Living Through a Tornado (Part 1)...
You hear it all the time on news station interviews..."I never thought something like this would happen to me" , and well, it's completely true! One minute you're cleaning up the day's mess, trying to get as much ready for the next day as you can, have the kids getting ready for bed, and all of a sudden everything you knew, everything you eventually discover you have most likely been taking for granted to some degree, is completely ripped away from you...literally!
Last year was our first year homeschooling all 3 of our children (we can definitely get in to that another time). Well, it was a pretty 'normal' ending of the day (if there is such a thing lol); kids cleaning up their messes from the day, bedtime routines, getting the dogs taken out, etc. We were having some thunder storms off and on that evening but nothing really uncommon for that time of year. The 2 youngest kiddos have always been pretty anxious about storms in general especially our 11 year old (she has Sensory Processing Disorder - possibly discuss that in a later post). All of a sudden, tornado alerts starting going off on all of our cell phones (well, the kids and I - my husband is gone during the week for work). We honestly have several storm alerts like that throughout the year especially in spring and summer so I honestly didn't think much about it at first.
To help the two youngest kiddos feel more comfortable, I let them go ahead and make pallets in the main bathroom of the house and watch videos on their phone with their oldest sister while I finished up cleaning the kitchen. I heard another set of alerts (about the 3rd or 4th at this point) going off again and bout that time, my oldest daughter (who is super level headed-probably even more than myself some days lol) came out of the bathroom and looked about as white as a ghost. I stopped what I was doing and went ahead and read the alert details. It was a tornado warning (again, it's fairly common where we live to have warning issued but in my over 20 years of living in this area, we have never had a tornado). I didn't hear any thunder, rain, winds etc outside so I was so confused because I had always heard that if a tornado was coming it sounded like a freight train.
I went out on the porch and it was complete silence, and it was as time had frozen. I heard a very faint "wooh-ing' sound that seemed very far away and almost seemed like it was just my imagination. I went back in the house to check on this kiddos and ANOTHER alert went off on all the phones; which at that point the kids completely FREAKED OUT! I ran out to the porch one more time and everything seemed just like the first time ... except for that sound....I will NEVER forget THAT sound.....it was the same sound only much closer and I KNEW - a tornado was coming! I 100% believe in Jesus and believe He speaks to us and He did that night....right then and there I knew, "go inside....get your kids in the tub...and PRAY"!!! I ran in grabbed all the pillows and blankets I could on my way to the bathroom, got all 3 of the kids in the tub (along with their 2 dogs), surrounded them with pillows and blankets, laid on top of them, and PRAYED like I've never prayed in my life! It wasn't a full minute from that 2nd time I was out on the porch to laying on my children in the tub and BAM...it hit! The tornado literally ripped through tour entire neighborhood including the front part of our house and roof (not 10 feet away on the other side of that bathroom wall) and our lives were forever changed!
To help the two youngest kiddos feel more comfortable, I let them go ahead and make pallets in the main bathroom of the house and watch videos on their phone with their oldest sister while I finished up cleaning the kitchen. I heard another set of alerts (about the 3rd or 4th at this point) going off again and bout that time, my oldest daughter (who is super level headed-probably even more than myself some days lol) came out of the bathroom and looked about as white as a ghost. I stopped what I was doing and went ahead and read the alert details. It was a tornado warning (again, it's fairly common where we live to have warning issued but in my over 20 years of living in this area, we have never had a tornado). I didn't hear any thunder, rain, winds etc outside so I was so confused because I had always heard that if a tornado was coming it sounded like a freight train.
I went out on the porch and it was complete silence, and it was as time had frozen. I heard a very faint "wooh-ing' sound that seemed very far away and almost seemed like it was just my imagination. I went back in the house to check on this kiddos and ANOTHER alert went off on all the phones; which at that point the kids completely FREAKED OUT! I ran out to the porch one more time and everything seemed just like the first time ... except for that sound....I will NEVER forget THAT sound.....it was the same sound only much closer and I KNEW - a tornado was coming! I 100% believe in Jesus and believe He speaks to us and He did that night....right then and there I knew, "go inside....get your kids in the tub...and PRAY"!!! I ran in grabbed all the pillows and blankets I could on my way to the bathroom, got all 3 of the kids in the tub (along with their 2 dogs), surrounded them with pillows and blankets, laid on top of them, and PRAYED like I've never prayed in my life! It wasn't a full minute from that 2nd time I was out on the porch to laying on my children in the tub and BAM...it hit! The tornado literally ripped through tour entire neighborhood including the front part of our house and roof (not 10 feet away on the other side of that bathroom wall) and our lives were forever changed!
