April 27, 2011

As I sit in my house holding my baby girl and looking out the window, I can't help but remember the events of last year.

The night before my dad told me there were going to be bad storms, and we needed to be careful. However, his nickname that one of my sister's friends gave him is "Tad the Weather Dad". He worries about storms, so I wasn't that concerned.

We went to school the next day, and it was business as usual. When the storm alarm went off, I assumed it was a precaution. Little did I know how serious it was. I felt awful because when we did storm drills I told my kids we will probably never need to do this. I mean tornadoes don't happen here. Needless to say I don't say that anymore. They dismissed the kids and sent us home. The worst was over, or so I thought.

Austin and I went home, and Aus took a nap. I didn't because I was still anxious. It started to storm again, and I woke Austin up because the sky looked green. He told me it was fine, but let's go to Ft. O to eat and see the weather because we didn't have power.

I'll never forget sitting at Applebee's when Laura Aldridge called and said a tornado is headed for our town, but I still didn't worry too badly because tornadoes don't happen where we live. Aus and I went to Walmart to wait out the storm. When we parked, we both were commenting on the lightening; it seemed to be nonstop.

They did a code black while we were in Walmart, and we had to stand in the middle of the store. After they cleared us, I got a text from a friend asking if we were ok. I said yes and kept shopping. I got two more texts quickly asking if we were ok, then the first friend wrote back that a tornado was on our road. I dropped everything I was holding and ran to Aus saying we had to leave then.

The whole way home I kept wondering if we still had a home. I sent a text to a neighbor asking if it was still standing, and she said we were blessed. When we got to our neighborhood, the police wouldn't let us in because of a gas leak. We went to my parents' house to wait out the rest of the storms and spent the night.

The next morning we came home and saw the devastation that was our neighborhood. God truly blessed us. Our home was fine. Our back porch was rearranged, but that was all the "damage" was had. Across the street had roof damage, the next house was missing a roof. The house three houses across the street was gone.

Throughout the next few weeks I was amazed at how our community helped each other. Our next door neighbors went from being neighbors to close friends. We delivered water during the day and "camped out" at night.

It's weird to think of how much has changed in this past year. I now appreciate every day a little more, especially now that Catherine is here. (A month after the storms we found out she would be here. Maybe I'm a little thankful for no power. ;) )

God brought the storm to teach us not to underestimate His power, but He also showed us the love we all have for Him and one another. Even in the midst of a storm He can calm.