The Waiting Game

 

So Monday night we went to bed anticipating a long rainy day ahead of us.  Tuesday drug on and on, waiting for the storm to build.  We had some wind and lots of rain but nothing worse than some of our summer rain storms we’ve been having.  The weather reporters were making such a big deal it was becoming amusing – I kept saying, it’s just a tropical storm, your blowing it out of proportion.

Our perpetrations included cranking down the deep freezer, refrigerator and a/c’s anticipating power loss.  The kids helped put all outside things in the river shack so they wouldn’t blow away.  We found out Sunday we needed to watch what we discussed in front of the kids because Logan started getting concerned, asking if our house was going to blow away.  Kids don’t need to worry about these things.

Tuesday afternoon, Justin and the boys were outside playing in the wind and rain but by evening the wind was picking up.  We told the kids they could have a slumber party and put them all in Elizabeth’s front bedroom which has the smallest window.  Shortly before putting them to bed the power flickered out after teasing us several times prior to this. Luckily the kids all passed out quickly because the winds really started picking up around 9 that night.  We attempted to go to bed around 11 I think.  The wind was pounding the back windows, along with pounds of Spanish moss and acorns.  There was this constant hum.  By 2 am neither of us had slept much and decided we’d move to the other front bed rooms and attempt to get an hr or two of sleep. 

I went to the boys room and Justin went to Jackson room where we had a spare mattress laid out from Teresa’s visit that weekend.  I laid there, praying it would end, constantly checking the radar, thinking it should blow over by now, but it just kept going and going.  Around 4 am I saw we were now under a tornado watch.  Great – tornado watch combined with a constant hum of winds – I was scared – but at this point scared does no good.  I went and laid in the bed in Elizabeth’s room.  They were all in a tent so it didn’t disturb them at all.  I just kept praying to get us through the night.  There’s just something about a storm like that in the dark and you can’t see anything but pitch black outside. 

The kids woke up around 6:30am and by that time the worst of it was over.  It was still windy and rainy but not nearly as bad.  We all ran around the windows assessing the damage.  Front fence down on both sides of the house, and back fence down from neighbors play set falling over.  All and all not nearly as bad as it sounded.  Our entire yard had a layer of spanish moss on it.  All three doors had taken in some water just from it blowing up against them but no carpet in this house so no problem.   Thank you God for answered prayers.  It was over and all was well.