51 Weeks: a celebration and then a flood.

Lucas, your 51 week of life was quite full of a lot of celebration, and a lot of devastation. This will be a longer post, but a lot happened in your past 7 days of life!

This week, we heard a thump at the door. It was a package! It was addressed to you from Duke University. You got your first championship t-shirt along with a note from Coach K that said "Lucas, We are watching you." Of course, your daddy's good friend Johnny was behind this :) Although we are not Duke fans, if you were to play basketball for Duke one day, we would become the biggest Duke fans they have ever seen.

Mommy is excited about your birthday, so I started decorating your room with a banner.
We are going to have a birthday party with your play date buddies, and this was the invitation we sent out!
51 Weeks. . . so close to 52! You gave me great, sweet smiles this week for our pictures.
Bath time with you is always a blast. . .and always a bit wet with all the splashing you do!
A lot of mommy's coupons expired, you "helped" me by making sure they were well played with.
Cupcakes! Megan Tomlinson, the daughter in law of one of our shepherds, made these cupcakes for your party! They are so cute!!


Lucas, you loved your balloons, they are still in our living room where you love to play with them, hitting them and carrying them around with you.
Lucas, your party day was quite a day. We were planning on having it at the Otter Creek Playground and letting all your friends run and play outside. Well, all day Friday I was watching the weather......it went from a 30% chance of rain to a 60% chance, but I was still hoping.

Saturday morning, we awoke to crashes of thunder and lightening. It wasn't to be. Oh well! Let's make lemons out of lemonade.

When we arrived at the church, it was absolutely pouring. It made me wonder where they ever had a 30% chance in the forecast.

Now, Otter Creek is a big building, but there were so many activities going on this weekend, it was hard to find a place. We finally got a classroom and it worked out perfectly, I had about 45 minutes to decorate, but we got it done with our friends Courtney and Leighton help.

Here is the cupcake and drink table:
The food table, pb&j sandwiches, applesauce, pretzels, and goldfish--everything a kid needs!
Leighton came early to help set up!







It was pouring even harder when we left. I rushed home, over roads that were beginning to flood because the skies were getting dark and something just didn't seem right.

Daddy left for a funeral at church and you took a nap, I needed to get some cleaning done, but the news station was letting us know that it was getting dangerous outside. After your nap, we stayed and played in mommy and daddy's room so that we could watch the news.

At one point, we were told to get into our safe place. The lights started flickering and I pulled you into my closet as fast as I could. Mommy was a little scared, but we pretended that it was an adventure so that you would have fun and not be scared.

It took daddy over an hour to get home, so many roads were flooded and closed down. This is a picture of the house across from my neighborhood:

This is what happened on the interstate 3 miles from our house on Saturday afternoon. That building was floating down the interstate, crashing into the submerged cars.
The rain wasn't stopping, and everyone was afraid of what this meant for our city, it was bad on Saturday, but with more rain in the forecast for Sunday, people were very nervous.

We were expecting a "family of tornadoes" Saturday night, so you slept in our closet. You didn't seem to mind one bit!
There are thousands of images, and thousands of videos to see on facebook and youtube right now. We are finally getting national help since we were declared to be in a state of emergency yesterday.

Most Nashville monuments are submerged from the Cumberland River exceeding flood stage by 12 feet. The Opryland Hotel as 10 feet of water, the Opry Mills mall has 7-9 feet of water. The Grand Ole Opry is flooded as well as downtown Nashville. Many neighborhoods have water to their roof lines, people being rescued by helicopter and boat.

The clean-up and rebuilding will take months and years. The shelters are full, people are still un-accounted for, people have died, many people have lost everything.

The people that don't live in Nashville don't understand what is happening here because the news isn't telling them, but we are in an emergency here and people need help desperately. Nashville has come together as a town, as one family here to save and protect each other but we still need help.

Please pray for Nashville, and if you can help, please contact www.ottercreek.org or me personally for ways to help us save this city. The images and stories coming out of this event are heartbreaking.

We are Nashville. We will get through this.