rebuilding

In the last year I have moved 8 times. I am sick of moving and it is hard to feel stable. Whenever I think I have it bad, I think about my parents and most of my fiance's family. My folks are living in the basement of a friends house. They are not sure when their house will be ready. They gave their builder $35,000 just to be put on his list 3 weeks after the storm. They were #22. They are planning on living in their trailer till the house is ready in 2007. At least they are not like so many who are paying a note on a house that got 10 ft. of water and footing the note on a new house or apartment.

Many people just don't understand what happens when you flood. The maximum flood insurance you can get is $250k structure and $100k contents. While getting $350k is great, if your morgtage was for more than that amount and the mortgage company receives the insurance payment and applies it against the balance due, you are screwed. This is what many insurance companies have done. So, you are stuck with a rotting structure you many times that you still owe money for and forced to pay rent for another home. Many of Bonnie's family lost their house in New Orleans and on the coast. Imagine that picture, throw in kids, and a struggling economy.

It is all so painful that I find myself crying whenever I hear good news. The Saints have been a recent inspiration of good news. Reggie Bush donating money to a troubled school for children with autism and donating to Tad Gormeley to rebuild the stadium. Other saints players working to help sheetrock and rebuild houses on a regular basis. Drew Brees buying a house in the garden district and volunteering with different causes. Reggie Bush buying a condo in the warehouse district. All of this brings tears to my eyes. I am so torn between the home I love and the future I hope to have in Austin. I know that many have similar struggles. In some ways, being away from home, has been hardest. People in other places just don't get it. The hurricane, the pain, the shattered life, struggling to rebuild... it's all still very present and we need the emotional/physical support of others to go forward.

I guess that is it in a nutshell... I feel for New Orleans not only because it is my home, but because we are both still wounded and need help to rebuild. (art credit: Brett Calzada, 504destruct.com)