Breeanne Clarke here.

I'm afraid I'm not doing too well.  We are currently on our way to the Red Cross shelter: our home got flooded. We live near Booger Creek here in Burleson, and it overflowed its banks, and our house got flooded. 

We have been inundated with torrential rains since yesterday morning (early) when the remnants of what was once tropical storm Hermine traversed through the area.  There's still a chance of additional rain until the center of the low pressure system responsible for Hermine pulls further north and east of here.

Greg has been a dear, trying to keep our children calm (and me calm too, in the process).  It hasn't been easy because ten of our 17 children have special needs including Down syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, cerebral palsy, and autism.  Some of them really don't understand the implications caused by this weather event.

Meanwhile, I hold my youngest, Sammy Christian, aged two and a half, on my lap, and cry into his soft, brown hair.  And the other little ones are hanging around me, looking up at me like scared little birds, wondering why we aren't home.

When we get back, Greg, I, and the older, more able-bodied kids have one hell of a mess to clean up.  That's okay: as long as our home is still standing when all of this is said and done, then that's okay.  A home can be replaced; a human life cannot.  I just wonder what the yonger kids are going to do when they find out that they won't be sleeping in their beds until at least the middle of next week, the way things look now ... or maybe even later than that.

I have alerted the members of our adoption community, letting them know that I am safe, as is my family.  We are displaced right now, but we are all together, and more important, we are safe and sound.  The fact that nobody died in the flooding is a huge answer to prayer; I just wonder when all of this heavy weather is going to end, or if we are going to get any additional rains, which would only exacerbate the problems already going on.

Well, I hate to be a party pooper and run, but the director of the Red Cross wants to talk with Greg and I about what is going on, so I'd best go.  Just keep us (and the rest of the people here in the North Texas area hit hard by the flooding) in your thoughts/prayers; we could really use a miracle about now!  Thanks in advance!

~Sincerely, your friend, Breeanne.  :(