I am overwhelmed with the love and support that we’ve been shown by our friends, family, and community.
As many of you know, we lost a lot due to Hurricane Ida. We had three massive trees fall on our property. One fell on our house and went through our kitchen also taking out our entire back deck and fence, another destroyed our studio, and a third destroyed my sweet wife, Danielle’s car, and our carport.
Thankfully, we didn’t have Declan with us for the storm. His dad, Derek, and Derek’s girlfriend, Lauren kept him safe and sound!
The first tree that fell trapped our generator and gas so we were unable to hook that up and get things going. So, throughout the storm, Danielle and I hunkered down and slept in the hallway under our kitchen table and mattress. Our house shook, the wind whipped and it was the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced. In the meantime, we had no contact with our family. Last they heard, a tree went through our kitchen. So with no contact with them, everyone waited to see if we were okay. Thankfully my family resisted the urge to come and get us while the hurricane was still ripping through town.
When we woke up, and the storm had passed, we learned just how much damage was done. We were unaware of the damage our studio took on and got confirmation that Danielle’s car and our carport had been crushed (we felt this tree fall but couldn’t see anything to confirm the damage). To say we were devastated was an understatement.
While Hurricane Ida up-rooted our trees and our lives, we’ve been able to see the grace of God all around us. His love has shown through our family, friends, and our community. They’ve shown up in such a big way.
As you can imagine, we don’t even know where to begin with the rebuilding process. We’re working with our multiple insurance companies (business, homeowners, car) to file claims and figure out our next steps. In the process, we learned that we didn’t have quite the coverage we thought we had on our Studio. Huge bummer, but it is what it is, and at the end of the day we are thankful to be alive.
I’m terrible at accepting help and throughout the process, so many people have asked “what can we do and how can we help”, and to be honest, I have no idea. So my very best friend, Tony, decided to use his God-given talent to create this amazing design and set up a fundraiser to help us get through the rebuilding process. If you feel called to help, this would be a great place to start. We appreciate everything everyone has done for us so far and we’ll continue to update you guys on our progress!
