Another year together..

 

I Love You
Wayne

How do I begin to tell you how lucky I am
to have you in my life?
I'll start by saying what an honor it is
for me to be your wife.
You're my best friend in the good times,
and my rock in times of sorrow.
You're the reason for sweet yesterdays,
and my promise for tomorrow.
I never thought I could feel this loved
until I became your wife.
You made this year and every year
the best one of my life.

Happy birthday honey.
Love always,

Your wife

Karen

xoxoxox

What's going on

 

The clean up from the tornado is moving along.  Wayne is busy sketching plans to redesign the damaged house's.  We think it will be 6-9 months before everyone is back in their house, and many many years, before the plantation looks anywhere close to normal.

I am still sick, but slowly feeling better.  The combination of medication I am on for my sinus infection has left me with horrid heartburn.  After throwing up several times yesterday I decided I am done with the medication.

We have mandatory training tonight with our foster agency.  "Dealing with the teenaged foster child", is the subject.  Since we are licensed for 0-7yrs old, I asked if we were required to attend.  I was told "yes". 

Still no foster placement, not even a phone call.  I am still going back and fourth, about switching over to DFAC's I just cant make up my mind.  Wayne says we have to stick it out with GA SAFE for a few more months. 

We've been licensed for nearly THREE months, everyone I know has had a placement with three days, not three months.

I backed into a fire hydrant last night, and put a nice lil dent into my new mini van.  This was after I scratched the entire passenger side, while trying to drive through the downed trees.  Someone needs to revoke my license.  I have backed into more things in the passed year than I care to share.  Parked cars, mail boxes, telephone polls, and now a fire hydrant. 

YIKES..

Yes, I did..

 

Not only have a I lost my passport, I have also lost my alien card, marriage license, birth certificate, and both mine and my husbands social security cards.

HELP!

Clean up

 

We have spent every waking minute helping my in laws clean up after the storm.  We managed to get them moved into another house on the plantation.  We went through the damaged house and took out clothes, dishes, pictures, the kids toys,etc. 

The men spent several hours going through the woods, looking for things that had been blown miles away from the house. 

We are not sure if the house is fixable, or if it needs to be torn down, and rebuilt. Either way it will be several months before they can move back into their house.

It's sad to drive around the plantation, it doesn't look the same, and it never will.  Most of the trees that were knocked down where 30-100 years old.  There are no birds singing in the trees, they are all on the ground life less.

In the last four days I have seen one live deer, usually you see ten or more a day.

Its a shocking sight to see, but in the end we are all thankful that no one was killed.

Material things, can be replaced, and houses can be rebuilt.

So shocked pt 2

 

 

So shocked..

 

Last night I lay awake in bed, listening to the wind, rain and thunder.  Each time I closed my eyes, another thunderous bang woke me up. At 1:24am my sister in law Tracey called screaming down the phone. They had just been hit by a tornado.  I jumped up, screaming for Wayne to get out of bed. I sent Wayne  to check the weather to make sure there were no more tornado warnings.. As he opened his computer the power went out.

I called my sister Nicola who lives in Virginia, and asked her to check the weather for me online.  She gave us the all clear, and we tried to make our way to their house.  We got about 2 miles (they live 4 miles away), before being stopped by a downed tree.

We tired several times to get around the tree, after half an hour we made it passed, only to be faced with live downed power lines. 

We knew Tracey, and her family where alive and well, but her husband was bleeding from glass cuts.  The fireman told us it would be sunlight before we got anywhere near their house. So at 3:30am we returned home until the sun came up. 

EMS, fire fighters, and forest rangers tired to reach them, but they were unable to do so.  By 8:30am we were able to get a tractor close enough to take Mike (Tracey;s) husband to the hospital. About 20 minutes later, Wayne and I arrived to pick up Tracey and her two girls. 

The devastation is unreal. The disaster spans over 18 miles, within "our plantation" we have lost over 200 acres of trees, 3 houses, 4-5 builds, 2-3 cars totaled, with 5-6 other cars damaged.  Power lines are strew across roads, Roofs are laying in ditches, and there are buildings on top of cars.

I am speechless, totally speechless.

Q and A

 

Once people found out we were becoming foster parents the number one question I have been asked is:

Q "Do you suffer from infertility problems?"

A: As far as we are aware we have no fertility problems.  I have always wanted to foster, and when Wayne agreed I jumped at the chance.  We will be having biological children one of these years.

Q: "You said you were born in Scotland, why did you move to the US"?

A:  When I was 6 my Mum remarried.  My step Dad was in the US military.  The base in Scotland, was closing down, so we ended up moving too Virginia Beach in the early 90's !