Hello to all of Busy Mom’s blogging friends!

This is New Orleans Friend and I wanted to start by saying THANK YOU to
all of you for your thoughts and prayers and well wishes. New Orleans
Family greatly appreciates it! More so, however, I want to thank Busy
Family for all they did for us in our time of need. They are real and
true friends that everyone in the world would be proud and privileged
to have! They are generous and kind and giving and helpful. They even
welcomed New Orleans Dog into their home in spite of the fact that Busy
Dogs don’t even go into the house! … true friends with unconditional
love! Busy Family was our real blessing and we are forever in their
debt (although they would disagree and say, “It’s just what you do”).
Thank you Busy Family, we love y’all very much!

Now, for the update… New Orleans Family fared very well after the
beeotch Katrina blew herself through our innocent city. We had some
neighbors who were alarmists and poo-poo’ists who were heavy with gloom and
doom. They must have been playing waaayy too much Weather Channel
drinking game because ¾ of what they told us was simply not true. Those were
some of the things that were being reported here in Busy Mom’s world,
because it was the news we were receiving. Our home was not lost in
any way, shape, or form. We did have some wind driven rain in the
living/dining room, but that hideous royal blue carpet needed to go anyway!
Good riddance! : ) We have an enormous pine tree from our neighbors
yard in our yard and on New Orleans Hubby’s hand built shed. We do not
think it breached our home roof though. (keep fingers crossed!) The
putred “grook” that thawed, melted, dripped and oozed out of our
fridge/freezer sludged all over the kitchen floor and onto the den carpet, but
we wanted a new kitchen floor and that den carpet was on it’s last
piling as well. So again – cheers! New Orleans Hubby is home tonight
pulling gross carpet out and tossing it on the curb. We will be living in
Houston for about 3 ½ months and it will be a festive adventure. New
Orleans Hubby’s employer is an AWESOME employer and is taking good care
of us too. (paid furnished apartment!) We are blessed yet again. We
are definitely displaced right now, but we will persevere and come out of
this horrid event so strong and close as a family. It is a bond that
not everyone in life has the fortune to have, if you understand what I
mean by that.

I do not know if the true impact of the reality of it all has even hit
me since I have not yet seen our city with my own eyes. TV is not the
same as one’s own eye witness. It will be difficult, but I know that
we will get through it with prayers and confidence that He will give us
strength. New Orleans Kids are doing very well in their new schools
and luckily have some of their classmates with them. The 14 year older
has had some struggles, but she is breaking through and I am seeing her
shine again. We have such an incredible support system that it was
inevitable!

We are desperately sad and in pain for our MANY, MANY friends who have
lost everything. And I truly mean everything. Their homes are anywhere
between being totally and completely gone (Pass Christian, MS) to being
10 feet underwater for the last 3 weeks. Entire neighborhoods will be
razed and many of our friends will not return. It is truly a loss. I
pray for them and hope that they can find their way out of their black
hole. Please keep them all in your prayers as well; they need as many
as they can get right now.

If you can’t tell, New Orleans Friend can go on and on and on… partly
because there is so much that can be said about it all, and partly
because it really is therapy. It helps me, and I appreciate y’all
listening, but mainly, I appreciate your prayers and your genuine concern. It
truly helps to know that people are good and are here for even strangers
on a random blog in cyberspace! Thank you for being there.

Love, Leslie (aka: New Orleans Friend!)