storm

 

what a hellish day!  had no idea it was going to do anything beyond rain – waking up at 4am to raging storm sirens is no fun!  i thought it was a nightmare – i threw clothes on, grabbed my kids, and headed to the downstairs bathroom.  we just sat in there and they kept saying “what are we doing?” i said “the storm sirens are going off girls!!” – then gracie said “oh – at least its not the TORNADO sirens, mom”.  I thought – tell her?  or shut up?  isn’t it so so great to be a naive child?  the sounds outside were like nothing i’ve ever heard – poor katie just stayed laying facedown on my legs and never moved or spoke.  gracie and i just prayed and prayed and shook – please Lord, let it pass us, please Lord, don’t let it hurt anyone, over and over…..i prayed for my friend Trish next door, who I knew was probably scared…I prayed for my friends across town, that they would all hear the sirens and take cover and be safe…and this un-explainable desire to keep my girls safe was overwhelming me – i would have thrown my body over them to save them from debris falling on them and hurting them.  I kept thinking it was raining hard, but it was the tornado going RIGHT over us, and touching down just 4 houses from mine.  Huge explosions and then no power, which made us feel so helpless – no way to listen to news reports about where the tornado was.  Then the WORST part of all……

Complete silence.    constant lightning striking, and no thunder, no wind, no rain, no birds chirping, nothing.  I just thought ” okay, this is it” – i was certain we were in the silent eye of the storm, where you hear nothing, then you feel air sucking, then you hear your house blowing apart.  All I could think was “oh mom and dad, i’m so sorry”.  Jim went outside (against my wishes, of course – hey i saw Twister).  He looked around outside for a bit, made sure Trish’s house was there, made sure Meghan and Devin were there, and then came back in – a friend texted him from bentonville, telling him the news said it had cleared Siloam Springs and was spotted in Tontitown.  So then he told us to get out of the bathtub and go to bed???  what is it with men and sleeping after catastrophe???  I sent everyone out, closed the door,  and threw up for an hour….

I have lots of things to say about this – stay tuned….i’m going to go snuggle my kids, watch Darby O’Gill and the Little People, eat popcorn, and THANK GOD.