Not A Happy Anniversary*

Hugmonkey still talks about Hurricane Sandy. After things got basically back to normal around here (and once again, we were so fortunate in how quickly that happened), he became obsessed with the weather. We had to check it every morning to see if there was a storm coming and if there was a storm coming, we had to research it's possible impact. That's pretty complicated for a kid who had just turned four.

A year later, sometimes he forgets to check the weather. But he still needs reassurance that Hurricane Sandy can't come back.

Buzzfeed has much better pictures of the storm's impact. 

Every time I reassure him, I wonder what I will say when the next storm hits. And then I think about all the other kids, the ones who went through so much more than Hugmonkey did. I wonder how they are coping, I wonder how they will handle the next storm. I wonder about the kids who survived the flooding in Colorado and the tornadoes in Oklahoma and Missouri and all the other crap that keeps happening. 

Sometimes my heart hurts a lot. 

If you can, please donate to Habitat for Humanity to help the kids (and adults) who have been through too much lately. 

*I know that technically the storm began on Sunday night - October 28th. But for us, it wasn't scary or that bad or power-free until October 29th. So this is my anniversary.