Trying to get it out of my system

Note - this is not a happy post so if you are looking for happy - don't read.

I have to admit - I haven't been into the "swing of Christmas" this year. Not for reasons that you might expect. It has nothing to do w/ the adoption. Ever since we returned from visiting my family for Thanksgiving, I've just been sad. I don't want to be a "Christmas downer" but it really threw me for a loop. Other than that one post, I haven't said much about Katrina and I don't really know why. This blog was intended to capture our lives as we move through the adoption process. Believe me, Katrina has been part of this. Much of my immediate family evacuated here and were here when we were working on the initial adoption application. For a couple of weeks, we didn't know if many family members and friends were even ok or not. My sister put her kids in school here and they were here for about 6 weeks until schools opened again in their town. I haven't had a conversation with a family member for the last 4 months where "it" didn't come up. It's interesting to me that as I go back and read through my entries on this blog, it doesn't show up more. It's been such a part of our everyday. Unfortunately, I've decided to talk about it a few days before Christmas. Oh well, timing never was my strong point.

I knew it was bad. However, seeing the town you grew up in reduced to scraps of lumber, seeing your Grandmother's house destroyed by 3 feet of water and an oak tree through the middle, seeing your Aunt that lost EVERYTHING stinks. It's four months now after the storm and people are still living in tents. My sister is friends with many school teachers and they have students that are still in tents. My Aunt that lost everything hasn't heard a thing about getting a FEMA trailer. Yet, my sister's next door neighbor whose house is FINE, gets offered one. It's a mess.

Even the "lucky ones" that still have a roof over their head have it pretty hard. Jobs are gone or seriously affected, they watch their friends and family try to rebuild their lives from scratch. Nothing is easy there, going to the bank, going to the grocery store, to the Doctor, ordering Pizza, nothing. There was even an unfortunate incident with my sister in Walmart over a frozen chicken which I will not go into out of respect for her.

Anyway, if this blog is really going to document our lives as we move through this process it had to be said. I promise the next post will be about Christmas.