*Edit below.

. . .So thankful to see that FrostyMarvin posted and that her family is alright.  Thanks for all the prayers.  

We started school work today.  It went well.  Too exhausted to blog (I cleaned and organized my heart out yesterday and then had insomnia last night).  I'm still so mindful of what's going on in N.O. and the Gulf Coast, that I can't bring myself to blog about my pregnant woes.  I'm sure I'll return to the regularly scheduled complaining soon enough, but it just seems a little trite, right this minute.  I'm actually going to make a couple of calls about 2 friends of mine who lived in N.O.  I haven't heard anything.  Hoping no news is good news. 

One of them was a missionary in inner city N.O.  She loved the city so much.  You have to love a place a lot to settle in a community like Desire Street.  Anyway, it's heart-wrenching for me to think about all the work that they've done over the years.  The ministry was based on the idea of indigenous leadership.  They'd seen kids from the slums go to college and return to help make the community a better place.  They'd also had staff members, who'd devoted their lives to helping others, killed in random shootings.  They started a Christian school.  They were working on starting a contracting company to build nice (and affordable) houses in a run down area. . .A lot of work.  The irony is that the goal all along was to try to make the community into a desirable place to live.  I know their efforts won't return void.  I don't know how that's possible, but I believe it.

I didn't intend to say all that.  Consider it stream of consciousness concern.  My other friend is a doctor at Tulane (Tom Stamps --Papa Bear's fam knows him).  Don't know if he's still in there either.  I just read an article about the hospitals asking for help.  It said how distressing it is when the care-takers need to be rescued (the hospitals are running out of food and water).  I think Tulane Medical Center has been evacuated though.

. . .Anyway, gonna make a couple of quick calls before it gets too late.  Everybody take care.

*EDIT:  All of the staff members of DSM are accounted for. :) I'm guessing my friend Steph is with her family in south Georgia.  If you'd like to give to the organization (obvioulsy they'll be trying to, relocate, feed, and clothe people for a long time), their website is www.Desirestreet.org.  They're a reputable organization that has been serving the community for 15 years.

I also talked to my brother about his best friend Tom.  He and his fiance are both o.k, and they're working at the two hospitals (that are still functioning).  His apartment may be gone, but he actually brought a duffle bag with photos and things in it to the hospital with him. . .just in case.  Hopefully, they'll fully evacuate those hospitals soon, because everything I've read says that they're beginning to run out of supplies.