April 27

Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - In which, my home state of Alabama undergoes a Torndado Emergency. We were woken up at 5:59 am to our weather radio warning us of a tornado in our county (the first of many.) 4 tornadoes pass within miles of our house that day. We watch helplessly as one by one, cities and towns filled with friends and loved ones are obliterated by tornadoes. We are in our storm shelter from roughly 1pm (after seeking shelter at my son's school from 11 am to 12:30pm) to around midnight. Our power goes out at around 4:30 that afternoon.

We emerge at midnight to find there has been ZERO damage to our home and neighborhood. Praise God!

But all 4 of us lay in the bed in the darkness that night. Big Daddy and I are listening with headphones (so as not to wake the kids) to the local radio stations as they begin to receive damage reports. Northern parts of our county - Gone. Whole towns in counties south of us - Gone. Already 4 people dead in our county. A friend whose husband is in law enforcement in a neighboring county texts me and asks me to pray for her husband who is helping to load bodies found in a field, into emergency response vehicles. He has told his wife he is already breaking down - this from a man who many days never even calls home until way after the scary parts of his job are done. I frantically text, call and Facebook all of our friends in affected areas. Miraculously, no one we know was killed and very few were hurt! Praise God!!!!! Finally, around 2 am, my husband and I turn off the radio and go to sleep.

The next morning my dad (who works for our local utility comany) calls at 5:45 to tell us the power will be out for up to 10 days. There is no way to pump gas, there is no way to do much of anything really. We decide to leave town.

My neighbors who stay have a great (not perfect, but great!) time camping in their homes. We have a few adventures ourselves - away from home - but our hearts are in Alabama, with the people affected by the tornadoes.

Sunday night the power comes back on and by Monday evening we are back home!

Since that Monday, we have been going non stop. Collecting supplies, delivering supplies, sending Big Daddy out to clear downed trees and do other general clean up.

I have seen more love, more compassion, more Christ - like behavior in my community in the past 2 weeks than I can ever explain. We are here for each other and we are in it for the long haul.

So proud to say my home is in Alabama.