Mormon Helping Hands

Last Sunday church was canceled so that members of our stake could spend the day garbed in the bright yellow "Mormon Helping Hands" vests helping to clean up the mess Sandy left.

We hopped onto yellow school buses after a mini-sacrament meeting in work boots and sweatshirts and got comfy for the 1.5 hour ride to the Rockaways, a peninsula of Long Island.

We were split into teams, arrived in Queens, gathered supplies and made our way through the neighborhood still littered with debris & sand and lined with damaged homes.  It felt a little like a ghost town & a war zone at the same time.  We found people that needed help, and we helped.

They were hours well spent.  Every home had been flooded. I couldn't have imagined the damage that was done, it was something you had to see to believe. People still without power, homes destroyed, and the sand, weird to see it so far removed from the ocean! It was just devastating.

Mckay and some other guys removed some huge trees and were pretty excited about it (so excited in fact, that they filmed themselves chopping it down with an axe to show their wives).  It was a long day of hard work but it felt wonderful.  It was neat to have the opportunity to be a part of something so good that the church organizes.  It was realizing that sitting in the pew at church on Sunday really isn't what the gospel is about.  It's about love and service and charity; about lifting others and pulling together as a community.  It was so great to spend the day with work gloves on my hands and sneakers on my feet doing good. 

The men transporting our "sleigh" of supplies.

At one point during our day a possibly looney, very small Asian man said that we were going to save the world. "Just watch!" he said, maybe a slight exaggeration but I'll take it.

Cleaning up in the dusty, sandy basement.

Lunch break at the food trucks.  Businesses donated food for the people (& volunteers, we assumed) in the area.  It was tasty stuff!

Right before we went home, a walk down the street to see the ocean. 

In front of one of the homes on the shore.

Cleaning the ruined windows in a family's newly remodeled (and now completely gutted) basement.

We were tired by the time we finally made it home through NY traffic (ugh) and slept well that night.  It's crazy to think that tomorrow as families across the country are roasting turkey in their ovens, there are still people without power, camping out at hotels and trying to salvage their properties and get life back to some form of normal.  It lends a whole new meaning to gratitude this year.

This year, my Thanksgiving thankful is for my warm home, bright lights, cold fridge and hot water.  

oh sandy baby

sandy visited us & certainly did a number.

but i'll start with halloween.

we had a funny/slightly inappropriate costume in mind for mckay that didn't reach us in time for party #1. so we improvised and he went as a male nurse. and he played the part well.  in fact, we were scared that he was going to win the "most convincing costume" award. but he didn't, much to his relief.  he wore my scrubs and when he first put them on at home, i flat out said no, he could not go out in public dressed like that, even on halloween. but he did.  luckily they had stretched some by the time we made it to the party, & luckily he didn't rip them.

me and my hospital patient at party #2.

seriously!?! it was almost too convincing for some people.  he was wearing spandex under the fake, foam butt, unfortunately he insisted on playing the part (there is a theme with him) and had them pulled up into boy-shorts so they wouldn't really be seen.  the lights were off for most of the party, but that didn't do much to camouflage his huge behind from sparkling in the candle light. it gave everyone a good laugh.  love that he is willing to go along with stuff like this.

Meanwhile.... something nasty was brewing outside.

by sunday night all work & school & social engagements had pretty much been canceled all along the east coast.  on monday, mckay and i took advantage of his empty office across the street from us and went to work. we were there for most of the day, all the while he talked about how blown out of proportion this "hurricane" had become.  because he's from texas and he knows hurricanes and east coast people are wussy and it's going to be nothing... talk like that.  i told him he better pipe down or we'd be humbled.

& sure enough... that evening we lost power.

the short (under 2 minute) walk from his office to our house was incredibly eerie; howling wind, completely empty streets, thick darkness, and branches scattered all over the ground.  i actually ran home because i was creeped out. he followed suit a few hours later and found our sweet little apartment without blessed electricity, which is how we would remain until saturday afternoon. 

the night we lost power i was thrilled. it was like being a kid again in california and having a thunderstorm wipe out the power and being so excited for mom to light candles and pull out a board game.  mckay came home and we lit candles and played scrabble.  and it doesn't matter who won, but i did!  that was my favorite part of our sandy-week.

the next day we still didn't have power but were sure it would be on within the day.  we live in downtown darien and weren't concerned about the whole situation because of our proximity to the train station, fire department and all the shops & restaurants that would certainly be a priority in restoring electricity.  we hit starbucks for hot chocolate and to charge our phones and spend the rest of the day driving around taking in the devastation and visiting friends.

right about here is where we were humbled.

scenes like the above were literally on every street.  it was bizarre to see trees completely horizontal.  95% of our town was without power the day after sandy due to fallen trees taking out power lines.  transformers blew up all through the night and the wind howled.  there wasn't pounding rain, or rumbling thunder, just wind.  it's amazing what kind of damage a little wind can do.  it brought the water level up and into homes and took trees down and destroyed properties.  

& the damage done to other parts of the east, manhattan and new jersey, is just staggering.  

it was more than we bargained for, that is for sure.

what the dunn family learned:

candles will keep a little room amazingly warm 

being cold is the worst (just reinforced our knowledge of this)

have water bottles in storage for emergencies

prepare, prepare, prepare

you may have to throw out your entire fridge and freezer, but look at it as organizing, not wasting

a dirty house is wonderfully disguised by the dark

a down comforter will save your life

a hot shower is sometimes all you could ever want

but when a sweet friend with electicity lets you use theirs, don't run their water bill through the roof (it's just too hard to get out)

someone is always worse off than you are

be grateful

& the last one- we should have taken off to aruba for the week.

saturday the power surprised us by buzzing on.

never have we been so thrilled to flip a light switch, it was utter glee.