Garcia Family - Mission to Mississippi

Wayland to Waveland’s
‘Mission to Mississippi’
Letters from the Families

The Garcia Family

Dear Wayland to Waveland,
How do we begin to express our deepest gratitude and thanks to each and every one of you for such amazing acts of love and volunteerism?

Our Story: our family consists of me, Erin Garcia, my husband Mark (better known as Markie) Garcia, and our new son Gavin Garcia. Markie and I have been a couple for nearly 8 years now. He lived with his dad and helped with the rental expenses and upkeep of a house before Katrina and I lived with my mom and helped with the house note and upkeep of her home.

On that dreadful day, August 29 2005, when Katrina changed our lives forever, Markie was working for the Civil Defense located in Bay St. Louis and helped with rescues around the city. I on the other hand, as a banking officer, had the responsibility to be there for the banking customers of our local cities after the storm let up, and I could not convince my mom to evacuate and I did not intend to leave her to fend off a terrible storm by herself, so we stayed in our little house in Waveland and that is where we were around 9:00 am when the force of the water pushed us out of our house and into the rapidly moving water down the street. Fortunately for our sake, there were about 4 other families in the neighborhood that formed a human chain to grab hold of us and pull us into the shelter of 1 of 2 two-story homes on our street. The most awful memory of that day and the two days to follow, for me, was the not knowing… if we had 6+ feet of water on our street then we knew that the city was doomed. I didn’t know if my Markie, the love of my life, was alive or dead. I didn’t know if my father and his wife, located in Pearl River LA, were alive or dead. I didn’t know if my twin brother who evacuated made it safely off the roads.
Oddly enough, Markie managed to catch a ride in a truck with my cousin David to check on my mom and me that same night. As they drove down our street and neared my house, seeing the destruction, my cousin told him to expect the worse and asked him if he could handle going in or not. After searching through the house and the surrounding area with no luck, he and David loaded back into the truck and drove off not knowing that my mom and I were on the street and were okay- I even tried yelling after the truck to see if the occupants could tell us anything about the rest of the town, but the driver and passenger didn’t hear me- I had no idea it was Markie and David.
The day after the storm, my mom and I were able to wade through the water and make it down to our house to see the devastation the storm wreaked on us- on all! Seeing our house in shambles and our vehicles destroyed, we grabbed what water jugs we could manage to carry and hiked it to the old Holiday Inn on Hwy 90 and 603. Our remarkable friends the Ladys’, the owners of the Inn, let us stay in one of the rooms that was not affected by the water. At this point, I still had no idea if my family or if Markie and his family was alive or not. Two days later, Markie got word that I was okay and was able to find my mom and me. My Dad also managed to make it over and find us, after cutting his way out of the trees that had fallen into his yard and my brother made it safely to Texas. About a week later, my mom’s boss relocated her to Atlanta where she currently is, and Markie and I as well as about 20 other members of his family were able to stay with his mom and step-dad in their house in Kiln, MS until FEMA moved us into a trailer on my mom’s property.
It took a year of hard work, sweat, and stress while we were both working full time and trying to graduate with our bachelor’s degrees, but Markie and I managed to put my mom’s house back together so that we could move in there while my mom was still working in Atlanta.
After graduation in December, we married in March and were blessed with our beautiful baby boy, Gavin, in August; he came to us a month premature after I was put on strict bed rest the first of July. We are so lucky to have him in our lives- what an amazing gift from God!
We found out about Wayland in October and are so appreciative of your organization even considering our family for one of the eight houses being built in Waveland. For us, to put so much hard work and effort into my mom’s house, a house that we don’t own was okay because we had a place to stay but discouraging because we knew that my mom would be moving home soon and we would have to find a place to live- a huge feat in today’s post Katrina times. So to be chosen for a home of our own, a home built with the love and support of so many caring individuals is truly heartwarming. When I think of us, with the help of Wayland, now being able to give our new little son his own bedroom, his own yard to play in, I am overwhelmed with emotion! At this stage in our lives, and careers, Markie and I would never have been able to purchase a home on our own.
To Wayland we will always be indebted for such a wonderful act of compassion. We hope that you realize you are giving us more than a home, you are giving us a place for our son to grow up in and for us to enjoy watching him grow in, you are restoring our faith in the kindness of individuals around America, and you are bringing back our beautiful cities- Waveland and Bay St. Louis! From the very bottom of our hearts we thank each and every volunteer, contractor, donator and member of the Wayland to Waveland Mission!

God Bless you all!
Erin, Mark, and Gavin Garcia