Somewhere Over the Rainbow

My birthday came and went last week. Another year, another celebration in honor of me! This year I enjoyed a great day including lots of well wishes from friends and family, lunch with sisters, a brother, and dad, and just getting to relax with my favorite people:

My three favorite boysAnd my favorite little girl, who, in honor of the day, insisted on trying on my boots.


We did some of the usual things, opening presents (can you tell that many were picked out by the kids) and blowing out candles
My favorite part of the day was going on a walk by the river.
We have had a LOT of rain this year and the river at this point had gotten very high. We were curious to see it up close.

Those bushes in the river? Yeah, they are trees and used to be at the bank of the river.

That bench there? Yeah, last time we were here, you still had to walk past the bench and down a slope and several yards to get to the river.
As of last night, that bench was completely under water.

Joe and Chloe went closer to investigate and are standing just inches above the waters.
Yesterday, that same area looked like this:
On my birthday, our walk ended when we reached this point and found the tunnel had about 6 inches of water in it
This top view shows what that same pathway looked like yesterday.
The parkway, completely covered and the parking lot to the right submerged as well

Although my birthday was a fun day and seeing the river rising was interesting, yesterday became a scary day as the water kept rising and eventually found it's way into neighbors homes. Joe spent the hours before and into his work day working with so many wonderful neighbors and volunteers helping as best he could, and spent the rest of the night in uniform trying to do the same.

Chloe watched Joe go in and out of the house, heard his reports, and saw the emergency vehicles at the end of our street working to help. During one of Joe's last stops home, he asked me to clear our basement out, bringing the computer and any other valuable items upstairs on the chance that we got water too. Immediately I went to work but was stopped by the sound of whimpers and followed them to Chloe who was worried that our house was going to flood and float away.

Sometimes I forget that she listens to our adult conversations and comprehends more than I know. What she gleaned from Joe and my talks caused her great fear. We went outside to talk and show her that so far there was no water near our home yet. We looked up and saw a beautiful rainbow. I reminded Chloe of the story of Noah's Ark and the promise that the rainbow represents. As her tears dried and she stared in awe at the rainbow, I promised her, that even if water got into our house, our family would be safe and that Heavenly Father would take care of us. We went up to get ready for bed and as she said her prayer that night she asked that "our neighbors and our home be kept safe from water and that we would all be okay because of the rainbow."

Although, I wish we didn't have neighbors who had water in their homes and the threat that some of it could reach us, I am always grateful for teaching moments, when I see my children understanding and developing faith in the things we have taught them and they have learned at church. This was a sweet experience on a not so sweet night.

Someday soon I hope this path is clear again to run and spend peacful afternoons on, until then, I hope our homes and neighbors stay safe.

*Special thanks to my friend Jamie, who is not only awesome for having a quote on the cover of Richard Paul Evans new book, but also because she got much better shots of the flooded river yesterday and allowed me to copy some of them! Thanks!