It was a VERY GOOD Friday for us.... not for some

I am a firm believer that EVERYthing happens for a specific reason!!  I also KNOW there ARE defining day's in MY life and yesterday was ONE of those days.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q01uAPoaBAc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QP-DOSUc4c

This last link shows the radar/map of the path of one of the tornadoes.  We live VERY close to Walterhill and yes we WERE in the path.  WE are all OK as is our house.  I DID see the tornado (or one of them as there were multiple ones).... no pictures nor video from me as I had a house full of 10 children and 3 adults!!!!  Not to mention I did not have batteries yesterday.  We had all the older kids in the bathtub with towels and pillows (7 kids in total), then my friends and I were all holding our babies (one each).  All three of us were standing on the front porch with a baby in hand accessing the sky.  Kristen was the first one to point out the funnel cloud where we could see circulation.  She went inside then Chandra and I looked again to see definite circulation and debris around it.... her and I then went into the bathroom.

I am not sure if my nature is such or the fact that I have had my own personal devastation on the night of our fire, but all I could think about after Mark got home was to get out and help.  I went to four different locations where shelters and such were being set up and the need for help was good last night.  The efforts last night were still to complete search and rescue along with people accessing their homes and such.  I will be out today to help in anyway I can.  I spent yesterday afternoon calling and texting (calls were hard to get through as the land lines were down and cell tours were overloaded..... tried to stay off the phone as much as possible for emergency personnel) people that I knew lived in the path along with contacts checking on other people I knew in the path.  I have a few friends whose homes have definite damage and then I know of a few people who have extensive damage, along with a few people that I do not know the status.  Bottom line though, all are SAVE!  That really is the ONLY important thing.  However as these people begin to rebuild their possessions/material things, it will likely be hard for them to fully focus on that comfort...... as I know personally how hard it is to see your 'life' in possessions destroyed...... mind you I have NO idea what it is like for these people as my possessions were only destroyed from extensive smoke damage.

PLEASE pray for all that are injured, for the family who has suffered the worst tragic with the loss of life, for all that are in shock seeing their homes damaged and/or destroyed and for all of the community as we all work to rebuild.  While this was bad, I do know it could have been SO much worse.......... as it was Good Friday, all of the kids were NOT in school which I view as a very good blessing!