By God's Grace

I have yet again failed at the blogging world. I specifically created this blog to tell about our family, brain thoughts that I have, our family ministry, and the experiences/challenges of hosting an exchange student in our home. I feel like I have done none of that. So, where do I start?

Since I have last blogs, life has been a whirlwind. A major natural disaster hit our home state, and let me tell you, that has totally changed my thoughts. I sit here in the comfort of my home, typing/writing my blog and yet my home should not be here today. It is only here because of God's AMAZING GRACE! A major tornado came through Alabama on April 27th. Just 10 days after my last blog post. April 27, 2011 will forever be a day that I remember vividly. Weather people kept predicting that weather would be bad that day. Then it progressed to a moderate risk of sever weather. We left work at noon so that everyone could get out of the warehouse before the storms. Moonwalks are not first priority when they are talking about tornadoes. School was obviously closed that day, as it is when it either snows 2 flakes or tornadoes. Keith, Noah, Maggie and Ahmed had already packed up and headed to Gigi's house earlier in the day. Storms started off pretty bad that morning causing our power to be out. I left work and swung by the house to get a few additional things - diapers, wipes, juice, and Bo, my beloved stuffed dog. I headed to Gigi's for a day of waiting and weather watching. We do not have a basement at our house, which I hope to have resolved in the near future, so we head to Gigi's so that  we can get to a basement if need be. It was about 3:30/4p when we needed to get to the basement. We watched the tv as a tornado tore apart Tuscaloosa. It was probably the most frightening thing to watch. My bestie lives in T-town and it was horrible to watch this F5 vicious animal rip through the town. We headed to John and Melissa's house for cover! Dorinda, Jamie and Meghan were on a bus headed to NYC for a band trip. I kept her up to date on the weather, often texting her pictures that I had taken from the tv. Dorinda called to ask where we were and if we were ok. I told her that the tornado was headed straight for Trussville. It was probably in the Pleasant Grove area at this time, completely shredding an entire community. My sister told me to please be careful and that she loved me very much. I hung up the phone with tears in my eyes, swallowing a huge lump in my throat. I honestly did not know if my sister would ever talk to me again. We hunkered down in Melissa's basement. Pillows all around us. My bag of "items" was around my arm, Maggie's leash held tight in my hand, and Noah in front of me, ready to lay on top of him when the time came. I knew it was coming, just a matter of time. GrandDanny, Keith, Ahmed and John stood at the door, watching the weather on the tv in anticipation. Hoping they could give us a 30 second heads up. The sound came but the boys never came in the room. I never had to lay on my child. Keith said that he heard the freight train as it crossed in the sky above us. Ahmed said that was the most terrifying thing he had heard. (What a story to go back and tell in Egypt.)

It eventually passed. We walked outside to a very grey area. It was the calmest I had ever seen outside. Very eery. Almost indescribable. My phone would not let me call out to family. I borrowed a phone to call Mom and Dad and let them know that we were ok. They were manning a storm shelter in Lincoln, where a tornado had gone earlier in the day. I was unable to call Dorinda to let her know that we were alive and well. She finally did check-in a little while later ... but she called me scared to death. Someone on the trip had found out that there was tornado damage on Old Springville Road, the road we live off of. When she told me this news, all I could say was, "oh, I don't doubt it." Finally, she said, "no, Randi, we've heard that (our neighborhood) had been destroyed." I silenced myself for a second. I finally replied with "I'm sure that it is. (Again, swallowing lumps in my throat...) It's just a house. We are a live, that's all that matters, house can be replaced but we can not." Keith, GrandDanny and Ahmed rushed in the car to discover that our house was perfectly fine. Not a tree was down. We have no idea where the wrong information came from, but it didn't matter. We still had a home to go to. So many others were not so fortunate.

What we later found out was the tornado came through Tuscaloosa, came through Pleasant Grove, went through Pratt City and then Fultondale. It hit the ridge/mountain between Fultondale and Pinson, right by my office, and picked up in the sky. It stayed up in the air and came back down in Ashville, again where it destroyed communities. This massive killer tornado went above our house. In one day, we could have (and should have) lost our home and my job. Fortunately, both were spared. Only by the Grace of God!!!

We spent the next several days picking up tornado debris from our backyard. This massive thing destroyed these other cities and threw parts of houses down in our yard. We found some paper from Tuscaloosa in our yard, and pieces of roof, shingles, wall paper.... even more eye opening several days later.

Thank you, Lord, for your hand around us. Instances like this reminds us that only God is in control, we are not.

~Randi