I Just Needed My Parents

While I was having a breakdown after I learned my THREE insurance policies cover NOTHING from my recent mudslide and that I have $10,000 worth of damage, my mother called.  She told me I needed a hug.  She traveled 850 miles to give me a hug.  I really needed that hug from my mother.

My father came too, of course.  He spent yesterday digging mud and cutting down the tree by our bedroom window while I went to work.  He also cleaned my heating vents and told me I should do it once a year.  (Kind of like I should clean my gutters every year....)

I have the best parents in the whole world.  They drove this far just to help me clean up and provide emotional support.  They have succeeded!  I am very blessed.

I am also very blessed to have good friends.  I am very blessed to have a good home teacher.  My home teacher and other friends will be coming on Monday (MLK Jr. Day) to help me begin the clean up process.  I was going to order pizza to feed everybody, but another sweet friend who has three herniated discs in her back and can't lift a shovel is going to make lasagna.  Isn't that sweet!

If you happen to live in the area and need something to do on Monday, you are officially invited.  Bring your boots, shovels, chainsaws, and a good sense of humor.

The ground is still too wet to use a backhoe.  The goal of this clean up will be to get the mud off the house (the contractor said it is pushing my house off its foundation) and get the trees off the house. 

I really thought that my insurance company would just pay for somebody to clean it up, but I guess not.  I'm glad I have good friends and I'm glad they are willing to help when my insurance claims fall through.

Erin Joy is posing by the kitchen window.  There are still a few trees by the kitchen window, but it was so nice to go to bed and not look at trees from the bedroom window.

Nine times out of ten a mudslide is catastrophic.  This is the reason that mudslides are a separate policy and not offered by most insurance companies.  I am so grateful that we are in the one out of ten "non-catastrophic" category.   I am so grateful it didn't break through the walls or window while Rachel was sleeping.  I'm glad my house wasn't knocked completely off its foundation.   I have so many things to be thankful for.  I'm going to remember these things while I'm shoveling mud.