103 hours

that is how long we were without power after what is reported to be the second deadliest tornado system in u.s. history ripped though our area on wednesday. i don't have pictures of the distruction as you couldn't get down into the effected (affected? i never know) areas unless you were there to clean. i haven't been down to help yet as i was more worried about making sure my kids were clothed and fed. but i really hope to soon. several families reached out to us and we are so very thankful to them for providing us a place to take a warm shower, wash a couple of loads of clothes and a warm meal. we kept our phones charged either by being in the car when we were out and about or at the church building.

luke has been out of school since wednesday and we won't know when they will go back as of yet. for sure they are still out tomorrow. the area damaged near our house (about 4 miles south to north east) cut through both routes we could take to get luke to school. we haven't been over that way since thursday, so i'm not sure what has happened there since then.

we were so very lucky that we only had one large tree down on our fence (which i posted to facebook). otherwise, we were completely fine (well, minus the power thing, but that really is so insignificant.)

our song leader from church lost their home, but fortunately the Lord protected them in their storm shelter during the 10 seconds that it pummeled everything around them.

i hope that you will continue to pray for the residents of middle/north alabama (and anyone else that was in the path) of this viscious storm. so many homes and businesses are still without power and so much else. this is a video that was put together by some of the men at our church of the efforts that have been going on out in our community.