So let me tell you a story. Once upon a time we lived in a hotel for a month while we looked for other housing. Then, on the last day before vacation we found a house! It was lovely; newly redone and everything. It even had a dishwasher, which we haven't had since we were single. I know that's only a couple of years, but it was quite exciting to find out. So, we moved all of our clothes and boxes into the house, put Brett's newly licensed motorcycle into the shed, and left for Tennessee and New Hampshire for a wonderful Christmas and New Years.
We spent Christmas with Brett's family. We got to go caroling on Christmas Eve, which I love doing. On Christmas I got TWO pairs of slippers. Hooray :) And a new camera. Our poor old one can finally be put to rest. It has been through a lot. It even survived me dropping it into a pool of water on a hike in Zion's National Park. It was so good to me. We got to spend the day after Christmas with Brett's extended family, and that is always just fun.
Then we drove to St. Louis to fly to New Hampshire and spend some time and the New Years with my family. We actually got in to the airport on time. The storms in the Northeast had mostly past. The plane landing made me sick though...way too many bumps and jolts for my liking. But the storms meant snow, which meant sledding, and ice, and a wonderful sleigh ride pulled by horses through the woods. It was so nice to be home. Who knows when I'll get to be back for a week again. I love New Hampshire. :)
Then on New Years day after we found out that the water heater was broken and we had no hot water, and Brett went with my dad to get a new one to put in, I got a call from him, and this is how it went.
B: "So the base got hit by a tornado."
C: "What?"
B: "Yea I've gotten a ton of calls because we all have to report and make sure everyone is okay."
C: "Oh good."
B: "Oh I have to go, I'll let you know if I find anything else out."
And that is all I got!! So running through my mind is...well it couldn't have hit our house right? We just moved into it, and there are miles and miles of base all around it. So it couldn't be that bad right?
Twenty minutes later I get another phone call.
B: "So our house may have been one of the ones hit."
C: "Okay. How did you find out?"
B: "The housing company just called to make sure we were still out of town."
C: "Well okay. I guess we'll have to wait til we can get more information."
So over the next day or so we kept searching the internet for information on where the base had actually been hit. At one point I saw something that said it had gone from SW to NE, and I knew one place that it had hit, so I drew a line on the map to see where it would have gone...right through our neighborhood. But I didn't really believe it, and it could have hit anywhere. So I didn't worry about it while I was at home.
When we drove onto base the next afternoon, I started videoing the destruction and all the trees down and everything. There were police blocking off the entrances to our street and as we drove up as close as we could I heard from the seat next to me "Isn't that our house? Or what used to be our house?"
And then when we finally got access to our street I had my camera out and was recording the houses as we past. "So there's the first house...gone. There's the second house....demolished. And there's the third, and that's ours, and its not bad." Then Brett says... "Um Courtney, the second house it ours." And the camera went straight back to that one. Demolished.
Somethings we saw were amusing, like Brett's pants high up in the tree branches of the house next door. And they are still there. The one box that ended up with no damage happened to be the one that had our cleaning supplies. Woohoo :) And it was just a cardboard box! A couple of shirts were frozen to the wood floor and had to be pried up.
You know, I never even imagined our house ever being destroyed by a tornado. But we were very blessed. We hadn't unpacked much, and we don't have much with us. We had no furniture. Most of our stuff was in boxes. We lost some things, but we weren't there so we are fine. Clothing is probably one of the biggest losses. I thought my suitcase was lost...but we found it at the neighbors house slammed against the wall and torn, but everything was still in it. And the shed where the motorcycle was, was barely touched at all.
Sometimes I wonder why things happen the way they do. But there are some things that we may never know in our lives. And that is okay, because if we put our whole trust in the Lord then we can know that all things will be for our good. We may wonder why...but He can make more of us than we could ever make of ourselves. He can guide us and warn us, but are we really listening when the Lord tries to warn and prompt us? How important it is that we are always ready and willing and able to receive those promptings, even little ones that don't make sense or seem to matter at that point in time. There is a bigger plan, larger than any one of us. But we are all a part of it.
So we are back in a hotel for now. But they did find us another house yesterday, so once we get everything cleaned out of the rubble we'll start to move in there. But it has definitely been a fun experience. Crazy, but it's been fine. We were very blessed to not have much of anything in there. Other families had everything in their homes. So we were very blessed.
I took pictures. But I don't have a way to get them on the computer at the moment. They will come soon. You'll love them.
Sorry that was a long story. But this is The End.
