Praying for a miracle for those affected by the floods in Emerald

This has been quite an emotional week for us this week, as my sister and her families, and my close friend Karen have all been battling floods in Emerald. It has been touch and go for them now for almost 4 days, and the river still continues to rise. This morning water entered both of their houses and has continued to rise throughout the day so that now there is something like a foot of water or more throughout their homes. My heart feels for them so much tonight – not only because of the cleanup but the cost of repairs, the time spent living elsewhere whilst all this happens, the interruptions to their lives – how do you recover from something like this financially. I am thankful though that they are all OK – no one is hurt, this truly is the blessing and miracle. The first photo is taken just a couple of streets over from where my sister lives, and the second photo was taken just as the water was about to cut off the main bridge into Emerald. Anyone that has ever been to Emerald would realize just how high this bridge is above the river, and these photos were taken a over 24 hours ago, and the water is now a lot higher again. My friend Karen was going to email me some photos of their place, she had hoped to do it tonight but might have to wait for them. My niece and her husband were evacuated from their home on Sunday and made the decision to come in and stay with us with their four kids and are staying with us until the waters recede and they can get home. They have 4 children from 9 months – to 5 years of age and thought it was much safer to be in here rather than staying in make shift accommodation with the kids and also trying to keep an eye on them with so much water laying around. We are really enjoying having them here – I only wish that the circumstances of their visit were not as they are.

Other than that, I have spent the past week spring Cleaning. The girls at Scrap of Faith have been on a cleaning frenzy this last couple of weeks, and this has really inspired me to get in and clean my office. It is one of those jobs I have been putting off for ages cause I knew it was going to take a good week to do and it did. I threw out 8 bins of paper. I know it would take ages, cause a lot of the paper here had to be shredded or torn up as it related to my work with Uni. Anyway I am happy to report that although it pretty much took me a week to do, it is now all done. I have to also admit that my niece is also motivating me to get more decluttering jobs done. I am married to a hoarder and she is sure letting him know that it needs to be turfed and if he is not going to do it, he needs to turn his back whilst she gets rid of it. So much harder for him to say no to her.

It has been a couple of months since I have really scrapbooked, and although I really haven’t had much of a chance to do any lately, I did finish off a CJ for the round I am in with Scrap of Faith, and after sitting and shredding paper all day the other day, I thought I deserved a break, so sat down and managed to do this one layout.

Well I only have one more day of holidays left and then I am back to work.
Wouldn’t you know it , the sun has come out this week. Up until yesterday, we have had only three sunny days since I started holidays in the middle of December. Not sure what this year holds. I was to transfer into the library this year, but have heard on the grapevine that the girl I am replacing is looking at coming back. I am still praying that she finds full time work elsewhere, as I know she would rather work a 40 hour a week than the 25-27 hours she gets at school.

Finally I want to give a HUGE thankyou to Gayle Smith, who not only helped me repair the damage I had done to my blog, but who has since done a new banner for me so that I could revamp my blog. Have loved all the chatting we have managed to do this week, and have really appreciated all the new things you have been teaching me this week. Think I will be eternally grateful to you for rescuing my blog to start with.

Things I am grateful for this week. There are many.
1. For all the rain that we have had in Queensland this past month. Our state so badly needed it. – although I also feel sad at the same time when I see how many people are going through a hard time because of all this life giving rain.
2. For my lovely niece and the way she encourages and inspires me in her everyday life. Love watching her interact with her kids, and love how she is always such a positive and encouraging person and has a real love for God.
3. For the girls from Scrap of Faith who have been so encouraging and supportive of each other, especially in motivating me to get some spring cleaning done since I arrived home.
4. For our own home that I can spring clean.
5. For a wonderful church family who welcomed us home and were pleased to see us again.
6. For all our wonderful friends who have just dropped in to visit for a cuppa this week and let us know that we are loved and cared for.