On April 27th, we had a huge system of tornados come through our area.  We are so very thankful that our home and family was spared, but not everyone in town was so lucky... It really gives you a different perspective when all of the damage that you see on the news is actually in your own neighborhood. 

The storms left our entire county without power for almost a full week.  It was definitely interesting... kind of like glorified camping...  But in all of the craziness, it was so refreshing to see neighbors talking to each other and helping each other out, bysharing generators, helping cut trees and clearing out debris.  We got to experience what true gospel community looks like with our friends and neighbors as we banded together since we had nothing else to do, and no one else to turn to.  We weren't out of gas in our area, but we had no electricity to pump the gas, so therefore no one had gas... Lucas and I took a trip to Nashville to load up the truck with gas cans to bring back to power generators or get people's cars far enough away that they could get their own gas.  We took turns cleaning out each other's freezers (in other words we ate really well during the power outages!)  We grilled out with friends and neighbors every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

As crazy as it was, and as glad as I was to take a hot shower when it was all over, I truly missed the community that we felt when we didn't have TVs or games or light to keep us in our homes, and we were forced to stay outside all day, and could see BRILLIANT stars at night (it's pretty amazing to see the stars when there is absolutely NO electricity within a 50 mile radius! 

Of course things have gone back to normal for most of us now, although it will still take months for all of the fallen tree branches to be picked up off the streets, and there are some families that will never "go back to normal".

We do thank God every day that this is the extent of the damage that we saw at our house!