days of thanks ~ 11/17-18/2010

Edit ~ I wrote most of this on Wednesday, but here it is Thursday ~ so it’s a 2 for 1 special!

 

 

I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid.  I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD;                and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.

Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

Psalm 32:5-7

 

On Wednesday, August 11, 2010, we awoke to see something like the above picture out of our bedroom window (photo was taken hours later after waters had begun to recede).  The creek is supposed to be running between the trees at the center ~ instead it was covering most of the pasture.  And of course, the heifers were caught on the wrong side of the creek  ~ They were stranded in the northwest corner on a little patch of high ground behind the trees.  By 11am they had made the plunge to swim the beyond-swollen creek and join the steers.  When Tim went out to count noses, they were all there ~ but very weary, especially the calves.

 

  

The rain had also washed out some of our driveway… and the edge of the roadway… on it’s way to meet the mighty creek.

                  

The waters had washed over the road for a good stretch, taking gravel (and pasture fencing) with it.  You may remember hearing about these floods on the national news.  Story County was a disaster.  Our creek travels mostly west another few miles before it empties into the Skunk River (lovely name?!) ~ It was the mighty Skunk that flooded much of Ames (home to Iowa State University where college students had begun to arrive for the fall semester), including Highway 30 and Interstate 35 south and east of the city.  And if you saw the news, you might have seen people being rescued from a Super Wal-Mart in the bucket of a huge front-end loader, among other memorable pictures.  Friends in a trailer park left their home when the water was up to their waists outside ~ Fortunately their trailer was high enough to stay above the water, but their vehicles were ruined.

Three of our children were camping Tuesday night in southern Iowa with a Sunday school teacher.  Amber (the beloved teacher and a can-do sort of woman) waited until she knew there was a route open before delivering all the kids safely home again.   She was also able to make it to her own home where her hubby was busy with several sump pumps trying to keep the water out of their house (Cambridge is a low-lying river town… They are currently adding a storm sewer after this year’s repeat disaster.)  When Tim tried to get into Cambridge for church Wednesday night, the road Amber had traveled was closed.

 

Wow, what does that long story have to do with Days of Thanks??

Well, since I didn’t get the photos developed until October, I missed posting them in timely fashion in August.  AND whenever I remember what a flood it was, I am so thankful for God’s watch care and provision for us and many others.  Considering that our sump pump is still in a box (not the pit), we were overjoyed to have absolutely no flood-related water seeping or pouring into our own basement.  The creek flooded similarly in 2008, which is why Tim opted to not build the house with a walk-out basement ~ we raised the elevation of the house and built with a four-foot solid wall in our daylight basement.  The kids who went camping did move indoors to sleep, but the storm seemed to pass right by the farm they were staying at.  Tim’s nephew and his wife were traveling to our house that same Wednesday, fortunately coming from Wisconsin not Missouri. 

The county road crew has just finished repairing the roadway, so I have been reminded of the 2010 Flood.    And I am reminded how good our God is to us.

 

~ You can join in the praise to God and link up at Conny’s Hutch Haus ~