Louisiana Refugees

This is my Louisiana family and a couple of them had to flee Gustav and are staying at my parent's house here in Houston...my Aunt Nancy and grandmother Dolly. Dolly is my dad's birthmother, who he found about 11 years ago. They live in Houma, LA, where the eye of Gustav passed over. Nancy's husband stayed behind and says that they will be needing a new roof and gutters. We are not sure yet how Dolly's house fared as the streets are unpassable. There is martial law there and they have been told that they can not return home until Friday.

I had planned on joining my parents the next time they went to stay with Dolly but now get to enjoy visiting with her here at home.

These pictures were taken three years ago, right before Katrina hit. My Aunt Georgie (Dad's half sister) passed away from cancer about 3 weeks after these pictures were taken. We made the trip to spend some time with her as we knew the Lord would be calling her home soon. She was a very neat lady and I wish we had had more than a few years with her.

After we stayed in Houma for two nights, I convinced Shane to stay in New Orleans (a city that I love) with Jacob for the weekend. Shane has never particularly cared for NO...too much drinking for him but there are other things to do there. We went to Cafe du' Monde and had beignets and saw a mugging. The next day we went to City Park (ruined during Katrina) and the Aquarium (many sea life passed away there) and saw homeless people lying and urinating on the streets. I may never get Shane to go back there, but I would love to. If you can find where the locals hang out, you can have a great time eating authentic New Orleans's food...or you can just go to Dolly's.

This is Nancy with her son Jeff and daughter Katie and her new husband.

This is Jacob and I standing behind Dad, Georgie and Dolly.

We have been truly blessed by Dad seeking out his birth family. Dolly had one other son (Nancy's first husband and the kids dad, Danny) who died of leukemia after serving in Vietnam. Georgie lived in Germany at the time that my dad found Dolly and my parents toured Europe with her. She also had a very close friend, Marcia, who works for Disney in Florida and we enjoy seeing her whenever we are there. Allthough we are enjoying their visit, I know they are anxious to get home and see what has happened there.