Hi! How exciting is this...our special place to exist!!!!
Thanks for the prayers, and hugs. Well, the learning to walk, is going...it's getting there, I'm still using crutches, and a cane to get around. I really wanted to be walking by now, but I guess God had other plans for me right now. We evacuated from Katrina,on the 27th of August, two days before landfall...we live 50 miles north of New Orleans, by the way. We actually came down for a "look and leave" on August 30, and drove about 60 miles of the trip, from Jackson, MS on the shoulder of the road, as all four lanes were impassable and only the shoulder was passable...also the gas shortage that existed was unbelievable...one gas station open in the area of Jackson where we were, and it had a line that was about 3 miles long...and no gas down in our neck of the woods....period. So, once we got down there, my husband had left his car, sitting with a full tank of gas, when Katrina struck, so that was our "getaway" car, when we decided to leave the awful devastation, after only a one night look and leave...we saw that our apartment was still standing, (others only yards away had EXTREME roof damage, and flooding, and some were down to the foundations), so we felt very blessed. Our apartment made out pretty well, minor roof damage, so when we left we had to leave my car, because it had very little gas left in it, and the trip would be 2 1/2 hours back to Jackson. (My husband's family lives there.) After we returned, we found out that he had lost his job, that he just started the day I started teaching in August....he had been there 3 weeks, when Katrina struck, and was supposed to be placed on regular salary the week Katrina struck, he had been getting paid hourly, while he was training for the company. (the company still had a produce warehouse in East New Orleans,(although they were moving to our town, and going to be closing the warehouse out of New Orleans within the next month or so, and did 85% of their business out of New Orleans, when Katrina struck.) So, he filed for unemployment, and he applied for a grant, through the employment office, to take IT classes. He was the last person accepted for the classes, and he starts them a week from Monday...for three weeks...in Jackson.
So, my little girl is going with him, and my mother-in-law has offered to keep her for us, since we had to cut out preschool expenses.
At this time, to be honest, I am really pushing myself to walk, and I have a couple motives behind my wanting to walk so badly...one of those is in case I lose my job, and because if I do lose my job, I'll have to move, and will lose mine and my little girl's health insurance, so I want to be released by my doctor by the time when that day comes. (went into more details on this in the "Vent" board, in a post on the 15th of October... post is titled "awaiting the axe"....
I was upset at first about all the chaos that's been going on, but now, I'm over it,feeling a lot better, and happier, and just ready to get things going again, and move on, if I need to, so I can have some closure with this whole situation, with the walking, the job, and the possible move... I just wish I didn't have to think about moving again...just moved here summer of '04. But, since it looks like a really strong possibility, with all of the changes happening weekly, I'm already planning, just in case.
Thanks for asking about me, DJ. I'm hanging in there, and at least I have a "plan B" right now...so many of my teacher friends aren't sure what they're going to do, if they're next.
P.S. Rita didn't hurt my area like Katrina did. Katrina did a real whammy on many parts of Mississippi, and Louisiana. Rita got parts of Louisiana in the southwestern area, and parts of Texas. In some parts of Mississippi, people who lost their homes, were given tents to live in, I heard on the news, from a federal agency...now, that should be really uncomfortable, since it's turning cold this weekend, into next week. I'm very blessed, DJ....very blessed.
REB
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10-22-2005, 09:13 AM
