Dark day, lessons learned

Update: I just wanted to preface this post and make it clear that we would have never left the house and endangered our family just for a car! We had already test driven the car, picked it out and negotiated the numbers. All we had to do was sign and drive home. We watched the weather report that morning and it said that the storms would not be in until later that afternoon. We left in plenty of time to finish and be back home before the storms, but they came in way faster and stronger than anyone could have predicted.

In case you don't live in the southeast region of the U.S. or haven't paid any attention to the news, we have had quite a scary weather weekend. Downtown Atlanta was hit by a tornado Friday night in one of the most populated areas. The damage is huge but the amazing thing is that no one was killed and the injuries seem to be minimal. The first thing that came to my mind when I heard the news is a particular homeless man that we saw a few weeks ago while walking on the same block that was wiped out. Usually, I don't pay much attention. I am not proud of that, but you just never know if they are panhandling or truly in need, or if they are just looking for their next drug fix. But this particular man was sitting in a wheelchair, he was elderly and he was very obviously unable to work or take care of himself. He was just sitting there, half asleep, looking so very lonely and desperate. He didn't beg, he didn't even look at us when we walked by. Without even saying anything, Eric and I both turned around. We gave him whatever cash we had on us and I had a whole bag of snacks and drinks I brought for the kids. We gave him that too. As we walked away, Linzi had hard questions and I was fighting back tears. I will never forget him and I hope that he has a safe, warm place to go. So far, there are no reports of any deaths, so I can only assume that he found cover or someone pushed him to safety.

The next day, we found ourselves directly in the path of more tornadoes. We were in a car dealership (of all places), buying a new car when they came on the speaker and rushed everyone to a central room in the dealership. The tornado was spotted a mile or two away and was headed straight for us. At one point, we were huddled under a conference room table with about 10 other people. Then they herded us into the kitchen, saying it was the safest room in the building. I told Linzi that mommy might ask her to climb into a cabinet to be safe and had already emptied one out to put her in. I will never forget her scared little face and the words that came out. "But where are you going to go mommy?" And then the tears, hers and my silent ones. What struck me about this - as a mother, you know you will gladly give your life to save your child's. It is instinctive, expected. But as an egocentric four year old, her survival instinct was overthrown by her own desire to protect ME and make sure that she was not left alone - again. Pretty powerful stuff.

Later that evening, when she seemed to be past the emotions, Mandi mentioned something about the tornadoes. Linzi's answer to her "I was scared because mommy wanted me to get in the cabinet and there wasn't room for mommy in the cabinet."

We saw on the news the next day that there were several funnel clouds in the area that we were in but none of them touched down.

God protected us that day, not just from tornadoes, but from a very bad accident as well. We finally closed the deal on our new car. Normally, I would have driven it home since it was my car. But right as we were finishing up, Linzi started wanting to go home and I knew we were headed for a meltdown. I told Eric I would take her home in his car and he could drive the new car home. On the way home, he hit a patch in the highway and thankfully did not loose control (it was raining very heavy). He then watched the car behind him hydroplane across the highway, into oncoming traffic and clear to the other side and hit a tree. He pulled over to call 911 while everyone else was rushing to help the person. We don't know what happened. I do know this, my husband is a better driver in situations like that. If I had been driving, I might have panicked and it might have been me. So far there have not been any reports of a fatal accident on that highway, so I can only assume that person survived.

Sorry for such a downer post, but this day has made me stop and think about so many different things. I don't want to ever forget the lessons learned on this dark day. I will follow up with a happier post and pictures later today.

Hug the ones you love and cherish the sweet moments in your life.