Noah's Ark - The 2013 Lisle Flooding

Ok, so I'm being a tiny bit dramatic with the title.  Ok, a lot bit dramatic.  But just play along and it will make for a fun blog!

Early last week Lisle hit a record high for rainfall in April, and certain counties exhibited "flash flood warnings"; ours not being one of them.  The rain was substantial, the lakes were rising ever so slightly, and of course, we thought nothing of it.  Wrong!  On Thursday the 19th of April, the Village of Lisle was declared to be in a state of emergency due to the excessive flooding.  Unknowingly, Andee headed off to work, but quickly returned after the emergency declaration was official.  Unfortunately, by the time he returned back, there was no way back in!  Everything that used to be land was completely covered in water, as the DuPage River located just across the street from the apartments completely overflowed, and with a substantial current, flooded every inch of land in our little Towers at Four Lakes community.  Later, Andee joked that we now lived at "Towers at Lake."  Too soon?  Nah, still funny!  While Andee was attempting to make it back inside the apartment to retrieve Aloe and I, with an almost dead phone due to the power outage, this is the call I got from Andee.  "I know your phone is about to die, but I just got a ride over from a guy in a boat, so pack up your things because we are getting evacuated."  Phone dies.  What!?  I was just barely able to pack up an overnight bag and our little kitty before the fire alarm sounded and we were forced outside.  After several minutes of waiting, Andee found me and we headed to the front of the building where rescue crews and the National Guard were evacuating all the residents in boats!  We climbed into the boats in stages, and were led across the street, which was now a river.  As if we lived in a third world country for over a year, complete with hurricane and tropical storm warnings, and it was in good ol' America where we were flooded out of our home.  Figures.  Many cars were either trapped or completely flooded, and so thank goodness Andee moved our car to higher ground while this was all happening, and so once we were on land again, we had the rare luxury of getting into our car and driving away.  Where the heck, you might ask, did we even go??  Well, we called our AMAZING friends Amy and Joe, who also live in Lisle, if we could come over while our apartment was out of commission.  And we have been there ever since!  That's right, a week and a half and we haven't heard anything positive, the potential of never getting to move back, and incredible friends helping us out in our need!  Seriously, thank the Good Lord for friends who serve Him and help the needy and poor, both of which in this current state, are words to describe our situation.  In good news, we have some clothes, some food, our little kitty and us are safe and sound, as is our car and apartment belongings.  It really could have been a lot worse than merely "inconvenient", and we are so thankful that it wasn't!  We took some pictures, and our complex even made it onto the news!  Please keep your prayers coming!

Unfortunately, all of these flood shenanigans happened to fall on the same weekend that Cassie and Jenna were supposed to be coming to visit! :(  We had to cancel their roadtrip just a few hours before they were supposed to leave, which was a huge bummer!  Hopefully they will be able to come visit us sometime soon!  Maybe when we are not homeless.  Which, apparently could be a while.

In much happier news, a bunch of us girls headed to Michelle's Bridal Shower that Saturday to celebrate the future bride!  With the wedding coming up in just over a month, there was so much excitement and anticipation for starting a new chapter of life in marriage!  So fun!  The food was delish, and the company was wonderful!  And the bride looked stunning, as she will at her wedding!

I was also able to hang out with our Canadian companions, the Giordani's a couple times within the past few weeks!  We hung out at a playground with the littles, and just this past weekend we helped them move into their new apartment!  We are so glad that they have finally found a place to call "home", at least for a few months!

So, in conclusion, we could really use your prayers for direction in handling whatever our apartment complex tells us, whether we can move back in soon, move back in not so soon, or not move back in at all.  Lots of excitement for Andee and I in the past couple weeks, and we would kind of like it to calm down a little in the near future.  To end this blog on a happy note, after over a week of cat introductions, the three cats currently living at Amy and Joe's are finally getting along!  Here are some adorable photos to prove it!

We will keep you all posted about future plans!  in the meantime, Keep Praying!!