

When Chuck brought this ugly green canoe home many years ago, I thought he had lost his mind. We would NEVER use it and it would just take up space in the boathouse until he grew tired of stepping over it, I declared at the time.

Well, I was wrong.  It's been used many times....once by a neighbor boy who mounted a trolling motor on it so he didn't have to actually row.....by our son using it as a gondola to cruise around the lake....and now, as our means of transportation from our car to the house.

This canoe has been good to us.  And this week, it earned every penny Chuck payed for it so long ago.  It was a means of moving essentials out of the house....carting Mark the general contractor to the front door.....transporting dehumidifying fans our brother-in-law drove 3 hours to bring us....the list goes on.....and on......and on.

And it canoed us to a house this morning with very little water in it.  Yesterday a half foot of water....today...mere inches.  God is SO amazing!  The cleanup began and neighbors like Becky sweeping the debris of pine cones and mulch from inside the house so Larry could use the shop vac to vacuum them up, made my heart smile for how fortunate we were to have friends like Becky and Larry who love us.

Honestly friends, I have never felt more blessed than I feel today!  Your comments, phone calls, texts and visits mean more to us than I could ever tell you. I have read every single one of them and am simply amazed at the love going on here.  I only hope I am there for you when you need me like you were there for me when I needed you.  Lord, please remind me to be a servant to others as they have been to me.

Chuck's garage is still holding the worst of it.....and we still have one room that is not quite dry yet, but all in all, I have no complaints.  We have donated labor coming tomorrow by members of our church and community to tear out the sheetrock and others bringing dinner for us tomorrow night...just as they have every night this week.

And during the darkest part of Sunday night, when the winds were blowing their hardest and the rains were pouring into our shelter, I recalled this scripture in Genesis: "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good." (Genesis 50:20) and I knew....I KNEW....there was something much bigger going on here than dirty water entering our home.  

Yes....we are truly blessed.......indeed!

Keeping Our Heads Above Water......Chapter 1

December 28, 2015


I am humbled.

As Christians, we are promised NOT to have an easy life.  We are assured that trials will come and they will beat on our doors...and they will try and knock us down, flood us out and discourage us.

But the best defense a Christian has is to hold their head up....keep their eyes looking higher than the flood waters...put on waders and smile.  

 

Smile...because if you're being attacked, there's a good chance we know why...

The last 48 hours have humbled this girl named Liz.  And when the flood waters inched closer and closer to our house and we knew we were in for a difficult night....we prayed.  We prayed all night...ALL NIGHT....as the cat, the dog, Chuck and I sat in the bed and watched the flood waters surround us.  We prayed for peace....we prayed for us to see God's will in all of this...and yes, we prayed for the rains to stop.

To some, it might look like He didn't answer.  But to us.....He answered mightily.

We have been given a safe, dry place to lay our heads at night for as long as we need it by our friend Anne who is out of town for several months.  We have been brought food, extra waders, strong arms and hugs.  We have been prayed over by hundreds of people for strength through this storm we are living through and we feel ourselves getting stronger and stronger with each passing minute and with each prayer prayed.

We have a long process ahead of us.....much cleanup with better than half a foot of water in every square inch of our house and over a foot of water in the garage.  And there is no flood insurance.....so we will be taking out a loan to pay for this on our retired income.  But.....we know this once beautiful home our Landlord, God, allowed us to be tenants of, will be once again restored and we will be stronger by this experience.

Thank you, friends, for your prayers....your help.....your love....your friendship.  We love you all dearly.

Please continue to pray......

Merry Christmas from The Etheridges

 (Click on Picture Above)

December 13, 2015

Water has been the main theme for the Etheridges these two-weeks-before-Christmas.  Floods of tears have been shed over losing our little man, Murphy this week.  And now, the flood waters from the lake are inching towards our back door from the heavy rains over the past 12 hours.

Peace on Earth.

And there is a peace within us right now as we have much to be grateful for....even in the midst of crisis and heartache.  And that's why we wanted to do a video Christmas card to YOU.....our family....our friends....who have journeyed with us throughout this year 2015.  Through the ups and the downs.....through new life...and yes, even death.

May you find the wonderful Peace of God living within your heart...and may you have a wonderfully blessed Christmas season.

Much love and gratefulness...
Chuck and Liz

The Gift of Fall

 Good Morning Father......I saw the beginnings of fall this week!  

I saw the leaves blowing off the trees yesterday while driving down FM 3122 headed home and thought, "Oh my...here we go....it's almost here!".....and the kid in me could hardly contain herself from sitting up straighter in the Jeep, grasping the steering wheel harder and looking up....up.....to see if the trees are changing from red to orange to yellow yet.

And sometimes, while driving down the road, I turn the Jeep around 

and drive through it again just to experience the leaves hitting my windshield.  

It's almost like You give me Fall as an early Christmas gift.....and I can even see You grinning from ear to ear as You watch me unwrap Fall...all the while I'm squealing "Ooh....and Aww".....as if my eyes were seeing it for the very first time.

Each year....it is with first-time eyes.  I never grow tired of this.

I'm on "GO" for the first signs of red, orange and yellow......camera batteries are charged....lenses are packed and ready......I'm just waiting on You.  I know You are close when I see the fog on the lake each morning.....and I know how much pleasure it brings You, Father, to see me downright ridiculously featherbrained over the thought of laying in the middle of a country road with my camera aimed skyward towards You and watching the leaves falling all around me, begging them to land on my lens. 

Yes.....I will never look at Fall the same again...never look at YOU the same again.

The years I wasted driving through these colors...these textures...and never seeing them.  My old eyes never seeing them as the gifts they are.  Like a child opening a gift and tossing it aside to get to the next gift, to reach that hopefully "better" gift, I never appreciated that You hand-crafted each of these colorful leaves just for my enjoyment....just to see my eyes open wider...my heart skip a little faster....and the crazy internal screams that sound very much like those I make on the Texas Giant roller coaster at Six Flags.  What did I ever do to deserve this?

Fill my heart to capacity today Father......as I lay my tired old Summer eyes down, lift me up with brand new eyes that see everything You've made especially for my enjoyment.

There's truly no good reason for the leaves to turn red, orange and yellow....

there really isn't.....it was actually more work for You to do this.  

You could have just made them fall off the trees after Summer and go straight into Winter without ever passing through Fall, but You wanted us to experience the amazing colorful miracle of sending us through a Fall to prepare us for a Winter.

Like a parent who wants nothing but the best for their child....You created Fall to make us smile....to help us forget the ugliness in the world for a season....and oh how I love You for doing this for us!

In the midst of mass shootings.....hate crimes to Christians....stock market crashes....divorces....unspeakable crimes to children.....death, You gave us Fall to remind us You are still very present in this world full of ugliness.

So thank You, Father.  I am not going to darken this prayer with requests.....I am going to just sit on the floor of Your Throne Room thanking You for the gifts You have so lovingly given me.....as I unwrap each gift, each day of this Fall. 

I love You.

Amen.