Life as A Wilson: Back to Work and Hurricane Sandy!

Well... the story of how I returned to work:)

Soon after we moved to New Jersey we sold our printing business and I had considered myself "retired." I was enjoying the full time "stay at home" mom life.... somewhat! I also knew I was adjusting to a new area and a huge life style change. I wasn't looking for a job at all. We attended the Back To School BBQ for Daniel and Brendon met the CSA (Chief School Administrator) and she mentioned that she had heard about my background and they were looking for a business manager. So, that night Brendon told me about their conversation then I was called and asked to fill out an application. I wasn't sure about it... I have a strong desire to stay home with my kids until Kindergarten so I didn't want to go back to work while Katelyn was 2. However, Brendon had been talking a few months about putting Katelyn in preschool for her speech... I was kind of opposed at such a young age + preschool is EXPENSIVE here. I looked over the job and it was a full time job so I didn't feel comfortable with that and wasn't going to apply for it until they told me that they were flexible. I was shocked.... so, they offered me the job for 3 days a week and the hours of 7 - 3. So, as soon as school is over... I pick them up and we have the afternoon.... it is PERFECT! Katelyn stays home with Daddy on Mondays since that is his day off and they have daddy/ daughter day until Daniel and I get home from school then she attends preschool 2x/ week and it was absolutely the best thing ever for her as her speech is now ABOVE AVERAGE! My children are also back at Atlantic Christian School for the 2nd year as we get employee tuition benefits. I LOVE working on the same premise as my kids... I love walking into their lunch room or walking into their chapel to watch them sing or being present for every school event....This was just another MIRACLE in our faith journey here!

My office before it was painted:)

This was also the week that we started hearing on the news that a hurricane was coming through the area... well, I am an East Coast Girl... I grew up in Long Island... there were rumors of hurricanes all the time.... the news would hype it all up then nothing would happen.... bread, milk, generators would all sell out for NOTHING! I thought it was funny when on October 26th the ABC news van, reporter and camera man knocked on our front door and asked for an interview with us on our back deck to ask if we were nervous about the hurricane and what we were doing to prepare for it!!!! I was thinking... HYPE! HYPE! HYPE!

Worn out from being on TV:)

We also had our friend Misti coming into town... she was from Phoenix and actually used to work for Brendon at Christ Life Church then moved to Washington D.C. a few months before we moved to New Jersey so she had planned to come visit us this weekend! Her degree was in disaster relief management so we laughed that we had the right person staying with us:)

That Saturday was the Asbury Street Trick or Treat event... Asbury Street is an adorable street in Ocean City full of restaurants, boutiques, bakeries, coffee shops, surf shops, etc. So, we took the kiddos....

We were also ALL being evacuated the next day by 3PM... so towards the end of the day... everyone was doing this... I have to say that I started getting nervous watching this.

But... we continued to shop and show Misti around our cute town

Then I saw this... had no idea what this was... it is actually called a FLOOD GUARD! The sad thing is that this did absolutely no good... this church got completely flooded out and actually weren't back in their building for months after hurricane Sandy!

These pictures were taken of our dock on Sunday... the day before Hurricane Sandy. Do you see how high the water is already on the docks... thank God everyone had taken their boats out or else they would have been sitting on top of the docks by this point. All of these docks were destroyed in the hurricane!

This WAS our deck.... it was completely gone after Hurricane Sandy!

Sunday morning as we were packing to evacuate... the streets were already flooding from high tides.

At 3PM, we packed our family and our belongings and when the evacuation sirens went off, we left... they blocked the bridge so no one was allowed on Ocean City... only off the island. We held hands as a family and prayed over our home...

One of the elders of the church invited us to stay with them... we knew we were all going to loose electricity and so our adventure began.....

We tried to keep our minds off the inevitable... friends from all over came (in jammies and in the dark!) to play games, talk, laugh and pass time!

Photo Shoots w/ Jillian:) Anything to keep a 3 and 5 year old entertained under the circumstances!

Cooking with no electricity... no hot water, no fridge... it was like we were camping! We even lost heat... so every blanket the Velez's owned came out!

Legos in the dark!

Bedtime Routines remained the same... my philosophy as a mom is that you try to keep your routine as normal as possible in the midst of transition or difficult situations.

The Velez's didn't have electricity, internet or hot water so later in the week we went to the DeNick's to get hot water... they were all inland so the flooding didn't hit them.

Hurricane Sandy HIT! And we started watching pictures come in of Ocean City and it looked like this! This was our street or the street over from us... I can't remember. I remember sitting in the floor with Brendon holding me and I was in shock... so much that I couldn't even cry! I thought we had lost EVERYTHING!!!!! We just moved all of our "stuff" across the country for it to be floating around our house!

However, 4 nights later they let us back into Ocean City.... they let necessary personnel on the island 24 hrs prior to make it safe for owners to come back as there were live wires, feet of sand in the streets, couches in the street, etc.... Thursday AM, you had to show your drivers license to prove you were a resident to even get back on the island (it went on like that for a week to prevent plundering). We had heard from necessary personnel that had checked on our house that the docks were gone, deck was gone and garage was completely flooded out so we assumed our house was too. I remember biting my nails and SO nervous to see this island that was home to us for only 3 months. We walked into our house and not ONE DROP OF WATER had gotten inside!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Almost every house around us was completely flooded out and we were COMPLETELY dry!!!!!!!!! GOD IS SO GOOD!

However... here is our deck!