Fear and Faith

I hesitated to post about the tornadoes, but I had to remind myself that this blog is to document our family's pictures, funny stories about the girls, and mostly our memories.

Tuesday was definitely a day I know with certainty I will never forget. But someday it may be something the girls will be interested in reading about, and I want to be sure they never forget how blessed we were that day.

Tuesday afternoon I was done with my meetings at church and headed home around 1:00. I planned on picking the girls up from school at 2:00 because Lauryn had an appointment with the doctor to get her ears pierced (more about that later!)

As I drove home, I heard the alert siren on every radio station, followed by descriptions of severe weather. Our county was one of those listed, so as soon as I got home I turned on the t.v. to see what was going on.

The first image was of a massive tornado in Dallas that eventually started tossing semi-trucks into the air. That's not something you will ever forget. Luckily the trucks were parked in a lot and no one was driving them.

After several minutes I began to hear hail falling and the tornado siren started to wail. When the electricity went out, I called Brent to find out he was headed to the basement of his building because they were also under a tornado warning. His cell reception was spotty, so I called my mom to have her report to me what was being said on the news.

To make a long story short, she kept repeating names of streets in my area. Each time she named a new, closer landmark, I realized that the tornado was headed directly for us. When she said the name of the street my girls' school is on, I completely lost it.

She assured me they were in the safest place they could be. But when you know for certain that a tornado is barreling toward not only your house, but your children's school and there is nothing you can do to protect them or yourself, it is one of the most helpless and terrifying feelings in the world.

I sat in the bathroom and cried as she prayed with me over the phone. After what seemed like hours (probably 10 minutes), she said they announced that it was all clear. I waited for a while before going straight to the school, which was extremely difficult. But because there was another storm immediately behind this one and we didn't know what would happen, I knew I needed to play it safe. But at the same time I only wanted to have my kids with me. I tried calling the school and their phones were down, so I went ahead and drove down the street to pick them up.

When I pulled out of the driveway, I noticed insulation in our front yard. Our roof (as well as every roof on our street) was completely intact, so it was a mystery to me where it came from.

When I turned left off of our street, I immediately realized where the insulation was from. There were at least 4 houses down that street that were destroyed. Our street was only littered with leaves and twigs. The very next street had homes missing entire sections.

I have to turn on two different streets to get to my girls' school from our house. Our home was untouched and their school was untouched. The neighborhood in between was destroyed.

If there has ever been a "God moment" in my life, it couldn't possibly compare to that moment as I drove by those destroyed homes and realized that I had witnessed God's hand of protection that afternoon.

The tornado was within a mile of a high school, two elementary schools, a junior high, and a private school. NONE of those schools were damaged in any way.

They were calling this the worst tornado outbreak in the history of the DFW area. Not one person lost their life.

God is present. His mercy is real. Miracles still happen.

Here are several pictures from around our neighborhood. They obviously don't do justice to the devastation you feel when you drive around and see, in person, how incredibly powerful this storm was.

Lauryn's best friend lives just under a mile from us. Her mom took these pictures driving down their street on Wednesday morning.

Driving around, it's hard to believe this is real...
The street I turned on when I drove to pick up the girls, and realized how close that tornado was...that tree used to stand almost as tall as the telephone pole.
Half of this house is gone...

I hope that I don't forget the feelings I had that day, when all we could do was pray. And to see God's instant answer to prayer through His protection over the entire area - amazing.

On a lighter note, we rescheduled the ear piercing for this morning! Lauryn turns EIGHT on Monday!! She wanted her ears pierced for her birthday. When I heard that her doctor's office does ear piercing I was much more comfortable with the idea.

They put numbing cream on her ears and let it sit for about 3o minutes. This relieved any anxiety that she had and she was completely at ease after that! They cleaned her ears with something I can't pronounce, but she definitely had the cleanest ear lobes in town by the time they were ready to get started!

She didn't move a muscle and was soooo brave! She said it didn't hurt at all! (Thank you, numbing cream!)

She is thrilled, and as always, I am in awe that this almost eight year old child is mine. Love her!!
Have a blessed Easter weekend! As we remember the sacrifice of Jesus, let us never forget how He loves us!