Okay, so I was a little premature with my dossier happy dance. CHI received our dossier BUT there was a document that needed to be revised. Our Letter of Introduction was one of the first documents I completed and because we initially thought we would be requesting a girl, it had “she” and “her” all over it. Because it was one of the first documents I completed 3 months ago, I didn’t even think to go back and read it after we switched to “no gender preference.” So, today I took off work and had the new document notarized, county certified, state authenticated and mailed overnight to CHI in hopes that it will get there in time to go to D.C. with this weeks dossiers. I will never again complain of others people’s incompetencies! I am guilty as charged! LOL 

My Grandmother, who lives in New Orleans, lost everything in Hurricane Katrina. Her house was completely flooded. She lived in the area known as “Bucktown,” which was hit hard during the hurricane. We visited the house while we were there and drove through her old neighborhood. It felt like a ghost town. Very few businesses have been re-opened, most of the houses that are still standing remain vacant, and there are still people living in government trailers on the front lawns of their destroyed homes. Many of the homes we drove by still had numbers spray-painted on the front indicating the date they were investigated and the number of dead bodies in the house. I think this, more than anything else, brought home to me just how devastating Katrina was.

My Grandmother has moved on with her life. She now has a little efficiency apartment close to my Uncle.  Her house is still standing but it has been gutted due to the flood damage. She will be 82 soon and feels that it’s too late for her to start over. She will probably sell the property at some point.

The French Quarter looks the same as it always has. Compared to other areas of the city, the Quarter didn’t sustain much damage. What damage there was has been repaired and it’s business as usual in Sin City. My Mom and I had a good time but it was HOT, HOT, HOT, not to mention HUMID! We got our fill of gumbo, crawfish etouffee, and various other fried seafood. And let’s not forget Cafe du Monde’s beignets and cafe au lait! Addictive! We hit several of the casinos (didn’t win a thing) and even watched my Uncle sing karaoke until 4 am! It was an exhausting 4 days but lots of fun.    

Here’s my Mom with a huge, toxic, tropical concoction of some sort.

Here’s my Mom and Granny at the karaoke bar. My Granny had just dropped $200 in the poker machine behind her and she’s still smiling! (Yes, we kept my almost 82 year old Grandmother out at a bar until 4 am but I wouldn’t feel too sorry for her…she can run circles around all of us!).