Our home

We have brick! I drove by the house this morning on my way to a meeting at W.T. Lewis Elementary School. It took the builders no time at all to get the brick up! But as happy as I was about the progress of my beautiful house, I was sitting there thinking about all our neighbors in south Louisiana who have rebuilt their homes... only to have another hurricane threaten to destroy them again! Hurricane Gustav has already killed nearly two dozen people in Haiti. Now he is on his way to the Gulf Coast and I cannot believe this could be happening again.

Chris and I were living in Dallas when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005. Kennedy was only one year old. We were glued to the television with the most devastating images and stories I had ever seen. I was born and raised in Louisiana, so my heart ached for the people of my home state... even while I was living in Texas. I remember being so moved by the events that happened that I took donations from my company, rented a mini-van and drove them to Shreveport where shelters were open for evacuees.

Now that I am living in Shreveport again, I will be even more effected by the storms because I learned yesterday that LSUS will open a Red Cross Shelter in our Health and Physical Education building. As Director of Media and Public Relations, I'll be corralling the media. I will be even closer to the people who evacuate south Louisiana and I fully expect to be very emotional because I cannot imagine packing up my belongings and family and leaving my house for the wrath of a hurricane. The unknown is terrifying, especially when we have no control over Mother Nature. I just hope she is gentle on us this time.

But in the last year and a half of my family living in apartments and rent homes in Shreveport, I have come to realize that a house is just a house. My HOME is my family and friends that I surround myself with. My HOME is not material possessions. It's my beautiful, healthy children who smile at me everyday. It's my amazing husband. It's my friends who get together and laugh and celebrate life. The house is just a roof. What's important is what's inside.