We Are Frozen Here in Texas but God is Shining on Us!

Oh my goodness, another historical event in happening! Texas is under snow and ice, millions without power, temperatures at 0 degrees, grocery stores out of food, and this just starts the list. This may be our current conditions and as I sit here worrying about my parents without power in their 70s and my daughter, son-in-law, and grandson out of their house because of no power I still see God’s work and love.

Today is a dark and very cold day with intermittent power in Texas, rolling outages have finally begun since they have been able to stabilize our electric grid after 72 hours of millions without power. This is the first day my parents have had more than 75 minutes of power boosted into their house every six hours. Two nights ago their house was 43 degrees inside as the laid in bed bundle up in layers of clothes and blankets. Every six hours they would have all the lights come on in their house and they would dash from bed to heat up food, use the bathroom, charge their phones, and pray it would stay on long enough to warm their house to 60 degrees before it would go out again.

Today is the first time my husband and I could attempt to venture out to get them some groceries and physically check on them. Yes I had been texting them every few hours during this time but I wanted my dad to conserve his phone battery in case they needed to call 911. My mom’s phone went dead and couldn’t get recharged in the short amount of time the power was on to hold a charge. Today was the day we were going to go out because tomorrow is expected to be treacherous again.

I needed to know what condition the roads were in before going out. I was raised in Illinois and can drive on snow and ice but the thing people don’t understand about Texas is we don’t have snow removal equipment like the north uses. We very rarely need to plow or de-ice roads so our money isn’t concentrated there. I went to Facebook to ask if anyone had been out and how the road conditions were. Most commented fine in their opinion. I took their word for it.

My phone received a text after posting this and it was one of my good friend. “What do you need? We are out and maybe we can help.” I responded I needed a few grocery items for my parents without electric since they are both diabetic and my dad is receiving chemotherapy treatments. She responded, “We will get them for you and drop them off at your house. We are going to Kroger’s too.” God’s work in action and happening through my friend!

Within an hour’s time, my sweet friend showed up with everything my parents had requested. My friend didn’t have to take the time to do this for me. She could have just answered the street condition question and moved on to her duties, but she didn’t. She and her husband took the time to care for another in need. Just as Jesus taught us to love one another and serve our brothers and sisters, here they were doing as He taught.

My friend’s husband mentioned to be very careful on the roads because others were driving carelessly and there was ice under the snow that looked like clear areas or tracks to drive in on the roads. We took heed in this warning.

As we crept down the road, my husband confirmed we would be driving slow and very cautiously. The trip to my parents usually takes 10-12 minutes today took closer to 30 minutes, still a short time but the trip back was very different.

We arrived at my parents house to the good news that their power was back on even if for a short time they had their routine down of what needs to happen during the 75 minutes of power. The better news is it came on around 8 am and it was now 10:30. The house was by no means warm but it wasn’t the normal 53 degrees it had been the last two days. It was almost 60. God’s work is good! Although everyone is upset about this power event happening, I am grateful God is overseeing the power companies working to get this corrected.

It warmed my heart to see my parents dressed and in their kitchen receiving the groceries we were delivering. They look somewhat rested, put together, and pretty much normal. This is important because I haven’t slept the last few nights knowing they were only getting small amounts of power to stay warm. I kept thinking about the woman’s post I read on social media that said, “I live alone, I have no power, and I don’t want to fall asleep because I might not wake up.” I feel now I can sleep tonight after physically seeing that my parents were okay.

We left my parent’s house to journey back home and all was well until we turned a corner and pulled into deep snow causing our car to get stuck. My husband “rocked” the car, at least that’s what we called it in Illinois where you move the care forward and backwards to try to loosen the snow and make ruts for traction. This didn’t work, we were getting more stuck in the snow. I told him to put our hazard light on so people wouldn’t hit us. It’s a very gray day with no sunshine with not the best visibility. As soon as our hazard lights went on a car immediately stopped to help us. God’s work in action once again.

The gentleman got out of his car and offered to help push us just as Wes was able to reverse and loose the snow so we could move over a lane to a clearer traffic pattern. I will never forget this man’s face. He was an angel in our time of need. Again, this person could have continued driving assuming we would get unstuck but he didn’t. He got out of his SUV, coat unzipped, no gloves, no hat and cared enough to help another.

As we got home and walked into our house our clocks were flashing. We had lost power while we were gone. It appears it was a rolling outage and the power was back on. God’s work in action! God knew we were out helping my parents so he allowed us to be without power while not at home. Wes and I have been in an area that hasn’t lost power, only by the blessing of God. I recognize this blessing differently now. When the grid was struggling Monday morning, we lowered our thermostats to 63 degrees to try to help. I unplugged all appliances and surge protectors with many plugs dangling out of them. I haven’t done any loads of laundry or run my dishwasher since Monday I pray this small amount is God’s work in me and helping in some way.

Please continue to pray for the state of Texas and those suffering this week that God will warm us up, keep us safe, and protect all our first-responders and electric workers getting us functional again. May God bless you today. All my love and gratitude-LoLo.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/weather/2021/02/15/one-down-one-to-go-another-winter-storm-could-dump-5-more-inches-of-snow-on-dallas-fort-worth/