My Good Friends.

This is a bit of a long story, so bear with me.

I’m a pretty heavy sleeper. My wife Toni is a General Manager of a Chili’s, which means she works harder and longer than I do. There are many nights when she gets home at 1 or even 2 in the morning and I don’t hear a thing, so when I shot out of bed from the sounds I heard outside I knew it was something serious.

It was Ike.

The eye of Hurricane Ike made landfall just east of our home on 9/12, Friday evening, putting us on the dirty side of the storm. Toni was thankfully home when the storm hit. The sound was so loud, as if a hand had reached from the sky to grab a hold of our roof and began shaking.

I woke Toni, and we sat watching the news with thousands of others. Uncertain. A large and long green flash illuminated our neighborhood, followed by thick darkness. And that’s when things went from bad to worse, as our two-year-old twins began screaming from their rooms.

Toni got the kids up, and I lit the candles. Flashlights were ready, and bottles of cold water were on ice.

Morning came 5 hours later, and I was never so happy to watch a sun rise. The immensely strong winds and storm continued, and we hunkered down, a bit more confident with the light of day to give us more information as to what was happening. It was a false hope.

Often times, when the power goes out you find it back on only moments later, never really staying off long enough for you to realize that you have been taking it for granted. It was obvious as the daylight came that the power would not be coming back on any time soon. Everything was damaged in one way or another.

We were as prepared as we could be for the storm. Everyone knew it was coming. It became increasingly apparent that power was not going to be restored as we began to look around the neighborhood.

After a storm of that magnitude, all you can really do at first is assess the situation. It’s instinctual. Is your family ok? Are you ok? Are your neighbors ok? Are your friends ok? You want to go outside and look at your home to inspect for damage, but you cant just walk outside. There are shingles with nails littering the yard. Debris everywhere.

Houston may be the fourth largest city in the richest country in the world, but make no mistake. Mother nature still runs this place.

Our cell phones still had power, and we were primarily trying to communicate through text messages to conserve the battery life. Our parents were all fine. Then it was time to check on our friends. As it turns out, our friends were checking on us faster than we were checking on them.

Down the road, about 3 miles lives some of our closest friends, Suzy and Reyna. They have been our friends for many many years. A text message came to Toni’s cell, inviting us to their home. They still had power.

Reyna is a Chilis Manager at Spring Cypress.

Inviting a family of four into your home during a hurricane for an undisclosed amount of time is called friendship at least, and love at best. Not to mention that our twins are 2.

We arrived to find their master bedroom child proofed and inviting! It was so nice. They are both so generous. The kids were scared and confused, and it was just what we needed when we needed it.

We were all so tired. No one really had the energy to argue or to object about the fact they Suzy and Reyna had sacrificed their own bedroom for our family. All we could do was say thank you and comfort and tend to our children.

The fourth day came, and thankfully the evenings were now seeing temperatures in the upper 60s, making it possible for the four of us to venture back to our home.

Thankfully, the next morning we were greeted with the restoration of power to our home!

Ike stopped our lives and made us thankful. Thankful for each other, and thankful for our friends. Reyna and Suzy helped our family in time of need, and we will always be there for them in the future.

Well, as it turns out, I was recently able to help Suzy and Reyna out as well. For some time now, Reyna has wanted to Pop The Question to Suzy! Over diner a few nights ago, Reyna asked me if I had any good ideas on how she could propose.

We decided that if Suzy saw me with a camera that the surprise would be blown, so I thought it would be fun for the two them to come into the studio for a portrait session. This way there would be no question as to why I was photographing them.

During the shoot, I would remove the flowers from Suzy’s hands which would be the signal to Reyna to then propose. I was to catch everything with my camera.

Without a doubt, we will be good friends with Suzy and Reyna for life.