Thanks so much to all of you who have called, tweeted, Facebooked, blogged or emailed to check on our family. Knowing there are so many of you keeping little ol’ us in your prayers is so powerful. Our family is fine. Our neighborhood is relatively unscathed. But our state is broken. The images and videos coming out of the Huntsville area, Cullman, Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and countless other small towns is just unimaginable. I can’t believe this is happening where we live. It’s nuts.
The TVA power plant that supplies electricity for all of our county took a direct hit from a tornado yesterday. Estimates have been anywhere from 3-7 days before our power is restored. When we saw that writing on the wall this morning (or the tweet on the feed as the 21st century would have it) we loaded up our car and headed north to my mom and stepdad’s house in Nashville. The normally 2 1/2 hour drive took us almost 6. Traffic was at a standstill on I-65 as thousands of people had the same idea we did, either heading north looking for power or gas or food or all of the above.
When I realized that the interstate had become a parking lot I started to panic. It had been hours since we had eaten breakfast (dry cereal and peanut butter on bread) or the kids had had water. We cleaned out our refrigerator in anticipation of the great meltdown that would happen over the next several days so we had a few staple food items in the car. But water we did not. I immediately went into mommy mode and hopped out of the car, emptied out the two jars of maraschino cherries we had in the cooler (an easy sacrifice) and grabbed the two very small handfuls of melting ice left. I shoved those into the jars, and set them in the sun. Ten minutes later – instant cherry water, happy children, and relieved mama.
We spent the next two hours strolling up and down the interstate making friend with other travelers. I scored the kiddos a tour of a big rig (thanks Mathew…wherever you are!) but then twisted my ankle on the way back out. I have it wrapped in a heating pad right now, hoping to salvage my half marathon on Saturday. But no matter. My family is safe, we’re unharmed, we have a roof over our heads and we’re together. That, my friends, is all I need.
Please pray for my neighbors all over this state who cannot say the same tonight. For the neighbors that endured the terrifying likes of this…
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