Giving Honor where it is Due

May is always a month filled with action. Spring/Summer is in full bloom( depending on where you live ) and people are getting outside. For us, May will forever have a very different meaning, and although we too can get caught up in life, I wanted to give honor where honor is due, to our saving Lord, Christ.

In order to give a more vivid account of our experience I am posting some bits of my journal. Hope you all have a blessed day and would be a blessing to others-K

The week before we moved had been a hard one. Our family had gotten a stomach flu, Hagen getting it last and having it the night of the storm. We rushed to get as much as we could out of the U-haul before the rain started. Hagen lay on a mattress in the room that was to be hers. Matilda( 4mnths old at the time) sat in her car seat in the living room and little Gabe cried to be held, while Layla, Wade and I all unloaded the truck as quickly as we could. Wade ran to the corner store, and as soon as he got back it started raining, HARD. It was a HUGE storm, with hail and lightning, and very strong winds.

Wade was in our room when he heard sirens coming from the next town. He could just hear them. He quickly unpacked the rabbit ears for the T.V. and turned on the news. The entire screen was red! We started looking for candles, found them, had nothing to light them. The lights go out. Wade is very nervous at this point. He later told me he knew in his heart we were going to be hit.

We used our cell phones for light and pulled Hagen, mattress and all, into the hall, to sit on. Every thing was happening so fast. Gabe only had a t-shirt and underwear on. Matilda only had a cloth diaper and plastic pants on. (It had been hot that day, but I will forever feel guilt for those little babies not having more clothes on.)

We all piled into the hall, Wade grabbed the other twin, and we closed all the hall doors. I can not explain the tention in the air, poor Matilda must have felt it, because she threw-up all over me. Wade prayed over all of us, out loud, and then came the hail, and rain and winds like I have never heard before or since. We could hear trees breaking outside.

For a few seconds it got quiet, like a vaccuum. Then you could hear the tornado forming, or maybe that`s just how it always sounds. It wasn`t really like a train. It was more like a jet engine gearing up. That high pitched sound. The whole house shook, and then the sound of cracking wood. Wade yelled over all the noise something like "God Save Us" and the roof was gone. In that moment crouching under a mattress, that could have been nothing, for the amount of protection it offered, I realized just how small I was and how Big God is. For me it was not a feeling of fear. I realize now that it was a feeling of pure AWE. I was as physically close to my Creator, in that moment, as I have ever been. It was a moment that demanded my respect.

Wood splintering and popping. Lightning and rain flooding in. I was aware that the roof was gone, but thought we should wait a few minutes before moving. Wade Yells " OMG, the whole roof is gone, we have to go to the neighbors,NOW!" So, we followed him. First we try the front door, blocked. The rain has already soaked us to the bone. My poor babies! There was strait path to a window that had been knocked out, so we all climbed through. Wade carried Gabe, I carried, Matilda, and poor Layla tried to carry Hagen, who was frozen for a moment. She had cried under the mattress. Intsead, I had Layla carry a small clothes basket of cloth diapers I had thought to put under the mattress with us. I guess I knew on some level too. None of us had shoes on,yet none of us stepped on a single piece of glass.

We run to the neighbor`s house, through their garden. Wade starts knocking on the door. I push my way through and start banging and shouting" Let us in , We have Kids, Help Us!" This little old lady answers the door, and before she even gets it open all the way, I push us all inside. She`s a grand-mother, her and her husband are retired, must be close to eighty.

They have white carpet, we have clumps of mud stuck to our feet, so we`re all huddled in the little foyer, while she gets us towels and blankets.

We are all starting to feel shell shocked, Layla hides her face to cry, as the kids lay in the hall together. I hold Matilda, who is so quiet and calm, I worry she may be in shock. Her defense was to go to sleep.

Meanwhile, Gabe wants to be held, and Hagen is feeling sick to her stomach. I tell Layla God protected her and she is safe now, and that we all just need to calm down a bit. We couldn`t afford a whole family melt down at this point, so I was trying to just keep eveyone as calm as possible. There would be plenty of time to reflect later.

Wade starts calling family, mom and dad are first. I can`t remember who is next, but I am in the backround yelling praises to God." God Saved Us! He Protected Us!!!" I felt exilerated! Not shell shocked, yet. (that would come later, when I had time to think it all through) I felt so joyous that He saved Us. He loved us and heard our prayers and said Yes. It was an amazing feeling to see that such a huge God, creator of the universe and everything in it, would care to take the time to literally place His hand over our family. That He would reach down for me, is something I don`t ever want to forget.

There is so much more to this entry. Some of it too personal to share on line, but God made His presence so clear to us in the coming days.So many little details he worked out, right before our eyes. He was Yelling in our ears"I am here! and I am!" He is such an amazing, loving God and He has been shaping my life from the beginning, but few moments in life will ever compare to this. It is the closest I have ever been to hearing the Lord`s voice or seeing His face. I will Forever be changed because of it.-K