My First Tornado

Hi all,
Now before you get your panties in a twist, we are all fine. Our house wasn't touched, nor was our neighborhood. The kids were safe in their iron fortress of a school and Claire, Mike and I were safe at home, glued to the news to watch the seemingly limitless damage. At least three tornadoes passed through the Dallas/Fort Worth area today, the biggest of which went right through Arlington. I was watching news coverage of the aftermath of this natural destructor and it was heartbreaking. Fortunately, as far as I know, no one was killed in this calamity, but many homes were destroyed. People had camper trailers flying through the air half a block from where they had previously sat, quietly parked. Trees had fallen, golf-ball-sized hail came down, shattering many car windows, homes had no roofs and their own windows were blown out as if a bomb had exploded inside. Most of the city was without power. We were lucky, though. We never even lost power! I am constantly amazed at how much Heavenly Father watches over me and my little family. He must have something really important for all of us to do. The thing I loved most about this situation, though, was Mike's reaction to it all. He braved the crazy weather to rush home from work (which I predicted he'd do). Then, once we had observed the chaos and sadness inflicted on our city, he immediately turned to me and said, "Call the bishop and find out what we can do to help. See if anyone in the ward was hit and what we can do." I love that man. I have said so many times that he would literally give someone the shirt off his back and anything else they needed without them even asking. This just proved my point even more.

You know, considering this was my first natural disaster (aside from the flood in Salem which was pretty intense), I was surprised at how calm I was through it all. I am sure my calm was mostly for Claire's benefit to make sure she didn't get scared, but it was also because I knew that Heavenly Father would keep us safe. It's nice to have the gospel in my life and to know that I am never alone. I pray that the people who lost their homes or cars will be all right and we will help as much as we can. But homes and cars are replaceable and people are not. Nobody was killed, as far as I know, and that is truly something to be thankful for.