The last week or so I have learned that I am going to have some procedures in the near future.
Nothing too major and nothing that does not happen every day and everyone will likely go through at some point in their lives. But, still, I am 25 and have NEVER had any major procedures done or been through anything medically (other than childbirth) that required a visit to the hospital or a stay in the hospital. (Thank the Lord). Since that is coming up, I was talking to the Mr. about how he would have to step it up for a week or two and take the reigns of the household and work two jobs at once...mine AND his....which got me to thinking. A year ago, this would not have happened. It made me realize how much has happened in the last year and how had the tornado not hit our house last April, my marriage would not have survived.
For starters, my marriage was really going through a bump. Derek and I were just not clicking like we normally do and we were constantly at each others throats. Like seriously. It actually came to a head one day about a week before the tornado hit and I kicked him out. It only lasted one night and we were working to getting back to ground A. But it just wasn't happening. So I was going through a pretty down time in my life. Neither of us really knew if we were going to make it and weren't really sure where to go from there.
The night the tornado hit, we had the tornado that hit our road and about 4 more that travelled over us. The sirens went off repeatedly all night and from about 9:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. we were running back and forth from our living room (trying to clear out what we could from the waterfall coming in the large hole in the roof directly over our movies and entertainment center) to the storm cellar (which is UPHILL in the wind and rain and over the two full grown pine trees that were between us and the cellar now). Alot of running. After we got hit and began assessing the damage we sent the kids (who were obviously traumatized and scared to death) to Derek's grandmother in a neighboring town, about 15 minutes away. She has a storm cellar and they weren't hit and had power so we sent them there so they wouldn't be so scared. My sister showed up and we were in my house trying to move stuff out of the living room. You couldn't hear anything for all the thunder and the literal waterfall in my living room (this is no exaggeration - it was an actual cascading waterfall coming into my house). All of the sudden, the wind started making funny noises and I looked out the window and saw a flashlight going biserck at the top of the hill. It was waving frantically in every direction and moving down the hill...I stepped out on the porch and heard Derek's voice screaming my name at the top of his lungs. I could hear the absolute terror in his voice and then I heard the sirens. My sister and I charged up the hill against the wind (which was blowing in every direction imaginable) as fast as we could. I learned after we got to safety that another funnel had been spotted at the firestation through the woods and was coming down the exact same path. It was at that moment, when I heard the fear in his voice, saw how frantically he was attempting to not break his neck and run down hill in the rain and jump two trees and saw the panick on his face that he was terrified something would happen to ME. I think that is when he realized it too. The next day when my mother-in-law and I were talking, I made the comment that we were truly truly lucky and God was watching over us. She made a remark that was like a light switch coming on. She said "or maybe he was trying to tell somebody something". In that absolute moment, I realized he was. He was speaking to me and Derek and showing us that we had alot to be thankful for. Alot that we cared about and would be devestated if we lost.
To this day, our relationship has never been stronger. We have our moments of course, but it has been so much better since that night. Dealing with everything we have had come our way in the last year would not have been possible if we had not had that eye opener.
Not to mention the lesson that it taught our kids. It could always be worse. We were extremely lucky that we live in the "gorge" that we do. I complain about living down at the bottom of the hill all the time because our yard is awful when it rains. But, had we not been down there, our home likely would have been blown over and sent sailing across the neighborhood very very easily. My kids realized that in a second, everything can be lost. I think that has made them very very grateful for the things in life that they do have. Since their rooms were destroyed and have had to be redone, they take care of their things better, want to make sure everything is taken care of and kept neat and special. I could not be more happy that this happened to our family when it did. It was truly one of the few "blessings in disguise" that I will remember for the rest of my life. I realized that the answers to lifes questions are not answered in black and white. God answers your prayers with actions and when you are not sure where to go, you have to pay attention, because sometimes the worst things in life are the answers you are truly looking for.
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