A Storm

Last Saturday afternoon, our county was in the middle of a huge thunderstorm, and under a Tornado Warning. Everyone was home and we cautiously began watching the skies, following the emergency notification on our phones.

We could see the skies were not the typical thunderstorm look. Jay began teaching the kids right away about what to look for in the clouds with tornadoes. It was nearing the end of nap time, but Asher and Isaiah were still asleep. I kept watching to see how quickly the storm was approaching us from the north, debating if I should wake the boys. I got Asher first and gave him some snuggles. Then realized I didn't have much time before our skies would be black, so I also woke Isaiah and gave him his bottle.

Jay then noticed to the south of us, as it seemed there were two cells merging from the south and north, that a tornado was about to form. He called out, "Do you want to see a tornado?" Most of us came quickly out, except for poor Lenea who then began to cry in panic, wanting nothing to do with tornadoes. We did almost see a tornado form, but it subsided. However, we did learn that in that same area there was a tornado, so likely just a few minutes later. I urged everyone to head inside and downstairs.

Within in a few minutes of getting to the basement the hail began. We could hear wind whipping around, hail pounding the house and thunder around us. Lenea kept crying, she was very scared, poor thing. I remember feeling that way when I was her age, and where I grew up we didn't have storms even close to this level of noise. So we began praying out loud and I reassured her that God was in control of the storm, holding it in the palm of His hand. I reminded her that we could trust Him. 

After about 20 minutes of hail pelting the house, Jay went to the bathroom and came back a few minutes later telling us that water was in the guest bedroom window well, coming into the house and he needed to get the shop vac. (We had a small one he had just borrowed from his work. ) The kids all went to look and we soon noticed it was also coming into the girls room and our school room. The window in the guest room had it the most. 

The kids had recently been playing by that area outside, digging up the dirt. The drain pipe from the gutter also was located right there. With the combination of huge amounts of hail melting from the roof, coming into the window well and not so well packed dirt, it looked like a fish bowl in the window. Unfortunately, it was coming in fast!

Jay used the shop vac for about 10 minutes when it stop working. He decided he would need to go run to the store to buy a new one. At that time the hail had stopped, although it was still raining. Half of the children went outside and began bucketing the water out of the window and shoveling away the melting hail near it. They used buckets to catch the water from the gutter drain and dumped it else where. A couple of other children went from room to room catching the water they could with buckets and garbage cans. We had every towel in the house attempting to soak it up, that lasted about 5 minutes and only caused a  bunch of laundry. 

I kept the littles out of the way and occupied. It was quite an adventure. Everyone worked hard and diligently as a team, which made this Mama proud.

In the end, we will need a new roof, fixed fence, likely some new paint (which we were just about to paint ourselves..so glad that didn't happen yet), and some new gutters. Some of our trees might die, especially our baby plum trees.  Our van has $4500 worth of damage. Thankfully, I had Jay put his car in the garage right before the storm hit. Makenna's car has some damage, but we likely will not pay the deductible to get it fixed. We also need a new carpet pad for the guest room. We "think" we saved the carpet.

Lessons I learned from this storm:

God is bigger than anything. I recalled the days of being Lenea's age and crying with fear from thunder. It just seemed too big for my mind to grasp and it WAS bigger and stronger than me. This storm, I realized that even with a potential tornado by our house and damage being done to our house by the weather, I had no fear. My physical body was a bit under stress, but not badly. I felt peace in the storm that was abundant. It was only God and He was in control.

We prayed that our house would not get torn down by a tornado (Lenea's words). But we forgot to pray that it would not get water damage. Unfortunately, typical home owners insurance does not cover this type of basement damage due to melting hail and rain coming into the window wells. We do not live in a flood zone to did not have an extra flood policy. Once the water hits the ground, it is considered "flood". If it would have come in due to the hail breaking a window it would have been covered. So we should have prayed for no water entering our house. 

Even in the midst of the chaos, my husband and children were amazing!! I see so much growth in our family the last couple of years. Even with the sibling bickering and complaining that goes on, some times day to day, when there is a need they are a team. I have always taught my children that they should be each other's best friends. I know that truth be told, they are the longest relationship that will exist in each of their lives. Think about it, they were babies together and will maybe live 80 years.. That is 70-80 years of a potential friendship. If they don't realize that while they are growing up they will be missing out in a huge blessing that the Lord designed. He put them together in a family.

I did not worry or have anxiety when I saw the damage that was happening to our house. I know it will cost thousands of dollars to fix. Thankfully, insurance will pay the bulk of it. But it will be a hassle and a lot of work. However, I am okay with it all. If God took it all away, I need to be okay with that too. 

Thank you Lord, for the wonderful lessons you taught me.

 All of our yard looked like this, with a few spots of 12 inch mounds. It looked like snow. We saw some areas the next morning that still had ice that had not melted, so obviously got a LOT more than we did even.

 This was about the size of our biggest hail pieces found. However, there were reports of baseball size hail south of us a few miles breaking windows.

 Moriah and Toby working at soaking up the water coming in. Unfortunately, that bench under the window was filled with some of our favorite curriculum sets. As soon as we saw the water coming in I had 3 kids in there helping me pull it out as quickly as we could. Thus all the books on the table. I realize a few days after the storm that another important thing that was on the bench was a file folder that was holding adoption paperwork from Ellie and Isaiah, from China. Several documents were wet, they are drying out now in attempt to save them. 

 A lot of our plants were shredded. 

Here is the guest room window well. It would have easily filled to the top if everyone hadn't have worked hard and fast to keep it from all coming in. It looks like we should get some fish!