Category: Pray

Roger and Jennifer Taylor lived in our ward up until a year ago when the lost their home due to economic difficulties.  They had moved into this rental home about a year ago.  They’ve had some pretty difficult trials over the last few years.  They are dear friends.  The flood washing through their house was just another hard blow!

 

They’ve tried to keep a smile on their face in spite of the fact that now most everything they’ve lost is gone.  It is heartbreaking.  They don’t even have the resources to do much to recover.  The most difficult part of the loss is the journals and scrapbooks.  Jennifer said that Roger was so sad about his missionary journal.  He said it was the only time he kept a consistent journal and it meant a lot to him.

 

I was happy to know that my 17 year old son was one of the ones helping the Taylor’s pull stuff out of their home on the first night.  I think they were able to salvage some of their beds as they were a little off the ground.

 

I found this really nice article that the owner of the rental home wrote for the spectrum.  Click HERE to read it.

 

Here’s the Taylor’s rental home on the second day:

You can see the amount of mud in the front yard and driveway still.  Some kind friends have allowed them to stay in their basement.  They’ve found another home to rent.  Rebuilding their lives is still going to be some work.

 

I’d like to take you on a visual journey through your own home.  Start in your living room and imagine everything you own below the 5 feet level.  Couch? Chairs?  TV?  Heirlooms?  Pictures on the wall?  Lamps? Video console?  DVD player?  Books?

 

Now walk into your kitchen and dining room.  You probably have some big stuff like a fridge, stove, table and chairs.  Maybe you have a hutch with special dishes in it.  Think about what is in your cupboards:  pots and pans, dishes, utensils, cookbooks, food, spices, towels and wash rags.

 

Do you have a laundry room?  Then you probably have a washer and dryer with a bunch of clothes in that area.  Do you have an office on your main floor?  If so maybe it contains files of important papers.  Maybe your office doubles as a craft or scrapbook area.  Do you have a sewing machine?  A computer and printer?  Scrapbook supplies?  Pens and paper?  Where are your scrapbooks and pictures?

 

Do you have a front living room with a piano?  How many bathrooms are in your house?  What is in them?  Toothpaste, deodorant, hair supplies, towels?

 

How many bedrooms do you have?  What lies within them?  Beds, nightstands, laptops?  Journals?  How about your closet?  Obviously there are clothes, but do you have a change jar?  A gun safe? Shoes?

 

Just picture ALL the stuff that is in your house.  Now imagine it’s all gone.  Buried in mud.  Washed away.  Gone.  If you can grasp that, then you will begin to understand what these families are going through.

 

On Day 6– Monday, I decided to deliver some chips and salsa to the families.  As a confession, up to this point I really had not done much by the way of service.  I hadn’t shoveled any mud or hauled anything out of a house.  I had been taking pictures.  And I was overwhelmed.  You see, even cleaning my own house overwhelms me at times.   I think it’s something in my personality, but I really have to be in the mood to deep clean a specific area like my garage or pantry.  I get anxiety thinking about those places that have become out of control.  So for me to walk down into this mess of mud and muck really did overwhelm me.  I would look around and not even have a clue where to begin.  I became VERY appreciative for those who could just see what to do and do it instead of freezing in bewilderment and taking pictures.

 

I realized that I was not alone.  As I visited with different friends, they, too, had felt the same way that night.  They were so grateful for those who could just take a shovel and start somewhere.

 

The other thing that was difficult for me was to know WHO to help.  For some reason, it always felt like if I helped one friend, then I was letting another down.  Bear in mind many of these people that were hit were not only friends, but family, too….cousins of mine.  I wished I could do something to help the masses.  As I rode around helping deliver laundry with Robbin, I became aware of a couple of things.  First, I realized that most of these people had not even left their homes for days.  If their upstairs was ok, then they slept there.  If they couldn’t stay in their home, they slept with family or friends, but were right back early.  Those first few days you could hardly get a car in and out because of all the people, trucks, tractors, dumpsters and mud.  There were a few of families– the Cloward’s, Aikens, and Gubler’s who had set up tables and a food area for volunteers.  Food was being brought in for everyone.  But the homeowners really couldn’t leave.  They were having to tell people what to keep and what to throw away.  Trying to salvage anything they could.  Eating would only happen if someone BROUGHT it to them.  And many did.  Food and cases of water bottles were left at every home.

The other thing I realized was that all the help was going to die off and there was still going to be a lot to do.  I didn’t want them to think they were forgotten.  And since I have a salsa business, I thought I’d drop off some chips and salsa to them for lunch or a snack.  Truth is….I felt guilty AGAIN…. I should be dropping by to wash stuff off or help put something away or clean their upstairs which were loaded with stuff that was being cleaned.  It’s hard when you have to go to work and can’t devote all the days and hours you’d like.  So I took the easy way out and delivered chips and salsa to those who were home.

 

But this day was a day of tears.  As I went into the homes to hand them chips and salsa and give them a hug, a similar theme seemed to happen.  Most every home had one or two people there helping them with the little stuff.  Most of them said, ‘here look at my basement.”  Most every one just randomly began to tear up.

 

It’s interesting when a crisis happens how you can just dig in and do what you have to do.  You go into an automatic mode of working and solving the problem at hand.  But when all the people leave and there is still much to do and you have time to reflect on what was lost– the memories, the work, the life you had–then you just begin to tear up a little.  Randomly.  Out of the blue.  Tears just start to come.  And that is what I experienced on Monday.  I don’t know if they were tears of sadness per se.  There were tears of gratitude, too.  The more I have thought about it, I have realized that it is a combination of both.  It’s like the emotion has filled your body and when it gets to your eyeballs, like a flood ;o), it just comes oozing out…randomly.

 

I’d like to share with you a few of the stories that I experienced that day and some during the week.  I still stand all amazed.

 

Tears flow freely and easily for me now.  I hope you’ll enjoy the stories of these amazing, wonderful people and those hundreds who came to help– those angels here that have come to rescue and aid their fellowmen.

 

Imagine my gratitude when I was asked to serve on the board to help with rebuilding.  No, you’re not done hearing from me yet. ;o)

 

And if you feel so inclined to donate or help these families financially so they can get back on their feet, please click here.

 

Shan & Sue Gubler

Riverfront Circle

Bret & Charisse Smith

 Kevin & Lisa Dunkley

Fackerll’s & John & Gen Grant

Andy & Andrea Schmutz

Roger & Jennifer Taylor

Tim & Tammy Apple and Jones’

Arrowhead Trail and Arrowhead Circle

Lee & Karen Frei

Nick & Liisa Frei — Dutchman’s Market/Cravings

As I went to the Schmutz’s house, there were some nice people on their carport cleaning items.  Inside, Andrea was with her mom in the kitchen.   For Andrea, too, the tears came easily.  The magnitude of what had happened, pondering on what was lost, wondering how to rebuild and bring her kids rooms back and collect her food storage that was damaged was on her mind.  We talked about that.  I told her that I felt pain for her as I stood there that first night and washed volunteers standing in mud, unloading stuff from her basement.

They were covered in mud and slipping and sliding in the thick goo.

They had an assembly line going.  Small items being placed in buckets and then dumped on a big pile of muddy stuff.  As I stared at the back yard and saw the beds and mattresses, I sloshed around and nearly got stuck just trying to get a picture.

As I moved to a spot to get a picture of this huge pile of muddy mess, I was trying to find a place to stand where I wouldn’t get stuck.  The grass was saturated and soggy and the mud came up and around the grass.  As I glanced down at the pile while walking away, I saw sleeping backs, back packs, games, toys….and my heart broke.  So much stuff.  A whole life.  The kid’s life and treasures, it appeared.  I wondered if they would throw it all away or if it could even be saved.

 

As the days wore on, so many people were gathered in their yard and driveway helping clean.  I know it was so appreciated.

 

Here are people on Day 2, just starting to pull stuff from the back yard and start the cleaning process.

They had so kindly put up tarps on the car port to shade those who were cleaning the items that had been stacked there.

A few days after the flood, Andrea’s dad had brought their 5th wheel camper and parked in their driveway for her kids to have somewhere to sleep.  They had been farmed all over the first few nights as they had no bedrooms.  The camper gave them their own little space– and somewhere to sleep.  One of those things we all take for granted.

 

These sweet families across from the Dunkley’s had a huge mess, too.

 

Grant’s:  Everyday I would drive by, there would be so many people in their yard trying to wash off and save whatever they could.  This Monday things had been pretty quiet.  Gen was there with her mom when kind Randolyn Peine came to her door to offer some help.  With so much stuff still piled in the front yard on tables that needed to be cleaned, I knew that Randolyn’s act of service was a big deal that day.  I was so appreciative of all the help I saw there washing and spraying and helping clean things up.  There have been so many.

 

Here are a couple of pictures.  This is the second day and they haven’t even started getting all the stuff out to wash off at the Grant’s house yet.  You can see the bikes and things in the garage…there’s mud still there and in the driveway.  Later that day, people started clearing things out and power washing them all down.

Here you can see a shot down the street– Grant’s and Fackrell’s on the right.  Notice all the people in the Grant’s yard washing things off.

 

Fackrell’s– They have a unique story, too.  They left on a mission just a few weeks before the flood.  They packed up everything they own and put it in their basement so they could rent the top half out while they were gone.   They had actually left the MTC and drove to their mission that very week.  As I said, EVERYTHING they owned was in the basement.  Their whole life.

 

People began unloading things from their basement.  I know my son and his friends were among the high schooler’s that came on Day 2 and helped unload their entire basement.  On Saturday, I stopped by to take ice water to those helping in the yard.  As I went into the back yard, I was surprised at how many people were there and how nice the yard was looking.  The Fackrell’s daughter-in-law, Kylie, happened to be in my old ward while she was growing up and is the same age as my oldest son.  I went to give her a hug.  She was putting treats and drinks out for those helping.  She said she was just spent trying to do all the work and needed a break.  Being able to serve someone else seemed to lift her burden.  She said it was very emotional going through all their belongings and having to throw away so much.  However, one bright spot was that a friend, Greg Bartholomew, had taken all their scrapbooks and photos to his class at the Archive Department at the college.  That would give them a great opportunity to put some of their teaching into practice.

 

It’s just amazing (I know I keep using that word) to see where and how all this help and these tender mercies come from.  So. Many. Angels.

 

 

 

As we pulled up to the Dunkley’s on Monday, Lisa and her daughter were working outside.  Krista was washing some things off and Lisa was tidying up.  She invited me inside to see the basement since I had a sneak peak on the night of the destruction.  As we went inside, we found Lisa’s other daughter, Kara, who was just tidying the game cupboard and helping her mom with what they did have control of–the upstairs.

 

The whole basement was cleaned out and down to studs.  Fans were going, drying it all out.  Back upstairs, Lisa told of all the kindnesses that had been shown to them.  She pulled a check off the mantel for $200 and said an acquaintance of theirs dropped it off wanting to help.  She told them that Kevin probably wouldn’t cash it, and he begged her to because they wanted so badly to help.  The kindness has truly been overwhelming!

 

I told Lisa that I was dropping off salsa because I realized that a lot of them had probably not had time to leave their houses at all.  She said, “you know, the other day I realized that I had not left my house for 5 days.  It was weird.”  They really didn’t.  So much to do.

Here’s a quote from Lisa’s facebook page that she posted the day of my visit:

Tomorrow will mark one week since the flood and my girls both came to help clean today. Kara organized my game closet and and cleaned the bathroom upstairs, neither of which were affected by the flood. Krista sprayed off muddy boots, shoes, work gloves and about 20 shovels and rakes left around our yard and then washed down the drive way for the umpteenth time. Five year old McKenzie folded cleaning cloths and polished the fridge, stove and dishwasher. I took my first walk since the disaster and it felt good to get out of the house. I walked up to the dike to see it all first hand. It is so much bigger looking up from its base than it is driving past it in a car.

 

In all of this, the Dunkley’s have been strong, positive, and still kept their sense of humor.  Kevin found one of their “Home Sweet Home” pictures in all the mess and he hung it on the front porch post the day after the flood.  There couldn’t be more truth covered in mud!  Here’s some pictures Krista posted on their facebook page.

When we stopped into Bret & Charise Smith’s house on Monday, they were just having lunch.  Bret & Charise had been in Peru the week before picking up their son from his mission.  They arrived home on Friday evening to see the after-effects from the flood.  Their basement had been cleaned out– many things were lost.  Her kids that lived close had done a lot of work cleaning and trying to save what they could.  Their yard was still full of mud, but the driveway was cleaned off and someone had taken time to not only write some “welcome home” signs, but to put up some yellow balloons and ribbons.  It was definitely a bright spot amidst  the  muck and mud.

As we came in to her house, some of her kids were there as they had not yet gone home.  They had come in that weekend for their brother’s mission homecoming.   We handed her the salsa and gave her a hug.  Tears began streaming from her eyes.  She apologized for the tears.  She said they just come randomly.  Realizing their loss, saddened that they weren’t here, appreciative of all that had been done in their behalf….it just brings all the emotions to the surface.   Robbin Frei (my delivery buddy) was as quick to tear up and try to console her.  Robbin would tell me stories as we drove from house to house and would cry frequently.  Very taxing even on those who were not flooded.

Her basement is drying and they are hoping to be able to begin the process of putting it back together soon.

My Monday travels next took me to Riverfront Circle.  I don’t know all the families there, but tried to drop salsa off to who was home.  Not many were because their houses were cleaned out and were drying.

 

Juli Wiest could have been home when I stopped, but the fans were so loud in her house that you couldn’t hear anything but the humming.  Sheetrock was cut about 1-2 feet up from the bottom of the wall and the house was bare.  Her kitchen was still in tact sans flooring, so I stuck the salsa in her fridge and the chips on her counter, then gave her a call to let  her know.  She told me that she has many stories and miracles.  As soon as I get them from her, I’ll put them up. =)

 

Tyler & Mary Dawn Gubler–Mary Dawn was home when I stopped by.  Their basement, yard and pool had been filled with mud.  I remember going by on Saturday and seeing Tyler’s sisters and their sister in law there spraying things off and cleaning up furniture.  My heart was touched because Tyler’s older sister was the YW President when I was a laurel.  How I LOVED her and admired her.  And here she was, still doing the same great service that she had done for me.  It really brought tears to my eyes.  I’ve had  a deep love and appreciation for her all these years!

This picture says so much.  Here it is the night of the flood and sweet Maddie is still smiling in spite of her basement and pool being buried in mud!

 

Ernie & LeAnn Hafen-  No one was home at their house Monday morning.  The walls were stripped to about 4 feet.  And the house smelled.  Really almost every home I went into that day smelled, and so did the yards.  The mud, water, and days of sitting wet had just brought about the worse stench ever.  It smelled like horse manure everywhere.  It really broke my heart to see Ernie and LeAnn’s.  They really lost everything.  I visited with one of their daughters and she said that the one tender mercy and really the only thing that was saved was that a computer guy was able to pull off the data from her computer so the last few years of digital photos were saved.   LeAnn is one of those great scrapbookers and had actually put all their scrapbooks in one of their gun safes.  Well, it turns out that the safes are fireproof, but they are not waterproof.  All of her scrapbooks were destroyed.  That and a few other meaningful treasures are the greatest losses.  Couches, towels, furniture are just things and can be replaced, but there are a few treasures that are not irreplaceable.  Those are the hard ones.  And Ernie & LeAnn lost it all– all material possessions, everything in the home, gone.  Just plain old heart breaking!

 

Here’s their kitchen and their living room:

 

 

Brad & Tode Hafen–Ran into Brad on Wednesday dropping off salsa again.  His back yard was hit except the pool which is weird.  They had a little bit come into their house, but mostly had damage to their playhouses, and waterfall/pond area.  He definitely had some yard work to do, but when I gave him a hug and said, ‘How are you doing?”  He said, “We’re GREAT!  Life is GREAT!”  Yes, these people are just amazing!

 

Dan & Pat Frei– Along with Brad and Tode, Dan & Pat got away with minimal damage.  Some in their yard and a little in their house, but don’t for a minute think that they are unscathed.  With their neighbors, friends and ward members hit so hard, this has taken an emotional toll on them, too.  Pat always has a great, positive outlook, inspite of  all the struggles they have been through lately, I believe that their house being somewhat preserved from the damage was a real tender mercy for them.

 

Kerry & Barb Johnson– I didn’t catch them home either, in my travels.  Left salsa in their fridge.  There were a lot of people working in their yard trying to clean it up and get it back to running.  I do know that Barb’s birthday was in the midst of this whole mess.  There are better ways to spend a birthday!  Hoping that she can celebrate in finer fashion next year!

 

The friends and families in Riverfront Circle have been incredible.  In spite of the damage, loss, and difficulty, they are rising above with positive attitudes.

 

Here is a video of Riverfront Circle.  It is being filmed from the roof of Brad & Tode’s house.  It starts looking into Ernie & LeAnn’s yard, you will see Johnson’s garage being hammered.  When they turn around, you can see the water in Tode & Brad’s back yard as it goes through their playhouses and their water feature.  The water that came through Ernie & LeAnn’s yard came from Smith’s and Dunkley’s.  So you can see the volume of water that came quite a distance and damaged so many!

 

 

 

My first stop Monday (Day 6) was at the Gubler’s house.  Sue is a dear friend.  I grew up with her siblings.  They had recently rebuilt this home that was her family’s years ago.  Their house was not really in the direct line of water.  They were flooded by an interesting means.  When the water came through toward Riverfront, it hit the block wall around the little community.  The wall to the left of the entrance ironically protected Shan’s sister, Cami’s house, from the flood damage.  However, as the water hit the wall, it followed it to the left and began to run behind the Barben’s house and into Shan and Sue’s back yard.  The fact that the back yard was dug out for a walk out basement, provided a nice “hole” for the water to puddle in. And puddle it did, and then filled up their basement.

The Gubler’s basement contained their office and scrapbooks among all the other furniture and belongings.  It took 6 pumps 6 hours to drain all the water out of the basement.  Their home was not even drained until the next day– one of the last to be drained and unloaded.  As the items came out of the basement, covered in mud, painstaking work then began.  Many people began spraying items off.  But the greatest gift were the many people that would take photos, journals and business papers and go through them one by one in an attempt to save them.  And many were saved.

 

On top of all this, the Gubler’s daughter, Jeni, was due with her first child.  The flood happened on Tuesday and Jenni was due on Friday.  You can imagine Sue’s feelings of panic with her house upside down and knowing that she needed to be there for her daughter.  Well, one of those tender mercies was that baby Olivia knew the plight of her grandmother and waited long enough for her to get settled.  (To read the sweet story by Jeni and see the photos of the home and the damage and the help, click here to read Jeni’s wonderful blog post.)

 

That Monday morning when I popped in on Sue, she was sitting at her kitchen table with a single friend.  This sweet lady was helping Sue take photos out of a large tote and put them in ziploc bags.  These hundreds (if not thousands) of photos had been cleaned and saved by so many.  Sue just expressed gratitude that she was able to get this far, had this much help and if she could just get her kitchen area clean, she would feel okay about leaving to go welcome a new baby.  Sue always has a smile on her face and is just one tremendous woman!

 

 

Here are just a few tidbits of info I’ve picked up as I’ve been around the houses.

 

• By Day 3 all of the homes had all the stuff cleared out of them, the carpet ripped up and the sheet rock cut out or taken down.  An insurance adjuster who had come to one of the homes said he had never seen anything like it.  Usually he pulls up and people are sitting in their yard waiting for someone to come and do something about it and get the professionals to come and clean it up.  He said, “you are definitely a special breed here.”  Bahahaha….he has NO idea! =)

• Another insurance adjuster that I believe looked at Ernie and LeAnn’s home said that if they had have paid professionals to come in and clean up what was done there, it would have cost them $50,000 just for the clean up.  So if you don’t think these volunteers have made a difference,  you’re wrong!  But I think that more than saving money, they have lifted hearts and given hope!  That right there is PRICELESS!

• The Bostwick’s house has been officially condemned.  These two pictures below are their house.  They are directly behind the business complex and took a direct hit  from the beginning.

• Tires from the automotive store on the main road were found in Shelby Frei’s field down below the Anderson’s house.  It’s also got an extra foot or two of dirt/mud.  Kent and Shelby had just planted and put new piping in a few days before.  Robbin is planning on taking a metal detector through the field.  She figures there’s a bunch of buried treasure in there now.  She’s probably right.  As I was handing out ice and water to a guy in the Johnson’s yard, he uncovered a PEZ dispenser.  And based on all the food I saw in Dunkley’s yard, there’s bound to be a few more good things buried in that field.  Someone may just geocache that, huh?

•  Many of the homes with basements had them filled to the top of their stairs (basement ceiling).  Here’s some pictures of the Westbrook’s basement.   She is Ernie and LeAnn’s daughter.  Double whammy in this family.  (Thanks to Martsi Strong for these pictures.)
  

• Ernie and LeAnn’s house does not have a basement.  The water line on their main level was at 5 feet.

• LeAnn and Ernie also have a daughter who lives on Arrowhead Circle that got hit hard.  So sad that they couldn’t even help each other because there were both buried in water and mud.  Here’s her daughter’s house.  She teaches preschool so a lot of her preschool families have been coming and helping clean and dry off school stuff.

• It’s Swiss Days at the end of this month and all through Santa Clara are cute wooden cows.  They are symbolic of all the cattle in Switzerland.  Different families and businesses put their cows out for the whole month of September. The streets look so cute with all the cows lining them.   This cow stands in the Lang’s yard.  Lois made sure I took a picture of it because with all the water and all the damage, this cow did not move.  I think it’s rather symbolic of the stubborn Dutchman’s.  Sometimes, you just can’t get them to move on an idea– especially if it comes to parting with their money. ;o)

 

One last tidbit to support the cow theory…..As I drove past LeAnn and Ernie’s on Monday, things were almost all tidied up and here stood this:

Maybe these cows really are representative of our little town.  Just a tad of comfort and normalacy among all the tragedy and discouragement.  It almost says, “you can knock us down, but you can’t take us out.”

Ironically, my missionary son sent this quote in a letter to my mom this week:

“We cannot expect to learn endurance if we have developed the habit of quitting when things get difficult.”  –Robert D. Hales

I think Santa Clara is winning the “endurance” prize.  From pioneers to current day, enduring to the end seems to be what they do best.

On day 3, I ventured down to help out.  At this point, I had mostly been taking pictures on my way to or home from work.  Feeling guilty, I knew I needed to  help out.  I signed in at the City Office and headed down the road.  I was stopped by Robbin Frei who said she could use some help.  I jumped in her little electric cart and we were off on Laundry Duty.

 

For the last several days, Robbin had been picking up people’s muddy laundry, taking it to her house, power spraying the mud off, then having those who wanted to wash come and get the laundry, wash it, give it back to Robbin, and then she would deliver it back to the home owner. [There were many people who were power washing to get the bulk of the mud off and also a bunch of people actually washing the clothes.  Robbin was mainly the pick up, drop off and delivery gal.  Someone had to keep track of who’s laundry was who’s and she had a great system going.]

 

We were on a pick up and delivery cycle.  We stopped at Tori’s house.  Her house was still being cleaned out and there was a bunch of laundry in her driveway.  Tori had recently moved into the home and most of the bags were clothes from her kids over the years that were in her garage and had not been gone through or unloaded yet.  Some of the clothes were in bags and didn’t get muddy, but were stinky/musty smelling.  A lot of them had mud on them, but had also been sitting wet for a few days.  Not pretty.  So we loaded up her clothes and headed to Robbin’s house.  I was going to power wash them after we delivered the clean ones.  We dropped off Tori’s stuff at Robbin’s, grabbed the clean items  from her garage and took off for delivery because we had more clothes to get from Tori’s.  (The little electric cars can only hold so much.)

 

As we were driving to drop off the clean clothes, Robbin told me about the laundry angels.  As one who struggles to keep up with laundry, let alone get it all the whites to actually remain white, I figured ANYONE who was washing their clothes were laundry angels.  I was absolutely correct.  But I learned that there was a little more to the story.

 

Robbin told me that years ago Debi Frei told her that when she would add sleeves to prom dresses for young women so they would have a modest dress for the dance, she would say a little prayer before she began sewing so that the dress would be lovely and acceptable to the young woman.  Debi happened to be one of the “laundry angels” that was taking all the muddy clothes and washing and folding them for others.  Robbin had dropped off some of the Schmutz’s clothes to her, among which were her little boy’s white Sunday shirts.  I don’t have a picture of their actual laundry, but here is a picture of the Schmutz’s backyard as people were unloading stuff out of their basement that was filled with mud.  I remember looking at the pile of muddy stuff and seeing games, backpacks, sleeping bags– stuff I figured her kids used and that based on all the kids stuff I was seeing that her kids stayed downstairs.  Looking at all that muddy stuff just nearly broke my heart.

 

 

I’m pretty sure that those white Sunday shirts and kids clothes were among this pile that came out of the downstairs.  Robbin said that when she picked up the clothes from Debi, she was stunned.  She said, as she began to tear up, that those white shirts looked like they had just come out of the JC Penney’s package.  Their clothes looked as bright as if they were brand new.  Robbin remembered Debi’s story of praying over prom dresses from years ago and asked Debi if she had said a prayer over this laundry.  Her answer was, “yes.”  Robbin tearfully said, “you have no idea…the laundry angels are REALLY helping us.  You just can’t believe what is happening.”

 

Well, I could.  There has been a tangible spirit as I have been driving through the valley.  There is no despair, no anger, just a spirit of work, unity, kindness, and friendliness.  But I had NO idea that laundry angels existed!  I’ve needed them for YEARS!!

 

As we pulled in to drop off some clean laundry to the Grant’s, there were several angels in her front yard cleaning off items from her house.  We told her we had her clean clothes and where could we put them.  She said, “inside the front door.”  As I traipsed across her muddy front lawn, I stood on the porch and opened the door.  Her entry way had a crystal clean floor with a few clean items on it.   I looked down at my feet and realized that I was NOT going to touch ANYTHING that was clean with my dirty feet.  This woman deserved some CLEAN space.  So I piled the laundry just inside the front door, blocking her stairway to upstairs.   As I turned, she hugged me and thanked me.  I had done NOTHING….felt a little dumb.  She was SO grateful….and who wouldn’t be??!!   I’m sure that knowing your kids have some clean clothes to wear to school meant so much when you were standing in mud trying to wash off every muddy item you were attempting to save or that have significance.

 

We left the Grant’s to drop off stuff to Sue Gubler.   She also thanked us and said, “you have to come and see this!  These clothes we are getting back are so CLEAN!”   We went into Sue’s front living room where she showed us this:

 

 

The dresses on the far left, Sue told us, were some dresses her mother had made.  They were treasured keepsakes.  We were looking at these piles admiring how really clean they were and Sue said, “you don’t understand!  These were COVERED in mud!  RED MUD!  It is a miracle!”  Robbin and I were trying not to cry and Robbin said, “it’s the laundry angels!”

 

I had to run and grab my phone and take a picture because I realized that there were many miracles taking place.  Miracles in the smallest things, like laundry.  I knew it was important for me to document them because I knew there were a lot more miracles taking place.  But I marveled at how the Lord had His hand in helping those who where trying to do something kind for others.  He has taken what they are doing and expanding their abilities.

 

Robbin and I then grabbed another bunch of laundry from Tori’s and headed back to Robbin’s house.  When we got there, Aubrey and Amber Ence were there taking the clothes to wash.  The women of their ward had volunteered to do some laundry, too.  They had their own powerwashers, so I ended up not having to powerwash, but they took a literal truck bed load of clothes to distribute for washing.  And I knew a little secret.  I knew the Laundry Angels on the other side would be assisting all the Laundry Angels on THIS side with their task.

 

*NOTE:  If you have never experienced Southern Utah Red Dirt/Mud it is something that once it gets in, it never gets out.  White socks are always a light shade of pink.  It’s also been said that “when you get Dixie Red Sand between your toes, it never comes out.”  Meaning, once you’ve lived here, the spirit always carries with you.

 

*Another NOTE:  Home Depot donated every bottle of “Iron Out” which is a laundry product that supposedly gets the Red Dirt out.  By all reports I’ve heard, it works great!  The store is empty though.  People have tried to go down and buy it.  I think they have either donated or sold it all.  Can’t wait to get my own bottle!!  PLEASE support Home Depot!  They have been SOO generous and giving!

 

And if you’re like me, now that you know Laundry Angels exist, you’ll be praying for their assistance, too!