Topsy Turvy

So being from New England and being Memorial Day and all, Amy and I found ourselves with the sudden urge to plant a garden, even though summer has been in full swing down here for weeks now. As we were wandering through the aisles of the Dollar Store, we came across the "Topsy Turvy" and couldn't resist. The deal with the Topsy Turvy, if you haven't seen the info-mercial three dozen times by now, is that you plant your tomatoes upside down and they grow as hanging plants rather than the normal way. I must admit that I never realized that tomato plants could grow upside down and I oddly am a bit intrigued by it... Anyway - so the day after we plant our topsy turvey garden, the owner of the home we have been working on, Eddie, gets a visit from FEMA and they inform him that they will be taking his trailer from him on June 1st, regardless of whether or not his home is ready to move into. If you have read our previous posts, Mr. King is 76, diabetic, has a broken rib and has been taken advantage of by just about every contractor that has worked for him to get back into his home. Any of you who are on Facebook saw our pleas to write to your Congressmen and Congresswomen to ask FEMA to extend the deadline to take back the trailers, because many of the people down here are just now getting settlements from the government of from their insurance companies. Many still haven't even received them yet, so a HUGE thank you to all of you who wrote on Eddie's behalf and on behalf of the people of New Orleans. Anything that you can do helps the people down here who have truly had their lives turned upside down - topsy turvy - for the past 4 years. Amy and I have been working down here as well to see if we can get his deadline extended through local channels, and hopefully we will be able to buy him a couple of weeks until his home is ready to be moved into.
In the meantime, God has been providing just the right people at just the right time to take Eddie's home just about to the point where he and his wife will be able to move in. Rich, the gentleman that we wrote about a number of weeks ago, came back and worked with us for a day during this past week, even though he was volunteering with a different organization this time that he was in town. Today, we were able to move to the upstairs of his home and start the cleanout and move-in, so the whole house is really starting to take shape. The downstairs is basically finished except for finishing a few cabinets in the kitchen and hooking up the gas for his kitchen stove. The upstairs has less work to do since he only had 2 feet of water... in the upstairs of his home... so most of the work is cleanup, painting and some plumbing and electrical issues. We had a crew from Missouri join us today and we were blessed with - wait for it... an electrician and a plumber! Just the right people at just the right time. We are praying that by Friday, we will be able to move Eddie and his wife in - just in time for us to leave on Saturday morning and just incase FEMA decides to take his trailer on Monday. Eddie's wife was in the house looking around this morning and for the first time said, "This is really starting to look like home again!" What a heartwarming thing to hear... We are finding it so hard to believe that our time here is already up and we are beginning to grieve the fact that we will be leaving. I have a feeling we will be back...
After work and on the weekends, we have been doing our best to take in the city while we have been here. Last night, we found ourselves listening to Eddie play with his band in Preservation Hall which is in the French Quarter and one of the most storied jazz halls in the city. It is about the size of our old living room and has been graced by the biggest names in jazz music for years and years. Amy and I were in the Standing Room Only section, which really means that we were about the 20th person in the door, but the people were lined up on the street for a full block waiting for a chance to get in. On Saturday, we went down to St. Martinsville which is in the heart of Cajun country and is the site where the Acadians were sent when they were exiled from Canada back in the 1800's. It is such an interesting part of the country and the people and their stories are really amazing. Last weekend, we went to see the Natchez, which is an old paddleboat that takes you up and down the Mississippi River, and the video below is part of the trip that you can see from shore... pretty cool.
So as we are into our last week here, thank you SO much for your support, prayers, thoughts, messages, calls, texts and everything that you have done to help us begin our journey. You will never know how much it has meant to us.... and please keep it up! Next week will be a travel week for us and then we begin Chapter 2! Love to you all!
~Amy and Dave