In the two o’clock hour I awoke to the most violent sound of wind I’ve ever heard. We screamed to get Emily and get in the closet. There wasn’t time to grab a flashlight or even our phones that were lying just beside us. This was it, we had to move fast. Only it seemed to take forever. The dark void in the night was unforgiving to our eyes. After stumbling down the stairs, I got turned around and couldn’t find our safe closet. Panicked, I banged on the walls until I felt a door. We hunkered down and prayed while a melody of thunder, hail and falling trees filled our ears. We survived. Thank God we survived.

We emerged from hiding only to catch a glimpse of our little world that had been turned upside down. Without a wink of sleep, I waited impatiently for day break. At the first sign of light I headed out to survey the damage. It was a nightmare. I must admit, I am a tree-hugger. I have often stated that I couldn’t live in a place without trees. Everyone in this neighborhood moved here because of the trees; and now our trees, our precious trees are strewn all over the ground instead of standing tall and proud. The day has been a whirlwind of emotions; from sheer terror to relief, sadness and anger, a realization of being so little, being overwhelmed. Where do we even start to clean up and repair damage?

This evening Emily excitedly asked if she could give us her money to pay for the clean-up. It was then that all of my emotions tied to the trees fell to the way side. A five-year-old has just seen her neighborhood torn to pieces, and yet there is a great big smile on her face.  She said, “we didn’t even have to get in the closet, our house is fine!”  She has a home and she has her family. They are only trees; God made billions of them. It only costs money, time and effort. It didn’t cost our lives – so why is it such a big deal? It still saddens me, but I have an incredible little girl and family, a God that loves me like crazy, and my five-year-old has helped me to find a peace that will help me sleep good tonight.

It is so easy when you are in the middle of a bad situation to dwell in self-pity and think about how bad you have it. But truly we don’t have to lift our eyes far; our brothers and sisters in Japan, Haiti, and here in Mississippi and Alabama have fared much, much worse than we. We know that many people have lost their homes and lives in these storms and we are very saddened. We will pray for them and their families. In seeing the devastation that fell on others and knowing what could have been, I honestly, simply, don’t care about our fallen trees anymore. Our God is good, not because he spared the life of my family; that isn’t what many families are saying today. He is good because He is bigger than death. A relatively short time from now we will all leave this earth, and our God has a much bigger plan than I can see from behind the fallen trees and devastation of this storm.

A deep thank you to all of our friends and family who have prayed for us, checked in with us, and offered to help. We will clean up what we can and our neighborhood will have someone come in to do what we can’t. We will miss so many of the beautiful trees, but now the sun will shine down on us! Please continue to pray for those greatly affected by the storms.

The following photographs do not do justice to the power and damage of the storm. This is very far from the worst, but this is our story…

Stephen’s Jeep

Emily and LuLu – Emily was never scared, she was excited to get to be in the closet and thinks all of this is exciting.  Although she is very upset the park is gone.