Feeling Blessed

April 27, 2011 will go down in the history books. Our Sweet Home Alabama was literally torn apart by tornadoes. Now, I’m not one to get scared in storms. Truthfully, I hardly ever pay attention to them. The tornado sirens have gone off MANY times since we moved to Alabama, and I always just ignore them. However, something was VERY different about this day. Ryan was, of course, at work, and Jewells happened to be at our house. They were going to head back to Huntsville, but decided to wait until the weather cleared up. I am SO glad they did. We watched, horrified, as Tuscaloosa was ripped apart.

Then, we realized it was heading straight for Birmingham. We packed up a few essentials and headed down to the basement to finish watching the storm coverage while the babies played downstairs.

We watched as a MILE WIDE tornado tore through the Birmingham.

We had the closet under the stairs open, and as soon as Christy and I heard the “train” sound, we sent the babies in there to watch movies. We stayed with them for the next few minutes, while still watching the big screen in the playroom.

It came and went pretty quickly, and we never lost power, though it flickered a few times. We had no damage at all to our house, and we were all safe. However, we were VERY blessed. Houses were demolished, many people lost their lives, entire neighborhoods are gone. Pictures are playing constantly on the news, but it does not do justice to the devastation you see in person.

I will say, it is AMAZING to see people come together the way they have. There are donation boxes everywhere you go. People are generous. Everyone is helping when and where they can. One of the reasons I LOVE living in the south.

I read this on Lib’s facebook page, and I think it sums it up pretty well. “There will be truckloads of Southern fried chicken, tons of potato salad and thousands of gallons of sweet tea served over the next few months. Some will come off of the back of a local pick-up truck, some from the flat bed of a farmer's "ton truck" and many meals will be served from a 3x6 folding "church table". That's how they do things down here.”