We are okay!

Thank God with all the terrible tornadoes and storms that hit Alabama yesterday we were lucky enough to make it through with no damage.

Yesterday morning we woke to sirens and rain beating down on our windows. Going to work that same morning I saw tons of trees and power lines that had fallen along with lots of places that power was off. We received a phone call from Matt's mother that her home had some damage to her roof and it was leaking. The fence in her backyard had been knocked over and some of her bushes were pulled out by the strong winds.  Matt, his uncle, and brother went to help his mother, Debbie, put a tarp over her roof in anticipation that there were worse storms to come.  I made the mistake of calling her while they were on the roof putting up the tarp. The wind had begun to blow and I was worried that Matt should finish up and head home before the next storms hit. As I was talking to her, Debbie kept yelling to the boys.

"Be careful!" "Oh my gosh Matt watch out!" "Oh my!.." "oh gosh!"

Let's just say it wasn't very comforting to hear her cries of worry as I was talking to her while my husband was on her roof. Note to self: don't talk to Matt's mom when he is doing something dangerous. He anxiety levels don't help mine.

Matt finally got home and thankfully they were able to fix her roof and it held up through the other storms. It was mysteriously sunny all afternoon and my dumb self said (enter southern redneck voice here)

"well I don't guess we are gonna get any bad weather". Yeah. So I jinxed that. I can see the headlines now "Jessica Coleman jinxes the state of Alabama causing catastrophic tornadoes". Okay, 99% of Birmingham would be like, Jessica who?

Around 6pm we started to hear the sirens go off again and turned on the news. Thankfully our power never went out. We saw that there were several tornadoes that had hit, and one that was headed our way. My husband is the one that when the weatherman says "Do NOT go outside!" he runs outside to look. "Hey Jess! Look at this!".  We later joked about his potential death saying "his last words were 'woah it sure is windy out here!'. *please know I am in no way trying to minimize or laugh at the severity of the devastation*

After convincing him I loved him and wanted him around longer we got in our safe spot with the laptop and watched the news while we waited with the dogs. There is nothing scarier than watching devastation heading straight to your house. We prayed and thank God he heard us. The tornadoes missed us. When it was all over we went outside and saw so much debris in our yard. Insulation, shingles, wood, toys, and even a artificial Christmas tree branch was in our yard. And the sad thing is that none of it was from anywhere near us. It very well could be from Tuscaloosa, where a horrendous tornado hit. The crazy thing is, Tuscaloosa is over an hour West of us.

Some of the debris in our yard, some roof shingles, a page out of a nursing book, a toy some wood

Luckily Gracie wasn't too worried.

Matt and the dogs in our "safe area"

Seeing the news this morning I couldn't help but feel thankful that we are fine-- along with our family and friends, but also saddened and shocked at the extent to the damage. It looks as if bombs have gone off. Hundreds of thousands of people have no power, many no homes. Many lives have been lost. It makes my heart hurt. Please keep our state in your prayers during this difficult time--we need all the help and prayers we can get. Visit the Red Cross website for more information on how you can help.