And the water is rising quick

May 1 the water started....we sat and watched a building float onto an interstate...from the comfort of our couch. Yeah, we live on a river, but we checked the flood planes when we moved in and we are way above anything conceivable. The Federal Flood Insurance Agency won't even write a policy for our home we are so far out of the dangers of flooding.....

A day earlier, in anticipation of the great rain coming, we took the time to plant our garden. We wanted to make sure it got to take advantage of this great rain after all.

2:30 am on May 2 and we are in backyard videoing how high the water got. The garden is still good, can't believe the water is where it is, but the house....still not even on the frame of possibilities in our brain, it isn't even raining at this moment.

6:15 am....the garden is gone. There is river flowing over it. Wild? yes. Concern for the home? still no.

8:30 am....reason for concern is growing. The water is rising much faster than we have seen at any other point. Game that I am playing with the neighbor about how fast will it take our little markers was getting way to quick. Jason had taken the other neighbors' baby to a hotel while he could still get out of the neighborhood.

The picture on the right is what our yard looked like by 8:30am. The picture on the left is two years later, but you can see the garden and the piece of wood coming off the tree down at the bottom of the hill is the thinner tree of the two in the middle of the river in the 2010 picture.....well that is my best attempt to give some perspective of what we were looking at....see how there is no river in the 2012 picture. It is WAY down there....where it belongs.

So fast forward, water is still rising really fast. Inside my house breaks out the panic. I refuse to leave the house without Jason. I am seven months pregnant and I refuse to be alone. A neighbor from up the block has come in (we had never met prior to that day) and he can't believe that a pregnant woman is still in her home, so he goes out to call for the boat....yep...the boat. The river (and sewers...gross!!!) had flooded out the street while eyes were on the river. The water was to our porch and rushing. He is trying to help Jason get whatever they can up high or upstairs. All while I am supposed to be packing a bag.....have you ever been completely hormonal and told that you must leave your home, unsure if there will be a return and what that might look like, but before then you have about ten minutes to "pack a bag"....if I would have been of sane mind there would so be a picture of what I left that house with.....remember 7 months pregnant, can't just wear the clothes of any person I come across, so lots of maternity clothes....nope, that would have been too smart.....the dogs very favorite stuffed animal that he takes everywhere....yep, that made the cut. I now have a duffle bag of possessions to my name at all in this world and it includes a stuffed animal for a dog....and a set of pearls. Well now, I am ready for anything. Worst pack job ever!

The boat has arrived, so here I go with the dog and my duffle bag. In that moment, I understood those people in Katrina standing on their roofs because they didn't get out fast enough. It is easier said than done to walk away from your home unsure if you will ever return or to have no idea what you will return to....like how my mind went from thinking no water would come in the house to thinking the whole thing was going to float away....that is how fast the water started rising and just how fast it was rushing. If it was going to keep moving that fast nothing stood a chance! Like the U-Haul that became a boat and took an A/C off a neighbors house before they both raced down the river.

We had great friends that took us in. No electricity, no way out of the neighborhood, no idea what was happening at our home, we cuddled in burly husband, pregnant wife, and dog in a full size bed....and as the last bar on my phone died...this is the text that I see.....

Our house is the 4th from the bottom, with the fireplace. There was no good night of sleep to be had that night....but what morning had in store will have to wait until next time.