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!

It's an adventure alright!!

I'm going to start at the beginning, of our current adventure. We found out on Tuesday night at our bible study with the Showalter's that there was a 'series of bad storms' headed our way on Wednesday. The first one hit before we got up in the morning - just rain and wind - not even any thunder. We got up and I took Lon to work and Annie and I went to a Chiropractor appointment. We also grabbed some groceries.

Just after we got home, about 10, the weather radio alarm went off - we went down into the shelter, - our house has a basement, which is somewhat unusual for this area - and while it is not 'technically' a storm shelter - it is below grade, and since most injuries from tornadoes come from flying debris - it would be expected to keep us safe in anything but an EF5. Anyway - we soon came back up because that particular storm was not in our immediate area. The weather alarm goes off if there is anything at 'warning level' anywhere in the county - you get a little cavalier about it after a while, especially when you live in a corner of the county and you get so many 'warnings' for stuff that is 40-50 miles away! I ran to the feed store because Emma's guinea pig cage was in desperate need of being changed - I needed pine bedding. When I got there I was told that they had had quarter sized hail in the second storm, just a mile from the house! Wow! I took a picture, when I got home, of our 'damage' - which involved a deck chair being thrown onto the corner of the deck railing (I laugh whenever I see that picture now!)

We also got word that the storm had put a few trees down on the church property, including one on the building. Apparently one of the other deacons called Lon and said "I'm coming to pick you up at work, so we can just get this dealt with" Lon is head deacon, so I guess Bill just assumed that Lon would want to go work on it NOW. Lon sort of didn't want to lose time at work, but he let God lead and went along anyway. (had Bill not picked Lon up and taken him to the church at that point, he would have been three times as far away from home, and without any transportation, as I had dropped him off at work that day!)

I had to also run some tools and work clothes down to the church between the second and third storm. Getting home was nerve wracking - I knew another storm was headed in, and the people in front of me were gawking, and driving SO slow! The third storm arrived just as I was getting home - it was stronger, brought hail - which from the shelter, sounded like it was falling on the floor of the room above us - and it also knocked out the power. This was the first power outage we have experienced in all the storms we have been through here - I had not realized how helpless I would feel. Sarah was able to connect with Lon and find out how to listen to the weather reports on the hand-held ham radio she has (THANK YOU PATHFINDERS!) and I realized I could get online on my i-phone and view the internet sites I usually use, there. I called Share at PVC and asked her to get online and see what else was still coming. The news was not good.

About 4:00 'something' told us to go into the shelter - different kids tell me it was different things - I honestly don't remember whether it was the outdoor siren, the ham radio, the neighbors arriving at the door - as has become their habit - when a warning is out - or just a 'this is for real - let's go!' We got down into the shelter with Nan, and her two boys, Chip and Charlie, both older than Annie. We could hear the TORRENTIAL rain, wind, and then we began to hear sounds of the house breaking up above us. We probably heard the neighbor's trailer slam into the garage, but being cloistered in the basement we had no idea what it was. We had tremendous pressure in our ears and started seeing dust in the air and smelling the pine-smell of lumber breaking up. Through all of that, there was an amazing peace in the shelter. None of the kids were screaming, and the dog was even pretty calm. We had the rabbit and guinea pigs down there too - the chickens were left in the yard to fend for themselves. We were all just sort of in 'hyper-sensitive observation mode' seeing, smelling, hearing the things around us, but there was no sense of terror that several people have expressed that we must have felt. I think God's spirit was there with us, keeping us calm.

When things seemed to have calmed down it was SO hard to know when it would be safe to go upstairs. Chip, Charlie and I went up and had to climb through the doorway at the top of the stairs sideways, because the refrigerator had been scooted across the floor and partially jammed the doorway. Chip and Charlie were trying to get a view of their house, across the street, and the fridge also blocked that view. It looked like a war zone up there. Doors and windows were laying in places that made it difficult to discern where they had come from. Stuff was strewn in places that made it difficult to fathom which way the wind 'came from' - in fact - some windows were blown in and some were blown out. It was still raining pretty hard, because the storm was 'rain wrapped' and a neighbor boy from down the street showed up at one of our back windows to make sure we were all ok, and to let us know there were at least two more storms yet to come. He and I went across the 'yard' to another neighbor's place - through standing water and debris, with lightning and hail all around and got her, and her two-month-old daughter out of her 'safe place' under a sturdy work bench in their partially below-grade garage. We brought them to our shelter - another family of 8 or so (across four generations) also showed up, including another two-month old baby and a 92-year-old non-ambulatory gramma, - I'm not sure HOW she got TO our house, as it was nearly impossible to get her down the stairs!! But we had 20+ people in there, from five different households before the fifth storm hit. I have no idea what time that one was. It carried wind and rain, but fortunately, neither it, nor the sixth storm brought more tornadoes. [I later found out that this was not true - but when I wrote this blog entry I didn't know that yet - the fifth storm did pack an EF1 tornado, it's not on the records anywhere, because it's hard to find evidence of an EF1 that goes directly over the path of an EF5, but one of the people who was in our basement has a family member who was trying to get to her, and WATCHED it go over our neighborhood]  I had called my parents to let them know we were alive - my mom answered 'wow - it's a special day - three calls from you in one day!' - I said, "Oh, yes, it's a special day all right - our house just got destroyed!" I told her that we were all safe and that it looked like we might be able to recover 10-20% of our possessions. I also called Lon and let him know we had been hit.

He and the two deacons that were there at the church (normally ten minutes from the house) then began the work of getting to the house (though they did stay at the church for a bit because they didn't feel it was safe to venture out.) It took them three hours to get to us - and several miracles too!! We weathered the fifth and sixth storms and I have no idea when/how all the people from the basement left. But we eventually found ourselves at the house alone, waiting for Lon to arrive and trying to secure various items, as the basement began to fill with rain (well, not FILL, but there was standing water - as much as an inch deep in places). The homeowners kept pallets down there, so we were able to put things up on pallets and also we were able to get to the garage and get some tarps (actually old vinyl table clothes that I keep for picnic's) to cover some things.

Emma, at some point gathered five of her six chickens who had SOMEHOW weathered the storm in the yard and were looking pretty bedraggled, but were miraculously alive, and put them in the closet of her basement bedroom, with food and water. She also found the body of the sixth one, so we knew not to continue searching for it. We did not find the cat before we left that night. But were were pretty sure he was safe, the area he would have been in, in the garage was relatively untouched. [Reading that, now, almost two years later, I almost laugh.  Because when people ask us if our house was damaged, I often tell them this: "Well, put it this way, our Ford Excursion was parked INside the garage and it was totaled!"]

We put some clothing into suitcases, and lap-tops into back-packs, and we carried photo albums downstairs and tarped them and tarped Lon's desk-top computer [which, by the way, saved it, when the ceilings tiles were saturated and fell on it!]  We got the boys dressed and found shoes for everyone, even Chip and Charlie - who had left their flip-flops on the now-buried front porch. At one point Tommy even laid down and took a little nap! (I was concerned about shock - but he woke up soon and seemed fine) We snapped a few photos with my i-phone being VERY careful not to misplace it, or my purse! The boys and Emma also walked down the road to a little friend's house, to make sure he was OK too.

We were JUST starting to get a little nervous about the thought of having to spend the night in the house, as it was beginning to get dark, when there came a knock at the front door. Who was there but a fellow from church who is on one of the volunteer firefighter crews in the area? He said 'I'm sorry I didn't call first!" I said "yeah, if you had let me know you were coming I would have cleaned up a bit!" He had five or six other rescue workers with him, and Lon was with them. The kids were a tiny bit scared at first, but the workers were skilled at what they do and soon had Mayahna piggy backing on someones back, giggling as we prepared to leave for the night. We had to leave the guinea Pigs and rabbit, as we were told the trip to our transportation was rather arduous.

When we left, we had the dog, five suitcases, a laundry basket that I THOUGHT had my tennis shoes in it (I had my garden shoes on) Emma and Annie had school-type back-packs on and Sarah had her violin. Just getting out of the neighborhood was quite a trick as there were MULTIPLE trees down. We had to pick our way through, relieved to know that none of the wires that were all strewn in with everything else were live!! Once we got the 1/4 mile to the entrance of the development we discovered (well, Lon and the firefighters knew - he had come through it to get to us) that we had 150-200 feet of flowing water to cross - some as deep as two feet deep. The firefighters had to leave us there, as they were a water-rescue team and got called off to another call. We left some kids and some suitcases there, with an officer, and got a first group across, and discovered that our 'ride' was not where Lon had left them! Lon went on down the road further to try to find them, and/or call them, and I went back to get the rest of the kids/stuff across the water so that we would be together. Upon returning to where the first group was waiting I NEARLY walked across an area of water that I thought had road under it, and I felt a STRONG sense that I needed to STOP.  I then realized that what I THOUGHT was the road, was actually the ditch, and had I taken even three more steps I would have been washed away by the strong current of the flood waters. We got everyone across and stood waiting for a bit. Decided it would be easier without the laundry basket and stuffed all of it's contents into the suitcases, and started walking down the road to where we thought Lon and the ride were probably located. We found a small terrier-type dog that was wondering around and had tags with phone numbers, so we picked her up and brought her with us. (We found out later that her 'daddy' had died of a heart attack and her 'mommy' was taken to the hospital, so it was a good thing we picked her up! We were able to give her to a neighbor of the Showalter's when we arrived there, who came out and asked, "What can I do for you - they have been caring for her, as I felt that we had enough on our plate!) (we also found out later that one of the other 'houses' - now a tangled pretzel-looking manufactured home - had two dead people in it) (there was also a third home, down closer to the water, that the workers were trying to get across the water to, to rescue four people who were trapped inside there).

As we were walking, several rigs drove by us, and I flagged them down but it was the third or fourth one that finally picked us up. Sarah was able to radio Lon and let him know we were riding out, so that he didn't still try to get in and get us. We had a happy re-union about a mile and a half from our house, about an hour or so after we had left the house. The two deacons that had brought Lon to that point in their vehicles took us to the Showalter's house, where we had heard about all of this being headed our way just the evening before! One deacon drives a pick-up truck, so all the stuff went in the back of the truck, and the other, who usually drives a small truck, had his mother's mini-van, so there was plenty of room for our large brood. He had driven to Chattanooga the weekend before and his truck had broken down there, so his mother, whom he had gone to visit, just told him to take her van home! God was watching out for us, even the weekend before, when Phil drove that mini van home from Chattanooga!

Well, I need to stop for now. I'll write more later today or tomorrow. There is SO much to tell about the ensuing days, and all of the blessings that God has poured into our lives, we can't even begin to account for all of the ways that God is blessing us.

more later - Sharon