Our Life In the Soup Bowl

So here it is...my first blog recording the adventures and challenges of raising a family in the city of New Orleans...otherwise known as the "Soup Bowl." It is almost 4 years to the day that hurricane Katrina forever changed our lives, so it is only fitting that my first blog tells the tale of that day and time once again. For the past 4 years I have often cursed August 29, 2005 but not today - today will be a day of gratitude and thanks on what has become our "post-K" life here:
Thank you Katrina for allowing me the chance to spend the first four months of Cole's life with the daily help and care of my mother. Had you not come I would have been alone - a first-time mother without that extra help and care that what so needed.
Thank you Katrina for giving my sister and her family a beautiful, safe new place to live and although it is many miles away it is a safe haven for us when it is needed and longed for.
Thank you Katrina for changing my career and what I do on a daily basis. Had you not come I would have never stood in the ravages of the lower 9th ward, visited the campus of St. Augustine High School or the countless other New Orleans public schools in our city for voluntourism projects.
Thank you Katrina for every grateful re-opening celebration we got to attend. From something as grand and wonderful as the Superdome's coming out party to as simple as our favorite chinese food restaurant on Carrollton Avenue coming back to serve the BEST Mandarin Chicken in the South!
Thank you Katrina for making me a better wife, friend, daughter, colleague and most of all...a better Mother, because I no longer second guess a kiss, a hug, an apology or prayer when I go to sleep each night.
Thank you Katrina for reminding me why we fight to live and choose to raise our children in this city that has become a person not a place to us and for reminding me that I cannot turn my back on her when she has bad days, months or even years.
And speaking of time frames...they said that it would take 8 years to recover from Katrina's devastation. In less than half, we are stronger, kinder, wiser, better prepared for hardship and live life fuller because of the path we have traveled so today I am grateful....
The Mommy in the Soupbowl