Tornado Bunker

Last Friday we had some pretty severe weather in the area (as most people, probably all reading this, know). Going into last Friday, the weather forecast was that there would be tornadoes. I don't ever remember being told that there would almost definitely be tornadoes. Mathew was supposed to have a friend over in the afternoon, but I told him we were going to cancel it due to the forecast. I suppose Matthew has just hit a developmental age of being more aware of consequence of things, but he was really shaken by the thought that a tornado could be coming. He fought tears all morning (not very successfully, either!) He was most worried about Jonathan - so sweet. And he was very concerned about other family members, asking if they had basements (specifically, Daddy at work). He was also very worried about his toys and our house. I almost kept him home from school because he was so emotional about it. So before we left for school in the morning we started to build a tornado bunker. We flipped the couch upside down to protect us. While the boys were at school I gathered things that could be helpful if the weather really did get bad. I had snacks, drinks, flashlight, and activities to do in the dark if we lost power. My mom came over, too, because she does not have a basement. We built a toy bunker for Matthew to put his favorite toys in (don't tell him that it was just a couch cushion and it would have fallen over if I blew hard enough....he bought it). So we hunkered down for the afternoon. Fortunately, the weather near us didn't get bad at all. I think we had one huge gust of wind (which happened to displace part of our back fence. It's in place now, at least until the wind blows hard again!) Our hearts go out to those that did lose everything. Earlier in the day, Matthew had said something about how he didn't want our stuff to be all white. I couldn't figure out what he meant until we watched some of the news coverage after the storm. We saw a picture of an area where everything had been destroyed. All the wreckage was white. He pointed and said, "That's what I meant. It's white. I didn't want our stuff to look like that." I was so amazed at how his mind thought about that. I didn't realize he had even seen pictures like that before.

So we're thankful we came out unscathed. Thank you, Lord, for once again protecting us!