From Cindy's Heart

Hi Cindy -

 

Wow I was so suprised to see our family's trials on your blog today, it felt a little weird - but I appreciate it. 

 

We are doing fine for clothes and shoes and things as we were able to get all that out of the home before it molded - we lost our dress clothes, but at the moment that is not so important - we tend to dress pretty casual on a day to day basis.   

 

We were also able to remove and salvage some our dishes and some of our kitchen things.  We also evacuated our Bibles of course and would never leave them behind. 

 

We have twin 13 year old daughters - they are very mature for their age, in the sense that they are very sensible.  They are pretty quiet girls and the things they like to do the most is read, they read at a high school level - and read everything - fiction, non-fiction, devotionals and all kinds of things.  We tend to read good wholesome books, not the more modern mass paperbacks. They do not like the kind of books that are based on teen romance and dramas, they have no interest in any of that.   They love animals, and Chloe is totally enthralled with horses, Nicci prefers dogs, though she loves horses as well.  They like to read animal books fiction and nonfiction.  They enjoy drawing and art, and enjoy listening to their Christian music.  We like to go on nature walks although at the moment we cannot because Chloe had to have a toenail removed recently after a rather large boy at youth group accidently stomped on it - so it is a bit painful for her to get around.  It will take a couple of weeks to improve, the doctor told her to keep the medical open toe shoe on for another 4 weeks. 

 

The place we are in right now is pretty small and we are surrounded by our evacuation bins and some of the bins that my husband has managed to bring back from Biloxi, so we do not have a lot of room. 

 

For me it is important that the girls are cheered up a bit, so if anyone wanted to send them something to read or some art materials that would be nice.  I cannot think of anything else at the moment. 

 

If anyone is in the Little Rock area who has a farm with animals or a horse that the girls could visit and stroke, that would be wonderful - sometimes just being around nature is cathartic.  I don't drive, but when my husband is up here - he could take them to look at some animals if we just knew where there were some.  A lot of people do not like you petting their horses in a field and I understand that - so we never do so without permission. 

 

I am going to be implementing your scrapbooking and notebooking techniques, and with all the wonderful things you sent me, I can get on with that in the very near future.  We lost all of our scrapbooking supplies, cardstock, binders, stickers everything, so maybe that would be something to get them started.  It may not be practical, but to be honest right now it is most important to me to give them a new start with some pleasurable things.  Sometimes a few stickers and new art pencils are more important than pots and pans for the emotion,  (we have pots and pans).

 

Maybe a devotional for teens would be nice.  I need very little, I can live the way I am for now - but I want to cheer the girls if I can.  Once we have all we can salvage out of our home, I will know better what the family may need.  However - the girls have very little here - they have their cd players, a few books, and some Christian CDs and I think that boredom for them will be the most harmful thing.  Not being able to walk far means we are stuck indoors a lot and it gets a bit tedious for them. 

 

I do appreciate that people want to help - it is a very humbling and also wonderful feeling.  I just do not know at the moment what we really need, it is very hard to say - have all the helpful things you have sent us and I was listening to one of your CDs last night, that was wonderfully encouraging. 

 

The girls have had a lot of disruption in our learning in the last 15 months or so as you can imagine, it was nice to hear you say "don't worry they will get it" - how gratifying is that - it does stress me out at the moment that I cannot do what I would like and that we don't have the spirit for it at the moment. 

 

One thing I would like is prayers for my husband who is working so hard down in Biloxi, trying to salvage things, and worrying himself silly about our future - he has always been a careful and hardworking man - and has always saved and prepared for our future - this whole period has been pretty hard on him - I pray that he gets the strength he needs for the days ahead.  I would also like prayers for all those in the path of Rita.  Anyway, again thanks so much for your blessing us as a family -