Thank you

Thanks everyone for all your support. I am about to cry.

Speaking of support...

Everyday Lily and I walk down to the Gulf of Mexico from our new house. It is about a quarter mile, perhaps less. Between my house and the gulf is an area that was completely destroyed by Katrina. Many of the lots have been cleaned up and all that is left is perhaps the foundation. Some lots have mobile homes parked on the foundation. Some of the lots have not been cleaned and you can still see the wreckage, the skeleton of the house, the fallen trees, the trash. There are so many homes in the Gulf Coast area that need to be rebuilt that it is nearly impossible to get a contractor to build. People who have the money are just waiting and waiting.

But, everyday I see volunteers from out of state building homes. I see them in restaurants when we go out to eat. I see them snapping photos of each other in front of severely wrecked landmarks and I see them with hammer in hand nailing away on homes just down the street from my house. Everyday the landscape changes and more and more work is being done. It is so amazing to see the improvements happening in just the short time I have been here.

When I first came to buy the house I thought that after so much time how come more hasn't been done. How can there still be so much garbage and wreckage everywhere. Then when I returned six weeks later I was amazed at how much had changed in those short six weeks. Over the course of the first week here we drove from Georgia, through Alabama, through Mississippi, to New Orleans-Louisiana. I had a glimpse of the devastation, the width of the devastation is several house wide going 80 miles per hour on the highway. It is unimaginable how many hundreds of thousands of buildings need repairs, perhaps millions. Even in an area like this one where there is money, there still aren't enough workers to do the work. If you know someone who needs a job, the local fast food joints start at $8.50 per hour. There just aren't enough people to do all the work that needs to be done here. Not just the rebuilding but everything. Everyone is hiring and with such a shortage of workers the pay is outrageous.

I wanted to say however, how awe inspiring it is to see so many people from all over the country volunteering their time to help rebuild the Gulf Coast. Still after such a long time. It may not be in the news anymore but it is in people's hearts. The government may have failed these people and the progress is really slow. But, there has to be something said about all the thousands of people who continue to pour into this area, using their vacation days and their own money for travel and lodging, with hammer in hand are slowly but surely building the houses one at a time. It is a nice thing to see on our daily jaunts.

I have debated taking pictures to tell some of the story. I am afraid the sensational nature of the pictures and the devastation would simply tell the story of the bad, and not tell the story of the good and the kindness of strangers. Plus, I tend to forget my camera at home.

But, I get the same feeling when my blogging friends take the time to donate for Jeff's Relay for Life event. So, thank y'all very much.