Sunday, November 17, 2013

demolished...

Tonight I cannot sleep. I cannot shut my brain off. This morning my home was demolished by a tornado. I lost my home today & almost everything in it. The basement is still intact. Our neighborhood was ravaged. It isn't recognizable. Many of the homes are only rubble. We were grateful when we found our dog. He greeted us at our front door as we made our way up the front step. We had to park & walk about a mile to get to our home. As we approached, I knew we would find destruction...

A few hours after our arrival, we found our cat. She was hiding in the basement. Funny how things landed. Mary, Joseph, & Baby Jesus survived. However, the rest of the Nativity was destroyed. Everything was strewn about. We found things in the oddest places.We are both numb. It's hard to know where to begin.

As I face this tragedy, I don't really feel devastated, just numb. Maybe it's shock. Maybe it's perspective. My daughter asked us which was worse, this or cancer? Simultaneously, we both answered "cancer." However, I saw the same anguish in my husband's eyes today, that anguish I saw the day I was diagnosed with cancer. It did't go away for a long time, & now it is back.

I am grateful we are unharmed. We were at church in a storm shelter when the tornado struck. As we drove into our town, we could see the devastation from the highway. We were in shock. It looked like what we had seen in the past only on TV. Well... now we have an opportunity to face another nightmare. Something we only could imagine before today.

The best thing that happened today was finding our animals alive & unharmed. Other highlights included our beautiful neighbors caring for us. Our daughters weeping on our behalf. I haven't shed a tear yet. Messages, prayers, & help from friends & family. If anything brings tears to my eyes it's that. I am so touched by all of the kind offers from loved ones.

So where do we go from here? Time will tell. So many unknowns. But... we have each other. We have Otis & Bella. Our daughters love us. They have taken us in. Our son-in-laws are here for us. As we walked through the devastation, my husband asked... What will we do? My answer was simple, "We will walk hand in hand, face our troubles together, & love each other." We have all that we need.

4 comments:

  1. This is where you learn to trust God for everything. It's hard to do but He will get you through.

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    1. 5 "The waves of death surrounded me; the floods of destruction swept over me. 6 The grave[a] wrapped its ropes around me; death itself stared me in the face. 7 But in my distress I cried out to the LORD; yes, I called to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry reached his ears (2 Samuel 22:5-7, NLT

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  2. Thinking of you… praying for you… Here's the bible verse that popped into my head when I read your post:

    Matthew 6:25-34 ESV

    “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ...

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