Our NOLA Family

This is Shirley (whose home we gutted last week) and 6 of her 7 children...the oldest was at work and missed the photo op. The "baby" is named "Seven" - the number of perfection and completion. He was born shortly before Katrina and weighed only 1 pound at birth. He's darling! Each of the children had such sweet dispositions, and Shirley is a remarkable woman who has endured numerous hardships through the years, yet she expresses an abiding childlike trust in the Lord, and maintains an outward vision, concerned for others more than herself. One simple manifestation of that vision was that she provided lunch for us two days - shrimp po'boys and spaghetti with homemade meatballs.

Shirley and her children ended up in Houston after the flooding and only returned to New Orleans about 2 months ago. They currently live in a friend's home while awaiting reconstruction of their water-damaged house. The house, which sits directly on the ground (unlike most NOLA houses which are elevated 12-48") took on about 12-18" of water inside which, as you can imagine, is enough to ruin most furniture and many other belongings. Many items unharmed by water were subsequently ruined by mold.

On the first day, we emptied the house of furniture and a variety of other "stuff." One of the week's most poignant moments for me was watching the two older boys pictured above rifle through their belongings, trying to decide which "treasures" were salvageable. The younger of the two (14 years old) filled a box with toys that he hadn't seen since he was 11 and with which he was not ready to part. It can't be easy watching strangers come in and throw out your possessions, yet they were sweet and thankful...amazing.

We were successful in dismantling most of the house's interior - drywall, ceilings, mouldings, fixtures, etc., though there is one room and a garage which we didn't have access to until Friday. Hopefully another team will follow soon to finish this stage of the job. This process unveiled extensive termite damage throughout the whole house, so many of the disintegrated studs and crossbeams will have to be replaced, adding time and cost to the process. The family potentially faces a very long wait before rebuilding takes place. Most of the houses on their block were gutted long ago, but are in various stages of reconstruction. As time passes, it becomes more and more difficult to acquire enough skilled laborers to do all that needs to be done...the need remains significant.

Our hope and prayer is that Shirley's needs will be met soon, so her family can regain a sense of normalcy and stability.

Many thanks to Pastor Shane Gibson at Redeemer Presbyterian for making this opportunity available to us. We went down there hoping to be a blessing and were blessed in return.