so thankful

We did not sleep well on Saturday night. Rob and I both felt like we stayed right at the surface of sleep, jumping up at the slightest sound. The kids slept in our room, too, so we'd all be together. I had my laptop under the bed, as well as a big chunk of the kids' clothes. I had visions of trees falling on top of the house and destroying their rooms.

At 6am, I woke up. This was the time forecasters predicted the hurricane winds would be worst in our area. I looked outside. It was perfectly still out there. I turned on the news and learned that overnight Irene had been downgraded to a tropical storm.

It continued to rain heavily all day. Strangely, the winds picked up much later in the afternoon, and strong gusts continued into the evening.

But we are so grateful to report that we had no major catastrophes! We have lots of small branches to pick up in the yard, and some water in the basement, but nothing like we anticipated. No trees destroying the house or cars (both of which did happen to one guy Rob knows), no power outage for 3-7 days like we anticipated, no lake of water in the basement. Praise God!!

We know many, many people have suffered great loss from Irene, and many people (including friends of ours) are still without running water and electricity. In fact, the next town over, Warwick, NY, has had quite a bit of damage (pics at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2389229093963.2140441.1347900613)

Thank you to all of you who were praying for us. We are so thankful for you!