Sandy Keeps Our Family From Returning Home to Cranford

Stranded. We have been stranded away from our little cottage home in Cranford during the whole Sandy ordeal. My husband in Haiti doing relief work with our 17 year old daughter River, not able to get back into the country. Myself stuck in Texas not able to fly back home which resulted in missing my 11 year old son's birthday. I know it does not seem bad, we did not have to brave the storm with our neighbors but my husband and daughter did go through Sandy when it was a category 2 Hurricane killing over 13 people in Port-au-Prince where they were staying. Waiting to hear if they were okay was a challenge for sure. They were fine. In fact my oldest daughter's dream is to be a nurse missionary who goes into disaster zones after a tragedy to help pick up the pieces. I am proud of her for that. But I really never thought she would be there DURING the disaster. She was thrilled. So we have had a bit of Sandy touch our family too even across the globe. Finding out our neighborhood was evacuated (we live behind the high school) and waiting to see if the flood waters were going to devastate our newly remodeled basement all the way from Texas was hard. Not knowing or being able to talk to neighbors and friends kept me in the dark. No local news to keep abreast of the situation. After 3 canceled flights, here I am on a plane (finally)typing this as I know that when I return home there will be no power for my computer, fridge, or of course heat waiting for me. Our younger boys will be joining me in our home surrounded by police tape and fallen branches and power lines. I wish my husband was back from Haiti so he could help but this is one of those times that my "Texas upbringing" comes in handy. I will pull myself up by my bootstraps and keep a smile on my face as we "camp out" at home. After all, my outlook is a bit different, the devastation in Haiti from Sandy, without the help we have here in the USA, well we are lucky. With the tent cities of families who don't even have a toilet, or clean water to drink, recovering after the storm. Well, I guess I am pretty blessed.