What do you do with a problem?

What do you do with a problem?

Rebuilding their lives after a flood forced them from their Hatfield home has helped Jessica Perkins and her kids discover that even in tragedy, there are possibilities for growth.

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ucked away in one of the dozens of waterlogged boxes in Jessica Perkins’ garage was a children’s book entitled, What Do You Do With a Problem? The cover of the book shows a child bent against a fierce storm, his umbrella inside out.

It’s hard to imagine a more apt analogy for the literal and figurative storm that Perkins and her children have been bending themselves against for the past three years after severe flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Ida forced them from their Hatfield home in September 2021.

For the next two and a half years, she and her kids would call an extended-stay hotel their home as they tried to piece their lives back together. Perkins would come to discover that the children’s book in her flooded garage would have plenty of application for adults too.

“This was going to be our sanctuary” A graduate of Drexel University with degrees in psychology and media arts, Perkins’ entrepreneurial instincts kicked in after the birth of her three kids. She saw that her children made sense of the world through sensing the world, and began creating sensory toys that would stimulate their creativity and curiosity. After years of designing toys and gifting her creations to friends and family, Perkins decided to start selling her goodies, and launched her Mama May I website and store in 2009.

More than a decade later, Perkins' plans had to be put on hold as she experienced an extraordinarily difficult situation in her personal life. She moved out of Philadelphia and began looking for a new place to live.

After putting offers in on about a dozen houses, she found one in Hatfield that she felt sure was the right one.

The water line on Jessica Perkins’ garage door hints at the destruction inside.

“We were coming out of a very toxic July and early August of 2021. “I had just situation, and this was going to be our gotten the kids’ rooms put together, sanctuary space,” she says. It was a finally,” she says. “They all had their own smaller house than others she’d little ‘nests.’” considered, but that was OK, because it had a large detached garage—a perfect “I couldn’t open the garage door” space for her workshop and studio. Her The calendar had just flipped to vision for the property included hosting September, and her kids were away with homeschool co-op classes, and her kids— family for a few days. Perkins decided to 13, 10, and 7 at the time—were excited to make one last trip to central help create a kind of “nature playground” Pennsylvania to get the rest of their in the backyard that would be a perfect things, which had been in storage at the “playful learning” area. home of a family member.

She and the kids moved in during late

On September 1, Hatfield received nearly 8” of rain—most of it falling in a 6-hour span of time. Still not that familiar with the area, Perkins remembers watching the news at her parent’s home and thinking, ‘Oh, that looks like where my house is.’

In the morning she drove home, and was relieved to see there were no detours or traffic backups. She thought she was in the clear.

With over 7' of water in the garage, and 2' in the house, little from Perkins’ home was salvageable.

“And then I tried to open the garage door, and I couldn’t,” she recalls. “I had to pound it open, and even then I was only able to open it a crack.”

But a crack was all she needed to confirm her worst suspicion, and another look at the garage door revealed the awful truth—a clearly

visible line showing the level the water had risen to—more than 7 feet up.

“We were basically using the garage as storage, and moving things into the house piece by piece. So most of what we had was still in the garage,” she says.

“Nothing in there was salvageable.”

Worse yet, Perkins did not have contents insurance on the homeowner’s policy that was just switched into her name.

Her first thought was for her kids. “We had just gotten set up,” she says. “What would this do to their little hearts?’”

The power of (a new) community After a couple of “false starts” with hotels, Perkins landed at an extended stay complex, with a small apartment that included a kitchenette with a small stovetop, but no oven; Perkins added an air fryer. “We were still able to cook dinners and bake birthday cakes,” she

says. “You find ways to get creative.”

There was less creativity when it came to cleaning out the house. “We did the best we could," she says, “but then we just got a huge dumpster and tossed everything.” In some ways, she adds, it was a not-so-subtle “nudge” she and the kids needed to make a break with a difficult past. “In a way, all of that stuff was part of our old life,” she says. “I couldn’t purge it because of the kids’ sentimental attachment to it, but this was like nature’s way of saying, ‘No, you need to let it go.’ So we did—and it showed us that we really don’t need that much—that home is wherever we are together.”

Perkins learned something else in the process, too: It was OK to ask for help— and accept it when offered. “One of my coping mechanisms is to not rely on other people, because other people let

The water had receded quite a bit the next day when Perkins took this photo.

me down,” she says. “But I was put in a position where I couldn’t just rely on myself. I had to accept help from other people, even complete strangers, and it was a beautiful thing to not really even be part of this community yet, and to have strangers show up to help.”

this, but the system makes it hard to access them, and even creates barriers, particularly in the areas of paperwork and documentation,” she says. “The experience helped me become a good researcher.” She also learned the value of connections. “You need to look for opportunities to connect with people, People would send over a meal, or because someone just might have a lead volunteer to help with laundry. When he to somewhere else you need to go,” she heard about what happened, an says. “You need to remain open and employee at the Hatfield curious. It was like post office showed up detective work.”

“I feel like, with a pump and a when there’s a One of the connections vacuum to pump out her crawlspace. “It was like she made was with need, people all of these knights in Hatfield Township staff. shining armor showed “The township reached are ready to up to help us out. This out to me early on,” she help. That was a good reminder says. “I had some that it’s OK to accept friends who were restores a little help from others,” she veterans of these types says. “I really feel like, bit of your faith of situations, and they when there’s a need, were telling me to in humanity.” people are ready to buckle up, because it help. They show up and could take two to three step up. That restores a years. But the Jessica Perkins township was proactive little bit of your faith in humanity.” in reaching out to homeowners. And I Finding her voice— can’t really speak highly and learning to use it enough of [Township Advocating for herself and the kids Manager] Aaron Bibro. He caught a lot of throughout their ordeal was a full-time my big feelings, even if they were a job in itself. Perkins says the experience result of my frustration with the system. helped her find her voice, and to use it He totally understood that, and that felt sometimes in ways she never had really good—like I had somebody in my before. corner in a difficult time.”

“There are resources that are supposed to be available to you in situations like

Even though the Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided

funding to purchase Perkin’s home, she moved back into the house near the end of 2023, and continues to search for a home or building lot in this area. “I would love to build a small house somewhere in our community that I could expand modularly, as I’m able to afford it,”

Perkins says. “I want to stay here and pursue my vision to create a studio where we can invite kids and grownups to do some playful healing and connection, to engage in creativity, curiosity, and learning. That is what my life’s work is all about.”

You can connect with Jessica and shop the Mother May I line of handmade toys at jessicaperkins.com