Sweet Adeline: What a week!

Sorry for the lack of blog posts lately; we've had lots of excitement around here. (and sorry for the wordy post... lots to catch up on) In the past week, we had an earthquake, a hurricane, went on a quick road trip, and were without power for 5 days.

Last Tuesday, we had a pretty big earthquake here, with the epicenter being about 30 miles from our home. It was actually kind of exciting because there wasnt any damage in our area, but the earthquake was 5.8 magnitude and we did have a few noticable after-shocks. During the earthquake, I was working with a patient and it suddenly felt like the floor was moving under me. I work in a one-story building, so I felt pretty safe, but I was worried about Rob being downtown in a high-rise building. He was able to send me a message to let me know he was okay, and the babysitter also sent a message saying that they were all in the bathroom 'just in case' but were all safe and sound. A few picture frames and knick-knacks fell inside our house, but otherwise everything was fine.

On Saturday, we knew that Hurricane Irene would hit our area and we would likely lose power for a little while, but we had no idea just how bad Richmond would be hit. The rain and wind started early, and we lost power around noon on Saturday. We went across the street to the neighbor's house, and camped out there until they lost power around 6pm. While there, we watched as many trees on our street fell, narrowly missing cars and houses. We returned to our home and attempted to sleep in the dark, warm house. Adeline was a champ and slept through the night despite the uncomfortable conditions.

Early Sunday morning, we awoke and decided that we needed to come up with a plan. We had a freezer full of breastmilk for Adeline and we realized that we needed to find a freezer to store it in until our power was restored. We discussed a few local options, but quickly discovered that our entire area was without power. Luckily, Rob's parents live about 2.5 hrs away in Raleigh, so we quickly packed the car and left town. I remember opening the front door to leave and being so surprised to see a newspaper on our front stoop. Despite our street being blocked by a large tree, not to mention the hundreds of trees and power lines down in our neighborhood, they managed to deliver the newspaper. It took us about 30 minutes to figure out how to get out of Richmond. Every route we tried was blocked by trees and power lines. We watched as people stepped cautiously out of their houses to survey the damage. Some neighborhoods were worse than others, but we saw many enormous trees that were uprooted and caused major damage to homes. We made it safely down to Raleigh and were very relieved when the breastmilk was safe and sound in the freezer. On Sunday afternoon, we heard that our friends, Becky and Fielding, had power at their condo in Richmond, and we decided to drive back and stay with them for the night. I knew that I would need to be at work the next day, helping to treat the patients and lend a hand in any way I could.

This tree was uprooted at Tyler's parents house... where a little thing called Tyler and Byron's Wedding will be held next week.

As the power company was in the process of surveying the damage, the estimates of power restoration ranged from a few days to a few weeks, so we had no idea what to expect. We didnt have power at the hospital on Monday, which made for a dark and hot work environment. The generators were available for anything vital, including computers, so we were able to operate as usual. We ended up staying with Becky and Fielding for 3 nights, until our power was finally restored at 9pm on Wednesday night. That's a total of 5 days without power. Each day, we woke up and got ready for work at Becky and Fieldings, went to work, came back to our house to gather things for the following day, then went back to Becky and Fielding's for dinner and bedtime. It was exhausting and very inconvenient. Unfortunately, this ordeal is not over... many of our friends are still without power.

This picture is for real. This is Byron attempting to get some work done at home without power.

I learned some things this week:
1) We have incredibly generous friends. Becky and Fielding opened their home to us, cooked us delicious dinners, and put up with having 2 adults, a baby, and a dog in their home for 4 days. We can't thank them enough for their gracious hospitality.
2) I dont need nearly all the 'things' I think I need. We had to pack quickly and lightly, and I brought about half the things I usually do for Adeline. And we were just fine! Adeline was her happy, smiley self... even though I was bathing her in a bathroom sink and washing her hair with body wash.
3) I spend a lot of time doing extra things in the evenings instead of spending quality time with my sweet baby girl. Without computers, TVs, etc., I spent more time just holding Adeline and playing with her. I didnt worry about laundry, groceries, cooking....I wish I could just ignore these tasks all the time! Seriously though, I need to make more effort "be in the moment".