Today was a day of coming together. The walls were primed and painted, the house cleaned. This home is now looking very much like a home- and I can’t wait for Colleen and her family to arrive.

 Our design team had lunch with Colleen this afternoon. They fell in love with her and keep assuring us that we will too. She has no idea what we are doing.

 The designers were out all day shopping for the rooms. From what I’ve heard one of Colleen’s daughters wants to be an oceanographer- so the team is trying to put together a colorful assortment of fish for her room.

 The other daughter is involved with the flag team at her high school, and she has a son as well.

 The team worked so fast today; I’m astonished. All we have left is carpet and furniture, and then with the personal touches, this house will be ready to be revealed!

 Just a few more days….

Yesterday we made a huge dent in our workload by completing all the drywall and getting half of the mudding and taping done. Everyone was in bed early last night for the extended workday we had today.

The morning began as usual: breakfast, van ride, task assignments meeting. Although we have made significant transformations in the past two days, we still have so much to do. The yards are clear of all gutted materials and sea debris. The doors are hung. The furniture is purchased; but the rooms are not yet rooms, only white un-sanded walls. The fixtures and switches are not yet fixtures and switches, only blue wiry boxes.

We are moving quickly, and efficiently. The mudding is being finished as I type (I should get in there to help!) as is the sanding. I can see a cloud of dust pooling out the windows and doors into the night sky.

This afternoon both the front and back yards were fully landscaped. Potted plants now line the house, along with flowers and trees. Tomorrow the sod should be coming, and when it does this home will stand out like a single blooming tree against a forest of winter skeletons.

Transformation really is a beautiful thing.

I feel as though I have learned a lot about creating and creation from this week. I love creating, making things with my hands from scratch, using all kinds of different materials and mediums to make art. But what I’ve seen here in Beaumont is creation by restoration. We are not building from scratch; we are taking what’s left over after death and destruction have had their way and making something new-a home.

There seems to be far more power in turning around something meant for devastation verses just something new. This is an aspect of God that I am learning more and more about; not only is He a creator, but He also is the mender of His creation.

Seeing this restoration right before my eyes in the physical world gives me confidence that He might do the same in my soul, in places slightly less viewable.

He is constantly renewing, recovering, and restoring to make all things new. Tonight as I sit here all I have to say is thank you. Thank you for letting me be a part of the creation of something that will re-establish life for an entire family.

 What a strange thing it is to wake up and have a new taste in your mouth. I wonder if, after living through something like the loss of all your furniture, your family photos, your clothes, your silverware and good china and car and neighborhood, if salt tastes the same.

Or if that salt would remind you of the sea, of the wind and waves that washed your life away.

I am wondering if Texas can ever look at the ocean the same way again.

The team and I are working on Colleen’s home. We haven’t met her or her family yet, but we know what her house looks like on the inside, and that is quite an intimate thing given that most people probably haven’t even seen the inside of their best friends’ medicine cabinet.

We don’t know Colleen, but we do know her house and material things mean more when you’ve built a house. In this case, that makes the loss of Colleen’s things all the more tragic.

I know that we cannot give her back what she no longer has. But I do have hope that these new things will replace something inside her- not because they are new, but because her home and all the things in it have been brought together piece by piece by a group of people who think she and her family are worth something, and that what they’ve gone through and lost mean something.

May we bathe your home in prayer and peace and hope- that you and your family may start anew with strings of pearls in your hands, and celebration in your hearts.