Brief Update

Hello friends and family,

I wanted to do a short update on our tornado situation. Thank you to all that called, texted and made some kind of contact to make sure we were ok.

As of Monday night, I started coming down with what I discovered was strep. (for the 4th time this year) and stayed home Tuesday and Wednesday. Brent left early Wed. for his state tennis tournament in Montgomery. I knew we were supposed to have bad weather but I've never been scared or worried about bad weather. Little did I know what devastation was about to hit our city. I was alone with Baker in our "safe place" staying relatively calm. I could hear the TV reporting on how large this tornado was and how it was coming for Downtown Tuscaloosa which really isnt that close to us. Then, they said it hit parts of Skyland, which is close to us and I panicked, I mean, like, freaked out. I envisioned our house being whisked away and clinging to my baby for our lives. Thank GOD this was not our story, but it is the story of so many people here and its just heart breaking.

The power went out right as the tornado was coming through town. I just held Baker tight and tried not to scare him and prayed it wouldn't carry us away. I was unable to call or text out but I could recieve calls. I kept in contact with Brent and my dad consistently and got advice to go to Birmingham to stay with Nathan and Amy since we were alone and had no power. After shoving the bare necessities in a bag and manually opening the garage we headed to Birmingham. Scariest.drive.of.my.life. I was listening the the radio talking about the tornadoes all around us. Long story short, we made it fine and watched the storm coverage on TV. I was stunned at what I was watching and even more stunned at the video footage of this tornado, still in route, devastating parts of the state.

Aerial view of some of the destruction

Local Hobby Lobby- :(

I work at Calvary Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa and we are offering several ways to help with Tornado Relief. First, you can visit our website http://www.calvarytuscaloosa.org/ to find updated information on how, when and where to volunteer.
There is a button to donate money (through PayPal) if you are out of state and just want to help. Giving money to our Tornado Relief Fund would be awesome at this point. The good news is that the people calling in to volunteer is overwhelming. The bad news is that that people calling in to volunteer is overwhelming. We just don't have enough places organized yet to send volunteers to. However, if you keep checking our website, the needs change quickly and we might have options.