shutting it down - NOT!

I had a crazy thought yesterday that maybe it might be time to warp up this 'storm-related' aspect of this blog.  From here on out, it's just going to be more of the same, right? Unpack, clean, put away, repeat.  How much is everyone going to want to read about all of that?

Perhaps God has some other plans for where this will go from here. I'm pretty sure, after today, that I need to attest to the extreme power of intercessory prayer.  I have seen the results of it SO CLEARLY in our lives over the last month.  I have said repeatedly that we have FELT the prayers of friends and family.  I know these prayers were what was carrying us through, because I know there has been an un-explainable peace and calm in the midst of this crazy month.  And I know that there have been answers that ONLY GOD could have know about.  Prayer has made all the difference in this situation, there is just no two ways about it.

And now, God is clearly calling me to offer it to other's in my life.  I have had three direct requests today, to keep specific people in my prayers.  Interesting thing is all four of the people involved are young people in single-parent homes.  These kids are HURTING and they need our prayers.  Unfortunately I am not at liberty to share names, but I would just ask that, if you are reading this, that you lift them up also.  You can call them 'K',  'M&M' and 'E'. God will know who you are talking about.  All of them are at that tough age, caught between childhood and adulthood and they are needing to make crucial life decisions.  Pray that God will have an opportunity to impact their lives in a meaningful way!!

The power of God has been so evident in our lives over the last month.  Someone even pointed out the other day, when I was marveling at the power of nature, that it's so amazing the God CAN control THAT too, when He chooses to!!  We serve an awesome, powerful, yet SO loving God.  He wants to be a part of our lives, SO BAD!  He is using events such as the one that hit us, and the floods and earthquakes and even 'smaller' personal crisis' to waken the hearts of men, and HOPEFULLY draw them to Him.   I hope that His return is SOON!!

A month ago today

Well, it's a month ago today.  It's hard to believe it has been that long.  Feels more like two weeks, maybe.  We are working through the various processes.  Still waiting for a check from Progressive for the trailer, so we can go buy the van.  Also waiting for the truck to be picked up by the salvage company.  We still have lots of unpacking (and cleaning of items) to do.  There are a few key kitchen items missing, such as waffle irons, so we can have our favorite Friday night supper, hoping to find those on Sunday.  We are still jumping through hoops at the SBA/FEMA.  I also still need to get connected with some counselors at United Way, so the kids can talk through some stuff - the storm earlier this week made that pretty CLEAR.  We are working through all the fun details with Lon's new job, such as getting auto-deposit set up, so that his check arrives a tad sooner every week, since we still seem to run the account right down there, even though so many people have been SO generous (have never over-drawn though - always have just what we need!)  People are helping us work on getting new digs built for the chickens and the rabbit.  Some new friends from church have been FAITHFULLY coming every day to work on the coop for the chickens, Lon and I got most of the fencing up today.  Both the coop and the fence will probably get completed on Sunday.  Emma and I will likely tackle the bunny hutch next week some time.  We are also going to need to get the guinea pigs' cage set back up too, since they were in a large cage in the school room before.   All of those critters have been (are) living in much more cramped quarters than they are used to until we get those projects done. Various kids are still sleeping on mattresses on the floor, they either don't like the options offered (the big girls seem to feel that they have 'outgrown' the girl bunk beds we have - they are beautiful wrought iron white things, with hearts in the head-board - too little girlish for their taste, I guess) or their beds were destroyed (the boys, and Sarah).  I need to start listing some items for sale on Craig's list, such as the cover for the trailer, which we won't need any more, since the trailer is gone, apparently (have not been back up to the house since last Friday afternoon, it was supposed to have been picked up on Monday).  We also need to get in touch with the land-lord to see what the status is on the house, I'm VERY curious whether it shifted on it's foundation or not, and if it IS going to be demolished, the boys want to watch (ok - I'll admit it, so do I)  At some point SOON, we need to follow through on the pot-luck that we promised all the old neighbors that we would have soon.  AND, we need to meet the NEW neighbors!!  And, last, but not least, we still need to get the storm shelter installed.  (we are on their work-order list, but our turn has not come up yet)

Wow - that is quite a to-do list!!  It's a good thing GOD is giving me strength for all this!!

 It's definitely feeling a bit like a marathon at this point, not a sprint.  But we have to stop and count the blessings too.  Here are several that I have not mentioned here yet:

There was an opportunity to apply for food-stamp money, based on income and family size.  We could potentially qualify for as much as $1200!  Another family at church gave us great directions as to what to bring, and when to go.  I had the added advantage of having a handicap parking permit, and crutches.  So I got let into a MUCH closer parking lot, and I got escorted to the FRONT of a 200-300 person line!!  I was there all of 30-35 mintues!!  We qualified!  The funny thing is, had Adtran (Lon's last job) done his last paycheck correctly, I don't think we would have.  They were supposed to with-hold a certain percentage out of this last pay-check to start re-paying the signing bonus that he got - since he wasn't there for at least a year, he had to pay that back - but they were only supposed to keep PART of the paycheck, and still pay him SOME.  Well, they with-held ALL of his paycheck, and while coming up several hundred dollars short at that point was not particularly fun God still saw to our needs, and that smaller number to report for income at the food stamp office caused us to stay within the 'income limit' for the month of May (the only one they looked at) and helped us qualify for $1200!!  The extra amount that Adtran with-held is not lost, either, it will mean that we have less to pay back later.  So, in the end, it was a double bonus.


also;

Back when I was still using crutches (I was allowed to start leaving them behind some, just over a week ago, at my two-week-follow-up appointment - and of course that is JUST what I have done!) but anyway, when I was still needing crutches all the time, I was having a hard time carrying all the stuff I might need to carry, since my hands were busy crutching.  I tried using my purse, but it was not staying on my shoulder.  One night, just after we moved into the new house, I was thinking how nice it would be if I could find my old 'Norm Thompson' style tear-drop purse.  But having not even known for sure where it was for sure, even BEFORE the storm, I didn't even mention that I was wanting it.  It wouldn't have done any good to mention it, since most people who were packing us up were just putting all the items that looked salvageable into whatever box, and very little labeling of boxes went on. One evening, just after we were getting all our stuff to the new house, as I was walking into the house from the garage and I saw it laying there, on TOP of some boxes!  I was able to use that as my purse for the several weeks that I've been in the boot still and still needing to use the crutches now and then, particularly when I go 'out.  It's been a helpful thing, and every time I open it, or pick it up, I'm reminded of God 'helping' me find it.  (ok - finding it FOR me!)

OK - WOW - I'm SUPER tired all the sudden.  I'll try to write more tomorrow afternoon/evening.   Sorry for the typos I'm sure are all through this, as I kept dozing off while I wrote.  I wanted to write something profound about the one month anniversary.  But I guess "there is still alot of work to do" will have to be as profound as it gets.  goodnight.

Taking Shelter

Well, we did end up going in the closet for about 20 minutes just after midnight last night.  Apparently a tornado had been spotted, on the ground, about 20 miles from here, headed our direction.  That rattled the nerves a bit.  Before, when we would go down in the shelter, it was just sort of a matter-of-fact thing we did.  The basement was large, there were chairs, we just sat, and waited out what ever was (or wasn't) going over.  This time, there was a new urgency and a keen awareness of what the storm could hold, and a palpable fear.  We had prayer and I played some calming music on my i-pod.  The power went out.  It was tight quarters, and stuffy.  People were half asleep, so not as cooperative as might have been nice, but who is worried about 'nice' at that point?  The most frightening thing for me was that just as I was sending half-asleep Mayahna and Tommy into the closet under the stairs, I heard the house creaking!  That was a little TOO familiar for MY taste.  But I did soon realize that the creaking was just Annie, walking around upstairs, waking Emma and Ricky for them to come down.  Ricky was not easy to wake and convince of the need to come get in the closet.  He doesn't tend to want to do anything Annie tells him to do, anyway, let alone when he has just been woken up.  But we did all get there, and hunker down for about 15-20 minutes, until they gave us the all clear on the phone.  With the power out, and thus the internet connection not working, that was a nice feature to have, probably the best four-dollar app I've bought! 

We came out just after 12:15, but some were not willing to go sleep in their own rooms, as they wanted to be closer to the closet in case we needed to go in (not sure how that is going to work when the storm shelter is installed in the garage!).  Tommy had fallen back asleep, back in the very back of the closet, so we just left him there, to sleep the rest of the night right where he was.  He was a tad confused this morning when he woke up in such a strange place.  Ricky slept on the couch, just outside the closet.  Mayahna and Emma slept with me (the closet door is just outside my bedroom door).  We did get to sleep pretty quickly, amazingly, I guess because we knew the phone would wake us up if we needed to go back in.  The lights came back on at about 2, I got up, turned everything off that we had left on, and went back to bed and back to sleep. 

I looked at the news, briefly, this morning, and didn't see anything about tornado damage that took place last night.  Though, when Lon called just now, he said he had heard there were trees down in Limestone county (our new county)  I'm guessing it's out in that area west of Athens, where the twister was spotted last night.  Glad it was small, and didn't stay on the ground too long.  Glad the storm season is almost over.  Glad that God answered the prayers of our family and many others who were praying for us, that we did not have to repeat our experience of four weeks ago.

Annie did ask, as we were heading for the closet, "If we get hit again, are we moving back to the NW?"  I had to answer honestly: "The thought HAS crossed my mind!"  Though, honestly, where is a safe place to be?  There isn't one, in case you have not noticed!  This world is not a safe place.  AND - it is NOT our home!!!

There will be thunderstorms throughout the day today, and into tomorrow.  But they are saying it will be nothing 'organized enough' to produce severe weather.  It will give us plenty of opportunity to exercise our faith muscles, though!  Some of the thunder that happened last night, after we came out of the closet, was pretty amazing thunder - it rolled on and on and on, and it rattled the house.  I never could keep my eyes open long enough to watch for the lightening and count to see how far away it was.   It's rumbling out there right now, too.  I think the rest that Sabbath brings this week, because it will come at the end of two stormy days, will be a VERY welcome rest.  Similar to the rest we will receive when Christ comes to rescue us from this mess of a world we live in.  Looking forward to that day, more and more!

Tornado Watch!

So, we are currently under Tornado watch this evening, for the next three and a half hours.  I'm not sleeping.  Mostly because I don't know that the app that I just purchased on my phone is configured right to wake me up.  The weather radio that we used to use is still in a box somewhere. 

We don't have a storm shelter installed here yet.  We are on the 'work order' sheet for Alabama Tornado Masters, but we are still about three weeks out from installation. 

Am I trusting God?  You bet.  Am I still on edge?  You bet.  Does that make sense?  Probably not.  But it's where I am.  I do know that God IS in this with us.  That no matter what happens, He WILL walk right beside us, just as He has proven Himself to be doing over the last four weeks (hard to believe, four weeks ago today!) But, that does not mean that the thought of going through it all AGAIN does not make my head spin just a bit (no pun intended!)

The kids are all resting peacefully.  We received a copy of Gnomeo and Juliette today, in the mail, so we SEARCHED for the box with the DVD player in it, so we could watch it on the big screen.  Emma and I found it!!  So that was a nice treat.  During the middle of the movie I received notice of approaching storms on my computer.  I did not tell the kids.  They all went to bed after the movie was over and I'm hoping that I don't have to wake them up. 

We just up-graded to a 'severe thunderstorm warning' - but the effected areas seem to be just north of us, so that is good.  The really good news is that the alerts on my phone DO seem to be working, so, perhaps I should go ahead and see if I can get some sleep.  It is pretty nice to be able to narrow down the types of alerts we get.  And living on the far EASTERN edge of the county, rather than the far Western edge (we moved just over the county line, into the county just west of where we used to live) makes the notices much more relevant.  Before we would get woken up to be told about squalls that had already passed us over!!  Or things like 'flash flood warnings' (we lived on a bit of a hill, with NO creeks or rivers ANYWHERE nearby) This will be much nicer, it will only wake us up when we need to get up and go into the shelter!  (or the closet under the stairs, as the case may be, for now)

Lon is in Nashville.  So I have it set to wake me up if he has stuff approaching too.  He'll be home tomorrow night.  That will be good. 

Keep on keeping on, and LOTS of questions.

So, we've reached the endurance part of the race.  Alot of the help has gone back to their own busy lives.  Media attention is focused on Joplin, MO and will soon be focused on some town in Oklahoma that is still awaiting their own fate, even as I type, as more storms roll through there today.  Life rolls on.  People start talking about other stuff, like NFL lock-outs and the latest favorite American Idol singer.  But at our house, we are anything but done with this event.  We still have stuff to clean, sort and put away.  We still have raw feelings and easily upset stomachs.  We still have damaged furniture.  We still need to work with the insurance companies and FEMA and the SBA.  We still have everyday stuff that needs to be done that can't be done because we can't find the cable to our printer.  We still have bills to pay, and baby showers to plan, and church duties to fulful.  Life rolls on.  But it is so different now.  I am resting in the knowledge that God IS a God who WILL be with you in the midst of the mess that your life might be in at the moment.  I am keenly aware of - and grateful for -friends in my life who have listened to His calling, and have in one tangible way or another, offered to help in ways that only GOD could have known we needed!  I am very much tuned in to the fact that MANY people have been praying for us, and that those payers HAVE made a difference, from the very beginning, before the storm even hit, with things being lined up just right for this or that thing to happen just the way it did.  For the storm it's self to have downgraded to an EF 3, according to reports (though there are those who differ with that opinion, particularly Nan and Doug, the neighbors across the street!) and not to have sucked the house right off of it's foundation, as it well could have done had it been an EF 5 when it hit us.  Right down to today, and encouraging words arriving in my text message box just when I needed them, and friends arriving to finish building the chicken coop that our poor girls (as the chickens are affectionately called) so desperately need.  We just so clearly see God here with us in the midst of all of this.  I sincerely hope that we never lose that complete trust that we have gained through this.

I do wonder, though, what about people who DON'T feel that?  What about people who lost a loved one?  What about people who just add this to the list in their mind, of reason why they can't trust God.  How do we reach out to them?  Is there some way to help them FEEL the essence of God's LOVE for them?

And what about this old world?  How much longer can we go on?  And what makes us think that, now, just because we are facing these crazy weather events, that we are any closer to some sort of end to the world of pain than any other person in any other place, such as Africa, where they have faced DECADES of weather 'issues' AND political upheaval TOO, on top of that?  Sure I want Christ to come and take us all away, but really, what makes us think that a few storms and/or earthquakes means that it is happening any sooner than it was before?  And even if it does, somehow, mean that, what does it change in what I do? 

Really, it keeps coming back to relationships.  To knowing the people around you and loving them.  To helping them in any way you can.  To taking the opportunity to listen to someone talk about how their day is going, or what struggles they are facing today.  To being open to how the Spirit leads you to reach out to those around you that are hurting or searching or even those who are NOT hurting or searching, and just simply getting to know them better.  God is a god of RELATIONSHIPS.  So much so that He could not be just one being, He had to be THREE beings, in order to have relationship, even within the God-head it's self.  He created us to be connected!  Connected to Himself and connected to other human beings.  If we are not pursuing this connection with those around us, we are missing out on tremendous blessings He has for us, and we are holding that blessing back from those whom we might otherwise be able to bless. 

Sorry, stepping off the soap-box now.  But it's a blog - so it's a log of my thoughts, and that is what I'm thinking about today. 

Emergency kits

10 people have replied to my survey - 2 of you have emergency kits prepared.  Hmmmmmm....

Here is a list of suggested items -
*Water bottles, two or three of them should be enough, four or five if you have room.
*Food for 72 hours.  Remember, your appetite might be 'off' - I ate VERY little in the first 72 hours after the storm.  You are typically running on adrenaline, so don't over-pack on the food front.  Simple-to-digest, high-energy stuff is a good place to put your focus.
*A change of clothing, including socks, underwear, etc. If you live in cold-weather climate, remember needs for that during that time of the year.
*any meds/toiletries that you can't live without (stores were closed, due to power outage, so people were not able to fill prescriptions)(I recommend rotating these, every time you fill your scrip, put the new one in here, and take the one out that has been in there for a month and use it.  - if your med has to be refrigerated I'm not sure what you would do)
*a change of shoes if you can fit it in. (particularly important if you run a 'shoe-less household' and people are likely to be caught without their shoes on)(several of our kids, and the neighbor's boys too, were shoeless.  There was glass EVERYWHERE! Those of us with shoes had to go dig through the rubble and try to find shoes for those that didn't have them.  One of our son's walked out in his church shoes and no socks!)
*cash ($40-50 should be enough, though more wouldn't hurt)
*copies of important documents, such as driver's license, marriage license, lease papers, mortgage papers, birth certificates (be sure that at least one verifies your address for you).  Many people were unable to get assistance from FEMA until they could prove that they were from the affected areas, and/or prove that they were who they said they were.  Store these inside of a zip-lock bag. 
*a head-lamp/batteries - hand's free is a VERY good thing.  Particularly if you will be dealing with children in your 'escape'.  (and remember to rotate the batteries out now and then)

I recommend that you pack it all into some sort of a small back-pack.  Again with the hands free thing.  We were dragging wheeled suitcases behind us as we walked over a mile to where the cars were.  We had to walk through water for 150-200 feet, holding tight to hands of kids and CARRYING the suitcases at that point.

Anyway, that is my suggestion.  Spoken from experience.  It would probably be a good idea to check sights like the Red Cross, etc and see if they have more comprehensive lists.

stomach knots

We're in southern Mississippi this evening (redundant, I know) for campmeeting and the Pathfinder Fair.  The drive down here was interesting.  We drove across at least five different tornado paths.  I wonder when I will stop getting a knot in my stomach every time we view destruction like that.  The other odd thing is that the trees are starting to be the thing that effects me almost more than anything else.  Particularly in the old neighborhood. 

The other night I went on googlemaps to look at what a certain particular house looked like before the storm.  It was on the road, just off our our road, and it's now a pile of rubble, and I simply could not remember what it looked like before.  So I went on googlemaps to look it up.  While I was there, I was reminded of an empty lot in our neighborhood that was completely forested before, now it is barren. So sad.

When I heard that one of the first things the homeowner's wife said was 'oh, MAN, all those trees!' I was a bit frustrated with her - HELLO - what about the HOUSE?  What about the PEOPLE??  But I'm starting to understand.  The houses can be re-built.  (the people are another matter - but thankfully - for us - there was no immediate loss in that area) but the landscape will be permanently changed because of all the trees that are lost.  It is very difficult to see. 

Lon and I drove up to the house on Friday afternoon to recover Tommy's pine-wood derby car, to bring to the fair, and we both agreed that we are glad that we don't have to think about re-building there, and driving through all of that every day.  We only live about a mile from that path in the new neighborhood, but we dont' have to drive through it to get anywhere.  For that I am very grateful.

Sunday/Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday immediately after the storm

The first Sunday after the storm was spent mostly at the 'old house'.  I thought, at first, that I wouldn't be able to go, and even if I did, what good would I be, laid up as I was?  But Sarah wisely pointed out that there would be lots of questions that only I could answer, so we made a plan to set me up in a particular red chair (sorry Ramona, I'm a tad attached to your chair now too!  We might have to arm wrestle for it) and I was 'command central' (several people commented how nice it was to ALWAYS know where to find me!!).  Besides answering many questions, and directing traffic, I also took the names of every person who walked in the door to help.  First thing in the morning, there were friends of neighbors who showed up earlier than the particular neighbor whom they came to help, and simply asked if we needed any help to keep them busy until the neighbors got there.  Several were members of Central SDA church, the congregation that our church planted from, and several were general volunteers that just asked if they could help.  In all there were 37 people, besides the five of us, that were there to help that day.  We got ALOT out that day.  It was amazing.  A gal from church, who used to be a professional packer, packed my kitchen.  At that point we were thinking that we might all go up to Nashville for a couple of months, until I got back on my feet.  So she packed stuff we would need for that, separate from other stuff,  which she marked 'storage'.  At one point, a gal from Central, who just happens to be a teacher, came and asked me if she could PLEASE sort through the school room.  It just broke her heart to see all those good educational materials go to waste.  She (and her husband) salvaged way more than I probably would have ever tried, especially with my foot broken now.  But really, even before I broke my foot, I had looked in there (see photos) and felt that there was just too much mess to even want to sort through it.  God sent her, with a different perspective, to save as much as we could!  Thanks Wanda!
At one point in the day, two photographers showed up and gave us business cards from facebook.  They said they just wanted some portrait shots of families in front of their homes.  Lon was on a run to the storage unit, so I asked them to come back in a half an hour or so.  They went and shot some neighbors and then came back, and we posed in front of the house for some short panned video shots.  The link to the piece, that their work was a part of, is just below this in the blog.  I didn't find it until just tonight, and some of my facebook friends were concerned that it might have been a spoof or something, but I'm glad that it was not, and I'm glad we took part in such a beautiful piece!  Please share it in any way you can find to share it.  It would even work as a 'promotion of aid' for a church service, I think!
Sunday night we finally got to go sit with the neighbors at the Showalter's cul-d-sac bar-b-cue.  That was a very nice visit.  They all offered, that once the power came back on, we were to bring them all the laundry they had been watching us 'dry' on Michael and Darlene's lawn, and they would wash, dry and fold it!!  WOW!!  We also found out that the little dog that we had rescued was soon to be re-united with her 'Mommy' who had been hospitalized, but would soon be going home.  (unfortunately her 'Daddy' had perished of a heart attack during the storm)  And, the neighbors also informed us that one of the other neighbors, at the entrance to the cul-d-sac had heard us coming in at one in the morning from the ER, and he had come out with his shot gun to see to it that no one was doing any looting of our stuff that was spread out on Showalter's lawn!!!  Good thing he didn't practice 'shoot first and ask questions later'!!!
Oh, and the power came back on, that night, at about 11, just as we were turning the generator off, and turning lights off for the night, suddenly, all the lights came back on!!
Monday, God kind of gave us a second Sabbath.  I had my orthopedic appointment, (at which I found out HAPPILY, that surgery will not likely be needed - a follow up x-ray in two weeks would confirm that, hopefully - that x-ray will take place tomorrow)  and Lon had a few errands to run.  But he also just spent time playing with the kids.  The little kids had been with their proxy grandparents, April and Winton Forde, since Friday afternoon.  So we were just glad to have everyone back in one place again.  We didn't even go up to the house at all on Monday.  Some phone calls were made and other things tended to, but no salvage done.  It was almost like another Sabbath.  It provided another emotional break from the overwhelming sights of destruction at the neighborhood.
Also, Monday evening, at around 10, someone texted me "Call me, I have your cat"  we had seen Hobbs on Thursday and Friday, but had not seen him Sabbath or Sunday when we were up there.  Beverly was still missing two of her cats, so had gotten special permission to stay up there after the dusk cerfew and look for them.  She found ONE of her cats, and she found Hobbs.  Poor guy was pretty traumatized.  And, unfortunately, we had to put him in a cat carrier, and keep him there because we knew we would never catch him again if we let him out.  The kids rigged a harness for him in the morning, so he could at least come out a few times a day to 'do his duty'.  Maggie was pretty happy to see him again, and even spent the night in the carrier with him the first night!! (it was a SMALL carrier, I'm surprised they both fit!!)
Tuesday morning we got a call from James Antoine, a realtor from our church.  He said God had laid it on his heart to help us find a home, and do it NOW, not to wait.  That was not what we had in mind for the day, but it was looking like rain was on the way, so we kind of said, "OK, whatever you say" - he pulled up the FEMA site on his I-pad and insisted that we get registered with them, and he found us several listings to go check out.  At about 10, Lon and I headed out to the first one we wanted to see.  It was quite a ways north of town.  We were not excited about the distance, but the house would have worked pretty well.  Then James said "I know of a house that is a bit above the amount you wanted to pay, but can we just go look at it, I really think you are going to LOVE it"  It had been for sale for several months, and the owner (a relative of one of James's associates) had just recently decided to lease it.   We pretty much fell in LOVE with it, at first sight. Wrap-around porches do that to me!!  And it has a MUCH bigger kitchen, and an actual MUD room, and a screened in back porch off of the master bedroom with a porch swing, and the fifth bedroom is actually a 'mother-in-law quarters' above the garage, complete with it's own little kitchen!  (which Annie and Sarah quickly laid claim on!)  We signed the lease that afternoon at 2:00 and made plans to meet the homeowner there the next evening at 5:00.
We spent Wednesday getting the last stuff out of the house (if I remember right, Lon worked that day, too! - it was just Annie and I at the house)  At one point I was at the house waiting for a couple of guys from church to show up with a truck or two to haul the last load or two to storage.  A neighbor called, she was one of the family of 8 that had held up in our basement when the 5th storm went over.  It was at that point, a full week after the storms, that I learned that the 5th storm DID have a tornado in it.  So we were actually hit by TWO tornadoes that day.  I guess I was so busy getting her 92 year old granny who had just had a hip replacement into the basement that I didn't even realize it was another tornado!  Anyway, she wanted to help me any way she could.  She said I was an angel from heaven!  She asked what she could do for me, did I need people to help with carrying things out?  I told her, as a matter of fact, yes I did.  She said "I'm sending you a crew right NOW!"  About 10 minutes later a couple of pick-up-trucks pulled up with about 20 kids in their late teens and early 20's.  They pulled into her driveway, so I assumed they were the crew she had sent.   I went over and asked them, and they said they were just looking for somewhere to help.  They had been at another sight, helping cut up and remove a tree, but there were about 40 people there, and it was about an 8 person job,  so they just took off, looking for another way to help.  They proceeded to pour their youthful energy into my house - they pulled out all the boxes that Annie and I had packed throughout the afternoon, and stacked them all in the driveway.  They loaded up one of the pick-up trucks with stuff, and I went with them to drop it off at the storage unit.  Some church members showed up just as I was leaving, so Annie stayed at the house with them.  When  I got back Lorainne (the neighbor who calls me an angel) was there with HER help, and he was loading a HUGE, low, flatbed trailer with the rest of the stuff.  He took two loads to the stoage unit and MAN could HE PACK!!  He got more stuff into the 10x10 unit than we had gotten into the 20x20 we had filled on Thursday/Friday!!  I kept telling Lorainne that SHE was an angel!!  She would only say "That would be YOU" - I think we are going to have to just keep arguing about that, for a very long time!!
In the end, the last load that left the old house, went straight to the new house.  : )   We spent the night there, one week after the storm, with just the stuff we had had at Showalters, but still, we were in our new place, only 7 nights after the storm.  That HAD to be a miracle.  And poor, traumatized Hobbs got out of the cat carrier after only 48 hours there!
When Annie and I went to the house that day, we had stopped at the post office to pick up the held mail.  There was a letter in there, from my aunt Judy, in Kansas.  She had mailed it on the 27th.  It had some seeds in it, that she was sharing with me, that had come from plants that had been in my gramma's garden.  But one line in her letter stood out to me, it said, "I hope everything is well at hour house today"  WOW!!!  I called her, and asked her about what time of day she had written that.   She thought it was around 10 in the morning.  So not storm time, but still!!!  She told us about a time, in the late 60's or early 70's, when she and my uncle went through a tornado, there in Kansas.  They had not been able to find temporary housing, because there were SO MANY displaced people, there was just not enough secondary housing available for everyone. Even though it was just the TWO of them!  So they ended up having to just stay in their badly damaged home.   For us to find a place that has enough room for us all, will allow pets, EVEN CHICKENS!! and at a lower rent!!  It's just so VERY clear that God's hand is in this.

Well, I need to try to get SOME sleep.  Last time I drink sweet tea from Chick-fil-A at 7:00 in the evening - that is for SURE!!!!

This is MOVING - and we are in it!! Along with several of our neighbors!

Here is the link to the first Oregoninan article

Here is a link to the second Oregonian article

This was shot by the homeowners sons, from the roof of our house

some video shot by a stranger, of our neighborhood

Some pictures - if you click on them you get a larger view, but have to use your 'back' button to get back to the blog.

The debris field, aka empty lot, between our house and the one to the east of us (in right-hand background - second story is missing.)

Neighbors two houses to the East - They had FORTUNATELY just left, about half an hour before the storm. Plan was to leave at 4:30, after a short nap - but the dad couldn't sleep, so they left early!! PTL!!!

The neighbors still had a sense of humor, when they found some old signs amid the rubble of their garage. That is what remains of their home, in the background. Thank HEAVEN the mom and kids were with us in our basement!!

That 2x6 sticking out of the front of the house, goes in through the wall, through a bookshelf, through Sarah's headboard and 18 inches into the end of her mattress.

This shot is taken from the location that the trailer that lodged in our garage was parked before the storm, so you can see how far it flew.  It clipped their house (see missing bricks on corner of house), left two fairly large creators in their yard, and took flight, only to be stopped by our garage.  You can see it, there in the center of the picture, mangled from it's encounter with our house, with our garage just to the left of it.

The gaping hole left, once Jeff removed his trailer from our house. I did have a talk with him about his parking skills!!

The truck, in the 'garage'

Brick, embedded in the BACK wall of the garage - a full 20-25 feet from the wall that it came from!

Our 'second home', now totalled, and helping to pay for a new vehicle, free and clear!! We'll miss it, but we have lots of favorite memories to cherish!! AND NO MORE PAYMENTS TO MAKE!!! (it had been laying on it's side, this was just after it got set up on it's wheels again)

a shot of the inside of the trailer

The window frame, lodged in the deck railing, came from the window on the farthest right opening in the house, there in the background, to the right just a bit. It flew out, frame and all, lodged in the railing of the deck, and one of the panes of glass is still intact!! It is about 30 feet from it's previous location.

What is left of our beloved Chicken coop. Never did get any pictures of it. : (

the infamous cake left on the kitchen deck. The deck previously held all the typical things a kitchen deck holds, a fruit bowl, a pencil can, the chore list, yesterday's mail, Emma's birthday cake, etc. ALL WIPED CLEAN. Except the cake!

Mater Bedroom - we found items from three different households (other than our own) in this room! Items that were in this room were found 60-65 feet away, in the backyard.

glass shard (approx 3 inches on longest side) embedded in master bedroom wall. And plant matter splattered on wall. CRAZY!  Who knows HOW long it will be before we are no longer fishing this plant matter and little shards of glass out of our lives!

This is the master bathroom.  In the corner, there, next to the far sink, is plant matter to the depth of 4-6 inches.  And to think I was feeling frustrated that I had not had the time to clean my bathroom in several days.  Notice, also, the large 'shard' of someone's siding, embedded in the wall above the towel bar.  Close-up follows.

the school room - notice fridge in the doorway - it WAS 8 feet away from there. The door leaning on it is the door to the downstairs, which used to be just through that door way and then to the immediate right.  The fridge nearly blocked our exit from the basement!!

The play room (above the garage)

Boys room - notice mud splattered on wall - this is a second floor room!

all our clothes laid out on the Showalter's lawn to dry! (well, actually this was a several-day project, so this is probably about a third of them, there ARE 8 of us, after all!)   What patient, loving people they are!!

Underwater to Free and Clear!!!

Just a quick note to share our exciting news. We finally heard back on the trailer and it's assigned value. We were concerned that it would come in at less than what we owe and we would still end up paying another couple thousand to retire that debt (we didn't have gap insurance in it). Turns out we had REPLACEMENT VALUE insurance on the RV!!!! That means we will receive about $7000 MORE than what we own on the trailer and be able to pay it off and have money left over to purchase a replacement vehicle with cash (not an RV, a mini Van for me to drive, instead of the truck) and not have payments on it!!

We received a GENEROUS gift at church last week, and it enabled us to put some of our own money with it and purchase a 20 year old Volvo for Lon last Sunday evening, so he has something to drive back and forth to Nashville in every week.

So, God has turned two rather large, 'underwater' debts into potentially two owned-free-and-clear vehicles and no payments to make any more!! Insurance will be MUCH lower too. What an AWESOME God we serve!!!

Today is 'rest the leg - make phone calls day'. First the body shop called, and told me that they only found another $200 of damage under the hood and above the head-liner. BUMMER. So I called Progressive to see if we could get the value adjusted, because I felt it was kind of high. The first thing they said was that their records showed that it WAS totaled, and we needed to tear up the check we had been given and proceed with the 'total loss' department. So we did that, YIPPEE!! It's been alot of phone tag and there will be some extensive document gathering that needs to take place but it's all do-able. The trailer will be a total loss too, the problem they are having on it is that there are so few of them out there, on the market, that they are finding it difficult to assess the value that they need to reimburse us for. Maybe, since they are so rare, we will come out ahead!! Pray that it's a couple thousand more than what we owe - wouldn't THAT be cool!!??

Other than that, life clicks along. The kids are hitting some bumps. Mayahna spent a day and a half peeing her pants three and four times a day. But we were just very matter-of-fact with her and let her deal with it, (since I really CAN'T help her that much, anyway) and it got old to her pretty fast too. She is more cuddly, though, so that is nice. I'm HOPING that this event will provide her with some new sense of trust toward us, since she experienced that we did manage to keep her safe in a severe situation.

Tommy seems to have weathered things pretty well, even though he was always the one who was SO scared on Tornado Watch days before. Lon asked him at one point, how the real-life event compared to what he had imagined, and he said the real life one was WAY worse. But he doesn't SEEM to be too effected by it. So far.

Ricky has reverted to some previously extinguished behaviors. We are in the process of getting his Autism diagnosed, so he is working with counselors already who will help him process this too, I'm sure!

Emma has been hit pretty hard. She's pretty fragile. She lost the most personal property and she also lost a pet, her favorite chicken was the one that died. She is struggling. I'm in touch with organizations that can help her. Everything is a process and takes time to get established. Pray for her.

Sarah and Annie seem to be ok - they are a little distracted, and easily tired. There is ALOT of work to do, here at the house, now that we have everything here. All that is unpacked must typically be cleaned, etc. and then sorted to the appropriate rooms and then we gotta figure out how to organize it all, once it gets there. And. of course, most of it was not packed in any sort of an organized fashion. (with the exception of the kitchen, thankfully - thank you Lois!!) We did get the clothes all washed and sorted and put away (with some help from the Pathfinders) so that was a BIG hurdle to get over, and put behind us.

Lon is a little out of touch with the emotions that those of us who were IN the house for the tornado are processing. I've spoken with a few other moms who were home with their kids and found this reaction to be pretty typical. If you were not there, you just can't even begin to wrap your mind around what we saw/hear/felt/smelled... But he and I have had a pretty frank discussion about what he NEEDS to provide for us, and what we DON'T need, and I think things will be better from here on out, hopefully. (another matter of prayer).

I do pretty good most days. Yesterday was a difficult day. My energy level is low, but I'm guessing a fair bit of that is because of the crutches taking so much energy to use. But there are times when the emotions just overwhelm me, and other times, when you would THINK I should be moved to tears (some people have given us AMAZING gifts) that I don't cry. It's all part of the ride. I'll probably try to get a chance to do some 'processing' with a professional at some point too.

It has been pretty helpful to write here, and process and decompress as I write. Several people have suggested that I need to write a book. I don't know about THAT!! Not sure when I would have TIME!!

I did talk to the Home School cover administrator today, finally and was given permission to dismiss school as of April 27. That was good news. I suspected that would be the case, but wanted to hear it for sure. Apparently our cover has had MULTIPLE families impacted by this series of storms (there was a smaller outbreak on April 15th, when we were up in Michigan - between the two dates, we had more tornadoes touch down than are typically recorded in an entire year).

I guess this might be a good time to address some stats. The twister that hit us was the longest in recorded history, at 132 miles long (previous was 130 miles) it was as wide as 1.25 miles wide in places, but not that wide when it hit us. In fact, Lon was looking at the NOAA sight with Michael and they said that NOAA ranked it as an EF3 as it went through our neighborhood (Doug and Nan take a bit of exception to that, understandably!) it was EF5 for most of it's path, but fortunately alot of it's path was agricultural land, so not as much of a population impact as the one(s?) that hit in Tuscaloosa. There were apparently 8 deaths in Madison County. We know of at least three of those that were within a mile of our house. We had been told of another 4 that were just under 2 miles away, but have not seen those names listed in the official death list. There were a total of at LEAST 28 twisters that touched down in Alabama alone that day, many more in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Georgia, and even a few states further away, I believe. They are having a hard time documenting some of the smaller ones because so much of the damage has been cleaned up by the time they arrive to survey, because they are so backlogged trying to get everything documented. So the number is likely to go up. At one point there were over 300 people missing, mostly in Tuscaloosa, and most of them have been found, alive, having left the scene either immediately before or after the twister came through. The missing number is somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 now, I believe. Several of those are children. There is a story of a small baby that was found, alive, 40 miles from where it had been. And people's body's found 60 and 80 miles from where they should have been. These were some POWERFUL storms. We found stuff in our house from four different neighbor's houses, plus several items we don't know WHERE they came from. I'm sure there is stuff from our house all over the entire county. Did I mention before, the birthday cake? Emma's birthday was the day before the storm and there was a small plate with two slices of left over birthday cake on it, sitting on the kitchen deck - a typical kitchen deck with a fruit bowl, pencil can, yesterday's mail, etc. All of the deck was WIPED CLEAN, except the cake still sat there!! Also an antique creamer that my aunt gave me that belonged to my Gramma Hanna was laying - on the TILE floor - unharmed, having been, previously, on a shelf 6 feet off of the floor!

Well, I should stop for now. I'm planning to finish the thankfulness list (though it keeps getting added to on a regular basis!) and the chronological stuff as soon as I can. All the phone calling has slowed me up a bit and I have a TON of thank-you cards to write too!!

I guess that is all I have for now. I need to get going on the SBA loan application, so that we can get approval and buy me a new car before the rental has to be returned on Monday at 6:00. So guess I should close this for now and get going on that.

We really do appreciate all the prayers and other support that people have sent our way. We can feel your prayers!!! Please keep them coming!! God has faithfully sent other support exactly when we need it. (I'm sure all the prayers have had a great deal to do with that!!)
We are trusting Him to continue to do that!!

First of all, let me just say, that while Lon and I are both counting our blessings and feeling God here with us, in this, Emma is sort of not. She did lose one of her pets, her favorite chicken, and her room was most impacted and she was unable to locate some of her treasured items, in particular a toy she had saved from her bird that died not long before we moved out here. Please keep her in your prayers. She is struggling, and pray that I will know how to reach out to her in a meaningful way, that will help her see beyond her pain.

So, tonight at worship, our reading ended with the question: How has your family seen God's hand in your lives in the last few weeks. HA! Where do we start? Here is the list we came up with:

We're alive

the house was still standing

we were able to salvage a lot of our stuff

no one was hurt

Phil K's truck broke down so he had his mom's van

Chris Canatella was in the rescue workers team

our friends/neighbors are still alive

homeowner put a basement in the house, and built the house extra strong

we have a new house so quickly

that Phil S. was at the Fret Shop, not at home

That it didn't hit Jesse's house

That Baylee's house was ok

that the Showalters took us in

that their neighbor's did our laundry

that their neighbor's took care of Maggie Lou

that the weather was dry after the storm, so we could dry our clothes on their lawn

that the electricity came back soon

that April could take the little ones for three days

That I landed on a mattress when I fell and broke my leg

that flooding in the basement was minimal

that my ankle was a clean break, no need for a pin

That a tree fell on the church roof so Daddy was at the church not at work (three times as far away, and with no transportation!)

That the truck is drivable – no glass is broken

God is using this to help get us out of debt

That so many people are helping us and helped us move

That most of the chickens survived

Emma's harp was not destroyed

Mrs. Newman is helping get the harp fixed

Only had 13 days of school left so could just cancel the rest of the year

I guess I should fill y'all in on the whole broken leg thing. Since that is where I left off on the chronological part, and it also plays in to the whole 'counting your blessings' thing too.

Saturday evening, after taking the day to count our blessings and relax, we were looking forward to an evening fellowship with all the neighbors at Showalter's cul-d-sac. But that was pre-empted by my trip to the ER. Now, one thing I didn't tell in the previous post was that sometime on Wednesday I had picked up a nasty scratch on my heal, and it was festering a bit. Darlene had told me I probably ought to get a tetanus shot. I was being kind of stubborn, not wanting to bother them in the ER for a little scrape, and figuring, maybe once the stuff was out of the house and in storage we could tend to it then.

Apparently, God had other plans. So he arranged for me to be taking a trip to the ER anyway~~ BUT He also arranged for it to have the LEAST impact possible. I landed on the mattress that was in the garage because someone had to sleep out there with Maggie each night so she would not keep us all up with her barking. It's a clean break, and it does not need a pin or a plate (though there is still one more hurdle on that front on Tuesday - as long at Tuesday's pictures look good) (so pray for that - that Tuesday we STILL hear the 'no surgery' verdict!) I'm almost half way through the 6 weeks of no weight baring already! It's my left foot, so I can still drive. It appears that there is no ligament or tendon damage. There is a PT in our church, just waiting to get started with me, and help me heal quickly. I'm able to control the pain with Advil and avoid the Codine, which does odd things to me. Anyway, I got my tetanus shot, and I really think a trade of a simple broken leg, instead of Tetanus is a pretty good trade, I'll take the broken leg, over tetanus any day. Tetanus is fatal!

Wow - I'm tired again already - blogging must make me sleepy. Bummer. I had so much more I wanted to write tonight.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day - not sure I'll get much chance to write more tomorrow or not. Lots of laundry to do, some fellows coming to build us a new chicken coop, a recliner to pick up (a hotel is going out of business, and someone posted on my Craig's list posting that I had put up, asking to buy one from someone for cheap - "DO NOT buy a recliner, I have several you can HAVE! Our hotel has recently gone out of business!") so we get that at 7 in the morning. Then Lon has men's group for two hours, and then PROJECTS here at the house. Chicken coop, bed platforms, etc, etc, etc. Some people are coming to help, but still, LOTS to do! And everything that gets unpacked, also has to be cleaned!! I wanted to use my hair dryer today, and while I DID know where it was (a miracle) it had not cleaned it yet - took Lon 5 minutes.

Still have not forgotten to try and get pictures posted, too.

Many have requested that I post our address. I want ya'll to know, I'm doing this only because so many have asked for it. It is in NO way any kind of a hint that anyone should be sending us anything. Let the spirit lead you, and if you don't feel him tapping you on the shoulder, do NOT worry about it - There are MANY in MUCH worse need than we are!! If you want to help, you can donate to ADRA or the Red Cross. But, because so many have asked, here it is:

14515 Hunter Rd
Harvest, AL 35749

I'm going to take a small break from the Chronological part of this blog and just start working on gathering a list of the many many ways that we have seen God walking in this storm with us.

I'm not sure where to start, and I pray that God will help bring things to mind, so that I can share them, but my deepest prayer is that you, also, will feel God to be alive and at work in your life in the way that we have felt it over the last two weeks.

I guess the first one I can think of right off was part of the rescue. When Lon, Phil and Bill got to the point where they could not drive any closer to the house, due to the flood waters over the road. They spoke with the officer that was there, and were told they could not go in past that point. They said they were on a mission to rescue a family that was still in there. The officer directed them toward a rescue vehicle and suggested they talk to them, but didn't seem to hold out hope as the efforts of most of the rescuers was being focused on people who were injured. They walked over to the vehicle that was there, and Bill tapped on the window, and who should turn to face them but Chris Canatella, from church!! He and his team helped Lon get in to us.

Also the miracle, mentioned in the first blog, of Phil, and his truck being broken down - and him having his mother's mini van. What a relief, not to have to ride in the back of a pick-up-truck. Most of us were drenched to the bone, and that would have been COLD. (though Tommy might have thought it nothing but a great adventure!) But it was very nice to be able to be inside a warm car!

Even the fact that Bill had picked Lon up from work, to go do the tree work at the church. If he had not done that Lon would have been three times further away and without any transportation.

As we were driving out, Lon radioed to me, and asked whether we would be better going to the shelter that had been set up, or going to the Showalter's place. We debated - it seeming like an aweful lot for all EIGHT of us to descend on them. But we prayed about it and felt God impressing us to go ahead and go to Mike and Darlene's. It was clearly the right decision for the kids. We have been in the habit of going to Mike and Darlene's place every Tuesday evening for bible study, and being at their house helped the kids get to a better place emotionally MUCH more quickly than I think could have happened had we been in a shelter. What a blessing to have people in your life who will take in your large family like that and just take it in stride and make it work.

Next day, gas was a bit of an issue. Not supply, so much as the pumps didn't have power, so it was difficult to find a station with a generator, so they could pump. One of the men from church called and wanted to know if there was something he could do - his back was not good, so he couldn't help with lifting, etc. But he as going after gas, would he like us to fill gas cans and bring us some gas? He went to a station out of town, and filled tanks and brought 12 gallons of gas to us! Thank you Larry!! Just the TIME savings alone was HUGE. The lines at the stations that did have gas were 3-4 hours long!

The Walmart story - that I was the ONLY one that was let in and helped there that morning. I was able to get toothbrushes and socks and underwear. I even got one pair of tennis shoes, for Tommy. He had gone into the shelter barefooted and we couldn't find his shoes in the rubble, while we were waiting for Lon to get there, so he wore church shoes, with no socks when we walked out. Other's were turned away, God knew I needed that need met, and saw to it that it was met.

Finding of stuff. When we returned to the house the first time - several of us, myself included had spent some time thinking, on Wed. night, about stuff we had left behind. What items in particular did we hope could be saved? For me it was photo albums (which were secured before we left the house, and tarped) and a recipe box which had belonged to my mother who died when I was young. It was one of the first items I saw when we arrived at the house on Thursday. It felt to me as if God was saying "I'm seeing to the details here..." Of the four of us that went that first morning, each of us found several items on our 'I hope we find...' list.

The one corner of the basement where our Christmas stuff was stored was the last corner to get wet - giving me time, during the sixth storm, when we had several young men from the neighborhood down there with us, to work on getting it all up off the floor and onto a pallet that was in the basement.

One of the biggest, I guess, is that as we have gotten more details about the particular tornado that went through our specific neighborhood, we are finding that it is being called 'one of the biggest baddest twisters in the history of record keeping' - the fact that our house stood is a miracle in and of it's self. This twister was an EF5 for most of it's record-breaking 132 mile-long path, it was as wide as a mile and a quarter in places. When it went though our neighborhood it must have lifted just slightly - it is rated at EF3 at that point and it was only about 80 feet wide. It took out the houses just south of us, and took out a barn just north of us, but left our house standing. The basement that we were in was NOT a storm shelter - had it roared through there at EF5, we likely would have been sucked right out of there, along with the house. We believe that God had His hand over us.

The neighbor who joined us in the shelter had her mother living in the next house to the south of her. Dixie was supposed to have gone to another shelter, somewhere else in the neighborhood, but got there and found the door locked - she went back home and whethered things in her own home, just next to Nan's LEVELED house. Her house also stood. I told Nan, that was WHY it had stood, because her mom was in it, God put his hand over it. So, North to south, we had a leveled barn, a standing house, a leveled house, a standing house, and south of Dixie, several more badly damaged houses. The standing houses were the ones where people were.

When we were in the midst of the 'walking out' we had to cross 150-200 feet of flowing water, about 1-2 feet deep. It was very disorienting, as it also flowed over an intersection. I nearly stepped off the road and headed up what I thought was the other road, and I believe an angel, directed me to look to the right, and SEE that where I was headed was NOT a road. Three more steps and I would have been washed away with the rushing flood waters.

Thursday morning, when we went back to the house to start recovery, one of the first things we checked was the chickens. They had been cloistered in a basement closet the night before, by Emma, as we waited for Lon to get in to us. I had warned Emma that they might not survive the night. They were pretty wet, bedraggled, and traumatized. They had been in the yard when the storm hit. I'm not sure HOW they survived. They must have run under the back deck. The one we found dead was just at the edge of the deck, so that is what makes me think that they weathered things there. Anyway, when we went back, Thursday morning to check on them, they had laid three eggs!! Chickens to not usually lay when they are stressed! It was like a little gift of normalcy. Darlene made us some KILLER omlets with the eggs we gathered over the next few days.

The pathfinder van is usually a somewhat temperamental vehicle and when Michael went to get it for us, he was not entirely sure he would be able to start it. It started right up! Not even a hesitation.

Neighbors at Showalter's had a gas hot water heater and were willing to share warm showers with everyone in the neighborhood.

The first few days after the storm were warm and nice weather, so we could lay out all our wet stuff and let it dry in the sun. And the second day did not even have a dew fall!! There was a light breeze too, that helped things dry out faster.

Friday morning, as I was leaving the Showalter house, Michael was listening to the radio, trying to find where we could get ice. He said he would be along to help as soon as he figured that out, for Darlene. My first stop was at a grocery store to see if I could get boxes. They were using all their old boxes to box up all their lost produce, and had none to share. BUT - they DID have ice. So I bought 3 bags - well, I tried to buy three bags, the checker wouldn't let me pay - and drove them back to Darlene.

People kept bringing us food! Alot of people at church have extended family in Nashville, or Chattanooga, etc. And when the power stayed out for thee days and they were saying it could be as long as two weeks, people started heading out of town. Often they would drop food by at Showalter's place on their way out of town. We ended up with SO much food, we were NEVER hungry!

We had Maggie with us at Showalter's place. But their daughter has pretty serious asthma and so Maggie could not be in the house. She hung out in the yard with us during the day, and slept in the garage. But she would bark and bark and bark. So we ended up having someone sleep out in the garage with her, so that she would be quiet. When I fell, and broke my leg, I landed on the mattress that we had out there, for someone to sleep on when they slept out with Maggie - otherwise I might have hurt more than just my leg!

I needed a tetanus shot. I had cut my foot on something, who KNOWS what, on Wednesday night, and I was being stubborn. I didn't want to bother them in the ER, for a little cut, and I didn't want to take time from the recovery to go down there. Sarah rode down with us, to the ER Saturday evening, and pointed out on the way down, that perhaps this was God's way of making sure I got my tetanus shot - that in one of the books she is reading right now, it says that sometimes if we don't listen when God whispers (Darlene telling me to get a tetanus shot!) He raises His voice a bit! In reality - my break is as little impact as possible. It's a clean break that is well lined up for healing so far, and doesn't need a pin. It is my left foot, so I can still drive. I've needed very little pain medication, and even that, it has been mostly Advil. No tendons appeared to be involved, so healing should be relatively quick. Personally, I'll take a broken leg over Tetanus any day - tetanus is fatal.

Well, I must take a break for now. This is only the beginning. The tornado-shelter salesman is due at the door any minute. May you take time, today, to see God's hand in your life, and feel the love and blessings He has for you today!!

Sabbath

With rain predicted for Sunday or Monday there was a bit of debate about whether to 'let' some of the church members work on recovery on Sabbath afternoon as several had suggested they would like to do. But honestly, by the time Friday afternoon rolled around, we were so WIPED OUT, that the idea of taking a break sounded pretty good. So we made the decision not to go back to the house on Sabbath at all, except maybe in the late afternoon, to snap pictures and poke around outside and talk with neighbors. We got up on Sabbath, Darlene worked her magic with some eggs and sausages, etc for breakfast and we all went over to the church for a short, informal praise service there. It was wonderful to be together with our church family. It was a beautiful time together. People shared things they had learned from the storm, many were touched by small things, like how the stars are so much brighter when the power is out in the entire northern half of the state! We got a lot of hugs from people who were just glad we were all alive and well. We sang some hymns. I have a new favorite hymn – Great is Thy Faithfulness – I particularly like the line “Morning by morning, new mercies I see” - as we have walked through this event in our lives we have felt SO strongly that God is here with us, in this, walking with us, and smoothing our path, bringing people here to help, and blessing us with His love through the people around us who have showed us SO much love, we were already, even on Thursday and Friday, feeling that God was throwing silver lining after silver lining onto this cloud, to the point of the cloud nearly disappearing completely.

Sabbath, after church we returned to Showalter's place and had a simple lunch and rested for a bit in the afternoon. Several neighbors let us know that our house was in the Huntsville Times, TWICE! I was laying there, trying to rest, thinking about how best to communicate to those on the west coast, our story and our desire to encourage people to prepare disaster kits. I believe God planted in my mind, the idea to phone up the Oregonian, and offer to relate our story to them, if they were interested, so that they would have an 'Oregon slant' on the Alabama storm story. So after a short afternoon nap, I did just that. They took my number and said someone would be getting back to me. About 20 minutes later I noticed that my phone had rung without me hearing it and looked to see who had called – it was a 503 number, and I called it back to see if it was them, wanting to talk. The fellow who answered said it was not him, and there was only one other person in the newsroom, and was not likely her – he asked what was going on, and I started to relate the story. After we had spoken for just a few minutes he said “well, you don't SOUND like someone who has been through a bad storm”. I told him that it was our Sabbath, and the fact that we had rested, worshiped and relaxed, counted our blessings and generally took a break from the chaos of our lives had greatly restored my spirit. I told him that if he had spoken to me a day earier, I would have sounded MUCH different. I started relating some of the events of Wednesday and Thursday and he listened to that for a bit and then said “Woah, wait, let's start again from the begininng - I need to take some notes!! He wrote a WONDERFUL article that focused not only on the need for people to have disaster kits prepared but, also on how our faith is carrying us through. I'll link it here, if I can figure out how to do that.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/ex-portland_couple_survives_al.html

I had been on the phone for over an hour by the time we got done and it was getting close to time to get going if we were going to have enough time to see/do anything at the house, as there was still a dusk-to-dawn cerfew in effect. We all got in the Pathfinder van (our transportation, since the truck was still stuck in the garage, under the imbedded trailer.) and drove up there. Darlene had not been up there yet, and it was interesting to see things through her eyes. The approach to the house from one particular direction is rather stark, allowing for a view right up the tornado's path and a view of our house from a point it was never before visible. We approached from that direction, and as we came up that road, Darlene said “where ARE we?” It is THAT difficult to even recognize where you are!

When we drove up to the house, it was evident that the neighbors had been working and had removed their trailer from the side of the garage already! That would simplify the work that needed to be done to get the truck out on Sunday!!

We pretty much stayed outside for the most part, poking around in the yard. Some army reserve guys with heavy equipment came and set the neighbor's delivery truck back on it's feet. It had flown about 150 feet in the opposited direction of the other neighbor's utility trailer and was laying on it's side. (some have surmized that if our house had not stopped Jeff's trailer, that it and Daryl's truck might have collided!) He had emptied it of all of it's Little Debbie contents on Thursday or Friday and handed it out in the neighborhood to those who wanted it as we were all sifting through our respective rubble. We have some new Little Debbie comfort foods in our family, based on the sharing that he did! When the men with the 'big boy toys' were done righting his truck, they came and asked us if we wanted them to right our travel trailer. We said, ''SURE!” So they cleared the driveway, enough that they were able to get to the trailer and right it. At which point, we realized that it was MUCH more badely damaged than we realized! The side that was down, either got hit, before it tipped, or the scraping that happened as it scooted across the driveway 10-15 feet, did it in, and a gaping hole was now there, instead of the side of the trailer. Also, the slider had been out – I had forgotten about that, so there was extensive damage there too. Inside, the refrigerator was on the side that was up, while it was on it's side, and it had fallen out of it's spot and was laying on the stove area, having smashed it. So, it was pretty clearly evident, right away, that the trailer WILL be a total right off. This is a blessing in disguise, because we were getting tired of making payments on it, but we couldn't bear to sell it, because it had such sentamental value and we were concenred that we might need to live in it at some point. Now, that decision has been made for us! One less payment to make!

We headed back to Showalter's place right around dusk, and I was looking forward to an evening visiting with the neighbors in their cul-de-sac who had all been bar-b-queing out in the front yard of various people's houses. They kept inviting us, and we kept arriving back too wiped out to do anything but grab a quick bite and stumble to bed. One family had offered warm showers – thanks to their gas water heater - which we had availed ourselves of – and I really wanted to just go, and visit, and enjoy some relaxation time with these kind people. Just before I was headed out to get my dinner and head over there, the phone rang and it was a couple who go to Central Church (the church that our church planted from) and moved here from Graham, Washington several years before we moved here – we've kind of connected with them, via pathfinder events – since we are all Northwesterners. They were offering to bring a crew of people and come help on Sunday. They asked what else they could bring and I suggested that if they had any boxes, that would be helpful. They said they did, and they knew other's that did too. They would bring all they could find! I was so excited, I walked out to tell Lon, in the garage – (everyone is cooking in their driveways at this point, as the power is still out) In my excitement, I was not being as careful as I should have been, and I stepped down two of the steps into the garage and missed the third. In the dim light of the one trouble light we had set up in the garage, I just didn't see it. I knew immediately that I had broken my leg. I heard a pop, and so did Lon, who was standing about 15-20 feet away. So much for going to the block party, I was going to the ER instead. I had popped over quickly, right when we got back, to look at the pictures in the paper - and gone back to get my food. But never made it back over there. I was also supposed to try to get online - Michael and Lon thought they could get Michael's internet up and running with the help of our generator - and send an e-mail of some photo's to the Oregonian guy. I phoned him, and left a voicemail, that I was not going to be able to do that, as we were driving to the ER for an x-ray of my leg.

too tired to keep writing now - will pick up there ASAP - Please keep your prayers coming - we can definitely feel them!!!

Some memories about the immediate aftermath

Thursday and Friday are sort of a blur. I do know that neither night did I sleep very well. Wednesday I slept maybe an hour. There was just too much going on in my brain. We got to Showalter's place at about 10 o'clock. The neighbors came out and asked if there was anything they could do for us. We had picked up a little dog that was wandering around as we walked out, and I handed that dog to them, because I had too much to think about as it was. They took her, and have since contacted the owner and discovered that her 'daddy' died of a heart attack during the storm and her 'mommy' is in the hospital recovering from injuries from the storm, so it's a good thing we picked her up. She had an injury to her eye, that seems to have healed up pretty well already. They still have her, but will re-unite her with her owners when they are ready to have her.

We went inside at Showalter's, Wednesday night and attempted to figure out how to fit 12 people into a space usually occupied by 4. (as we drove near by to the place that was the 'official shelter' we debated, briefly, as to whether we should go there, since descending on Showalters with 8 of us seemed like alot to ask - but we decided that being at their house would help the little kids have peace of mind, since it is a place we go every Tuesday night for bible study - they are comfortable there, in familiar surroundings) What gracious hosts we have had!! They have provided us with a HOME in the midst of our chaotic life of the last week.

Lon ended up sleeping on a mattress out in the garage because our dog, Maggie, is with us here, and she barks and barks and barks if she is out there by herself. She can't be in the house because of Mike and Darlene's allergy/asthma situation. So someone had to sleep out there with her. After I got the little ones all bedded down, I went out and laid with him, and we 'decompressed' for a while (do NOT read anything into that - we were TALKING!) just processing, and finding out what had happened when/where, etc in our chaotic day. I ended up going back into the house and sleeping in the guest bed with Emma, the little bit of sleep I did get. I don't remember really, what I was thinking about, just replaying the day I guess. We already knew at that point that we had walked past a house with two dead people in it. And that they were still trying to get four people out of another house, as we left, that they could not get to, because of the flood waters in the drainage ditch. As I lay there thinking about how different the whole thing could have been for us, God kind of gave me a reality check. How much of a different place we would be in if we had had to leave a body behind in the house. I realized that the whole 'We are all alive and together' thing sounds SO trite, but it is SO HUGE. Oh - my - goodness!! I had been saying it from the very beginning - but that was the moment that it sank it's meaning into the very marrow of my bones. And the fact that we climbed up out of the storm shelter and found that Nan and Doug's house was GONE. I am SO grateful that we have developed a relationship with them, and had invited them to ALWAYS come join us in our shelter. It would have been devastating to find that they were lost. The only things we lost were just STUFF, and probably even stuff we don't even NEED anyway! When I called mom, immediately after we got hit - to let her know we were alive - I told her that we would likely only recover about 10-20% of our stuff. I think, in the end, it will be closer to the opposite being true. We have recovered 80-90% and lost 10-20%. The people are all alive, and, for the most part, even in pretty good spirits. I know there are other's out there who are not. Who have lost loved ones, and lost their stuff, and who don't have the faith, family, and friends that we have sustaining us so well, and I feel for them. I don't know what I would do in their situation. I guess I might ask that some of you out there in the blogosphere transfer some of your many prayers for us, to some of those hurting people around us.

But, I'm supposed to be recalling the time line. of events - I digress - sorry.

Thursday morning at about 6:45, I heard Darlene up and getting ready to go out. She had received a text message that there were grocery stores open in Athens (next town to the west) So, she and I got in her husband's car and headed out. It was not too bad getting there. We did drive through, what we found out later, was a part of 'our' tornado's path. It was pretty sobering to see. House after house after house, simply LEVELED! The only other thing to note about 'the trip' was that there were gas lines like CRAZY at every station we went by that had power back. That was the case for several days. Supply was not the problem, it was the electricity to pump the gas into people's cars. (we ended up having one of our church members go fill a bunch of gas cans for all of us - so we would not have to take the time to go wait in line - he called and wanted to know what he could do to help!)

Anyway - we got to the Athen's Walmart and discovered that it was not open. There were some ladies standing out in front, and I went to ask them what the story was. They said that without power, they were not opening up. I told them I was just hoping to get toothbrushes, underwear and socks for my kids. There was some 'going and getting of managers' etc. and eventually, I was escorted in, to find a few things I needed. The lady that took me in had to write down all the UPC codes of what they gave me and so that they could write off the donation, and so the whole process took about 45 minutes. It was hard not to want to just ask for some bread and bananas and shoes (which I did actually ask for) and ... and... because at that point I was under the understanding that we had pretty much lost EVERYTHING. But I was SO grateful for what she was giving me, I kept my mouth shut! I came out, about 45 minutes later, with two grocery bags full of 'essentials' that Walmart had given to us. They may be a big corporate company that I don't agree with some of the practices of what they do, but they do have employees who have a heart and were willing to reach out and do what they could in the situation. I got to the car and discovered that Darlene had set in the car and watched them turn away person after person after person after I went in. I was the only one who got in there that morning. "Ask, and ye shall receive".

We then went to Publix to get groceries and dog food. Just getting a cart was quite a feat. We ran into Bill and Anna, from church, Bill is the deacon that was at the church with Lon and him get to us, and helped us get out in his truck. He was so relieved to see us again, he nearly cried, right there in Publix.

We got groceries. Focusing our efforts on things that can be cooked on a camp stove and Bar-B-Que. I picked up some toiletries and dog food for Maggie. I also grabbed several pair of leather work gloves and contractor trash bags. Both proved to be VERY useful over the next few days. Darlene was impressed with how constrained people were being. She said in hurricane season in Miami - there are complete panicked 'runs' on the grocery store - with people buying ALL of a certain product - just sweeping the shelves clean - and then turning around and selling it at a profit, etc etc. This was complete restraint - people just getting what they needed. Very beautiful.

We got back to the house around 10, I think. The guys were sort of focusing on getting 'household' set up for all of us. Michael is the Pathfinder director, so they went to the church and recovered the cooking items from the camping gear there. They also, at some point, got the Pathfinder van for us to use as a vehicle, since our truck was still trapped in the garage. We heard, I believe on the radio, that no one was being allowed up into our area until the search and rescue efforts were completed. We had limited gasoline resources and we didn't want to drive up there, just to be turned away. So we waited. We spread things out on the lawn to dry and we ate breakfast, etc. (not much appetite!). Cell phone communications went down some time on Thursday - Lon speculated that the cell towers had used up their battery back-up resources - so there was no calling to check on people, so those who had gas, drove around checking on people. Several people from church came by, to check on Showalters, and discovered us there, and then came back with food for us all! At one point someone showed up who had been to our house to check on us! Apparently we could get up there! So at some point in the early afternoon we got in the van and headed up there. I don't remember which of the kids came along at that point - I know the three little kids did NOT go, I think only Annie and Sarah came, because Emma was not there when we found her chickens. Michael shot alot of video of that particular trip. I'll try to get some of it posted later.

We got out and sort of wandered around a bit, taking a few pictures, etc. Then, set about clearing the path to the front door, which was covered in debris. Even getting into the house, though, did not set us right to work recovering stuff. There was so much debris everywhere it was a chore just to clear paths so people could get around. We did find a couple of 'treasures' right away. I found my mother's recipe box almost immediately! That was a BIG one for me. I don't really remember specifically what else was found, but I know that each of the four of us found an item or two that we were hoping would be able to be recovered. We went downstairs to check on the pets we had left there. They were all fine. I had prepared Emma for the fact that, while we had found five of her chickens alive after the storm, they were pretty wet, bedraggled and traumatized and that they might not make it through the night. Annie and Sarah and I went down to check on them, in the closet where she had cloistered them, and not only were they alive, they had laid three eggs overnight!! That was just AMAZING to me!! The cat showed himself at some point while we were there Thursday. So that was good to know. He was having a hard time believing that we were not going to chase him out of the house every time we found him 'inside'! He would RUN whenever we startled him by finding him in this room or that room that he had never been allowed into! We checked in on various neighbors, and I dont' remember what else we did. We loaded up two loads of stuff, including the rabbit and guinea pigs. I guess into the van and the truck of another church member. There was a dusk-to-dawn cerfew, so we didn't stay REAL long, some of us left a bit earlier, so we could go check on a couple of other church members who live not too far from us. So we went separate directions when we left and from what Lon said, he would likely get to the house before us. We checked in on Dennis and on Nigel, both were fine. They lost just trees and limbs, no house damage. And we headed back to Showalter's place. When we got there, the guys were not there yet. They did not arrive for quite a while and I was getting pretty worried about them. But in the end, what they did was to go and secure a storage unit! They left a bunch of stuff there! I should have known they were doing something wonderful. That evening I don't remember what we did in the evening. Even eating, etc is such a challenge after dark. We probably went to bed early.

Friday morning our intention was to be at the house quite early but there were delays of one sort or another. Unfortunately, Lon is not here with me right now - he is at a sleep study tonight - so he is not able to fill in the places where my memory has holes. Maybe he can post something later and do that. I just know it was around 10 before we got over there on Friday. One of the first things Michael and Lon did was to go to the garage and climb in through the truck and uncover the generator and drag it back, through the truck, and up into the house to be taken to Showalter's place. They were SO proud of themselves - they came marching up into the living room shouting, "The VICTORIOUS Engineers have returned SUCCESSFUL from their all-important quest!!" So cute - even 'geeks' can be triumphant!!

We did alot of recovery on Friday - essential stuff, and things that might get damaged by being wet, as rain was expected in on Sunday and we were not planning to work on Sabbath. Some church members had expressed the desire to help us out on Sabbath, but we really felt we wanted to rest. So it was a race against time, to get out things that would be further damaged by rain. Alot was recovered that day - furniture, Electronics, etc. There were people who just showed up and asked to help. There were church members. There was Ed. Ed Hartano was there before US!! (we found out later that one of the neighbors thought he might be looting and came over and questioned him - NICE! and when he identified us by name, they knew he was helping, not looting - even in the midst of all this - neighbors being watchful and just generally sweet!) And he just kept going and going and going all day - in fact, I think he was one who had been there on Thursday, too. We have nick-named him 'Ed, the Energizer Bunny" We love Ed.

We tried to get out of there in plenty of time to get back to Showalter's place and get cleaned up in time for Sabbath but we were just a tad late. Lon started to get upset about it and Annie called him on it, and he reprimanded her for talking to her in a way inappropriate for a 'child' to talk to her parent. I was later able to point out to him that she is 17, and she has done a TON of growing up in the last 48 hours, and he might need to start thinking of her as a fellow adult. That was a bit of an eye opener. She has been great though, Even between the storms on Wed. She, Chip, Charlie, and another teen-aged neighbor boy were going around and rescuing people and checking on people, etc. She is just a work horse. She seems to deal with stress by digging in and getting busy. It's been nice to see that maturity and adult-like behavior.

Another sign of kids 'growing up' because of this - people had started offering to send us gift cards, and money, etc. And Sarah was so touched by that- she also said something very grown-up, though - "Mommy - we are saving alot of our stuff - can we share some of the money people send us with Nan and Doug" - It's so heartening to see how our family is pulling together, maturing, showing generosity and making do. I'm so proud of my kids.

When I left the house on Friday (this was part of what slowed us down) I made sure that the three little kids were packed and ready to go, because I was suspicious that a certain gal in the church would come get them. I was right, she showed up while I was back at the house spreading clothes out on the lawn. She and Winton took the three little ones and cared for them for us, so we didn't have to worry about them for the next few days while we focused on getting stuff out of the house. Tommy did NOT want to go. He was in tears - just not wanting to be apart from his sisters. But we talked him through it and he went, and in the end, he had a great time. I promised them, when they went that we would at least SEE each other by Tuesday. They ended up staying over there till Monday morning - and April brought them to us then.

We were beginning to gather info from various sources and had heard that there were 8 deaths in our county - that we knew of at that point, 5 of them were within a mile of our house. That was still such a sobering fact. It kept us focused on our gratitude that we were all alive. It was also interesting that Madison County was not yet listed on the FEMA Disaster list. But Friday evening one of the neighbors at Showalter's told us that it was because other counties get out and document and get included in the list first and then work on recovery. Madison county chooses to do it the other way around - they make sure their people are all safe, and THEN document and pursue the federal $$. I can live with that. ( we were included on the FEMA list officially on Monday )

We heard from Doug at one point, that a NOAA representative had come through the neighborhood and the preliminary assessments were that it was an EF4 that hit us. That we were only 10-15 mph under the divider between EF4 and EF5!! That is some POWERFUL work that nature accomplished!! The house has plant matter and glass shards and... well, you name it, embedded and plastered on it EVERYWHERE. Like someone took a spray gun and just splattered stuff everywhere.

Well - once again, the pain meds are doing their magic, and I'm dozing. I'll write about Sabbath tomorrow. And perhaps even have a minute to work on posting some pictures. Anyone who wants to send me some tips on that process - that would be helpful. I do find my brain, while able to be very focused on some things, at other times VERY scattered and unable to concentrate. Imagine that!