the latest

its my(nicole:) first post since february & its kind of a boring one. sorry! darwin has the camera with him right now so i don't have any fun pictures to share. just wanted to update everyone real quick. we've been staying on the island now for a couple of weeks. we lived in a tent in the backyard for a little while. our parents were not excited about that:) we ended up moving out of there because of the STINKY pool. we then stayed a couple nights with our friends, travis & julie. these two have been SO gracious & helpful through all of this. they loaned us their pop-up camper & we have been staying there for about a week & a half. so now we are living in our driveway:) the camper works out very well & we are so grateful for it. we're now waiting on our contractor to get started with the demo. at this time building permits are not being given to contractors in our neighborhood because FEMA has yellow flagged it or tagged it or something. which as far as i understand it means that they are evaluating whether or not our homes should be knocked down & elevated. we still don't have electricity but are hoping to soon. we have AC in the camper through a gasoline powered generator. we are able to use the toilet in the house & the cold cold shower:) the red cross & the salvation army are still in galveston handing out hot meals & cold water. the island is still a mess, and will be for a while. but there are plenty of opportunities to help & serve. many of you have asked how you can get involved & this weekend we will get the contact info & all the details for you through our church. we hope to be able to post that Sunday evening or early next week. thanks to all of you who are still praying for us & our community & for all the calls & emails of encouragement. we love you!

Need a boat or jet ski?

You would think that the hurricane rained down boats since even two weeks after the storm the island is littered with vessels that used to be in the water.

This is just one of many along 61st street on the way to our house.

This is the Flagship Hotel (which you may have already seen on tv) It's out over the water on Seawall and if you look closely you can actually see into a couple of surprisingly well preserved rooms.



This is a church at the end of our block whose brick facade crumbled, and whose pulpit is in our backyard (which is over a block away)

This is actually leaving Galveston, but shows a piece of the massive cleanup effort that is taking place. I can't imagine what this all must have looked like immediately following Ike.

Sorry, it been awhile since the last update but we'll have limited internet access and even more limited time. This is just one pile of everything that they are doing a very good job cleaning up.

We've removed all everything out of the house. We were able to pull up the carpet yesterday thanks to Stephen's help. We're planning on staying down there tonight thanks to the wonderful existance of MREs (see below)

The walls are starting to bulge from the retained water. We have contractors coming by tomorrow to hopefully begin work next week.

After pulling up the carpet and padding we got the surprise that there were tiles under that and so I made this pattern on our bedroom floor as we were peeling back the pieces.

Random Facts

• Galveston is not being overtaken and ruled by mosquitoes (at least where we're at) as some news has reported. Although we still do have fire ants (I hate fire ants and I can't believe but am also not surpised that 3 feet of water did not kill them but instead actually helped them thrive due to all the new debris and mud)
• Charity organizations are handing out meals and other essential supplies all over the island, the most impressive of which is the MRE (Meals-Ready-to-Eat) This is a "full course" meal which is cooked with a included heating element where the only other required ingrediant is water. Very impressive and more pictures to follow, it can't be described in just words.
• Lastly and most importantly, many of you have asked if you'd be able to come down and help. Our church is rushing to setup housing facilities for volunteers to come down and assist with clean-up efforts which will be ready soon. If you'd like more information regarding this opportunity to serve please email or call us or even just leave us a comment and we'll get back to you. I'll work on getting additional details and update you when they're available. Then you too could hopefully experience MREs (they rival McDonalds, and that's a huge compliment coming from me)

Thanks again to everyone whose been thinking about us and praying for us. We really appreciate all your support.

Thirty-two inches and a week later...

We were able to make it down to our house in Galveston today, and we had around 32 inches of water in the house which is less than we were expecting.

Not bad from the outside, although the trees showed some wind damage (no roof damage, which was good because the roof is less than a year old)

Water Line at the front door.

Living room, the carpets are all still wet and it smells really bad.


Our "colorful" leather couch.

the Office, doesn't look bad, but we lost the NES and powerpad.

Spare bedroom, actually had an inflatable mattress that just floated and came down.

Bedroom, you can see the water line, and there's a bookshelf under the bed. The garbage can ended up sitting upright on the bed, and DVDs that we were stacked under the TV in the living room were in the bedroom.

Kitchen, our fridge started to tip and we chose not to open it.

My once beautiful blue pool.

We meet with our insurance adjuster tomorrow and will know more details at that time. Thank you all for your continued support and prayers.

Paradoxical Reality

• Update: We are still staying with Scott & Ashley near Dallas, TX (and are extremely grateful for their hospitality to both us and our dogs). We are planning on heading down to Dickinson, TX tomorrow, Saturday 9-21, to stay with other friends from our church. We'll be meeting with our flood insurance adjuster on Sunday afternoon and will hopefully be able to update this page with some pictures that night (if we have internet access). It will have been over a week since the storm hit that we'll get to even see our house. As mentioned in the previous post, it looks like we had 4-5 feet of water in our house (which made our pool almost 11 feet deep at it's peak!) We're expecting the worst and hoping for the best, but actually somewhat relieved to be able to stop wondering about all the details and get to see everything for ourselves.
• Perspective: I believe some of the most ironic and 'paradoxical' (it's a word I made up) things we face in our lives are often due to God's sense of humor and His desire to teach or remind us of His will and initiative in our lives. The last sermon our Pastor, Clay Thomas, preached the Sunday before the storm is summarized by "God's more interested in our character than our comfort". Furthermore, I've been reading the book The Barbarian Way, (which for those of you who know me realize that this alone is a paradox in itself as I've read a total of maybe 3 books in my life) and a couple quotes from the text are "True religion always moves us to serve others and to give our lives to see those oppressed find freedom" and also "We look to Him to lead us where He needs us most and where we can accomplish the most good". Hurricane Ike was a catastropic and devasting event whose effects will continue to be felt for a long time, but also what an opportunity for believers (better described as "experiencers", also from the book) with faith in Jesus Christ to be the salt and light the world and specifically Galveston needs so desperately right now. Genesis 50:20 says "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." God's insight and eternal perspective trumps any feeling and emotion we may experience temporarily and assures us that following His path alone is where we find everything we'll ever need no matter the circumstances. Finally, this last verse is one of my favorites and I believe gives a glimpse into the character and perspective God has for us. Acts 17:20 says "God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us." God's desire is for us to desire Him and Him alone.
• Thanks: We would like to again express our gratitude and appreciation for all of the support and prayers we've received from everyone. What an opportunity to see the body of Christ at work in our lives, and honestly this has been more overwhelming to each of us than even having to deal with everything else. Thanks does not justify our gratefulness and we can only pray that God will bless you the way you have blessed us.

Hurricane Ike & the baby formerly known as Ike

Introducing Miles Tyler VanDyke,

he basically flashed the camera the instant the ultrasound came on.

We think he knew we really wanted a boy!

He is already crazy, the technician was having to chase him all over.
The only picture he let her have is him doing this somersault.
(He's actually laying on his head, that's the blob in the lower right, and kinda curled up)

Pretty good shot of his tiny feet (which Nicole now feels kicking her almost every night)

Another shot of him already being very active.

... and now for the rest of the story.

On the Monday before the ultrasound (which was Wednesday afternoon just north of Houston)we were convinced we would be evacuating our home probably following this appointment. By Tuesday they were saying Hurricane Ike was supposed to hit Corpus Christi, which meant we'd be fine. We went to the appointment assuming the same, and came home to our neighborhood boarding up their houses. At that point we discovered that they'd reforcasted Ike to Galveston. We boarded up our house and packed the essentials and actually left all within about 3 hours only to have a flat tire about 20 miles off the island and return home that night. We left again in the morning and had around a 10 hour trip to McKinney, TX to stay with Scott and Ashley (trip normally takes 4.5 hours but included a tire change and significant traffic).

Hurricane Ike hit Galveston directly at around 2 am on September 13th. We found out from a neighbor who stayed on the island that we had 4-5 feet of water in and around our home. The island is currently still without electricity or water, and approximately 25,000 people rode out the storm and are now having to be evacuated. We don't know much more than that right now, but we're thankful that things weren't actually worse and are also anxious to get back. We've filed claims through our insurance and FEMA in preparation for return. We're not sure at this point when we'll be able to go back and we know there will be a lot of work when that day comes. We do want to thank everyone for your thoughts, prayers, and concern which are deeply appreciated. Please continue to keep our community in your prayers as we recover.

More information and pictures are available at www.msnbc.com and our local newspaper www.galvnews.com.

We're PREGNANT!

For those of you who didn't know... we're pregnant

(well actually just Nicole)

and for the rest of you... we thought you'd like the picture

Darwin through the years

We were going through some old photo albums...

me in 1952

This is when I discovered I loved computers!

Reminds me of our dads in the 70s

I rock ruff and tough with my afro puff

Business in the front, party in the back.