Thursday, April 23, 2009

my perspective has changed...

i am still alive. my town is reeling from the tornado that ravaged it 2 weeks ago tonight. i'm one of the 1500 plus volunteers here trying to clean up. been forever changed. i'm so thankful for my life. for the lives of those in my family. i'm thankful for my home for my car. i'm thankful for the "stuff" that fills my home. (although right now, that "stuff"...primarily laundry is about to take over my home. will i ever get it all done?) i am so grateful to be a part of this community. sure...we are a little country here. sure, we don't have the most up to the minute news sources or technology. sure, walmart is like "it" here.... but after all of this there is not another place i would want to be right now. i have seen these precious people love on one another, and work their tails off. they haven't waited around for the gov't (although we are still hoping they might show up), they haven't looted or rioted. they have gotten to work and they/we still are. mena will never be the same. there is just no way. BUT, i do believe that it will be better. i know i will. i will always be proud of my home town. i will always love the people and i will always serve the God Who has redeemed us and Who is working in this situation and bringing good things out of it.

well, now i broke the ice. hopefully i can get caught up here eventually.

right now, i am doing most of my "blogging" on the Mena Disaster Relief Information Blog here. hopefully we will have some word from FEMA soon so that we will know which direction to go.

the girls are doing good. grace moves very quickly! sophie cracks me up daily. we got a pretty good report from the dr. this week on grace's ears... she still has some fluid, but it is no longer infected. Thank YOU, Lord! we were SO over taking antibiotics and all the yucky side effects of those. her dr. does have some concerns about some bumps on her chest/arm (that have been there since birth/we came home from Childrens). Grace has an appt with a Pediatric Dermatologist at ACH this summer. we aren't worried, but we do want it to be seen.

dan is good too. he is officially a "red neck" since he got some major sun last week working on clearing debis/chainsaw/tarp work. he has helped me a lot with the girls since i have have lots to work on. he also preached last sunday at a little church in wickes. he did a great job (what i heard at least). i spent most of my time wrangling a 15 month old who really wanted to be on stage with daddy or behind the piano with the pianist. :)

we're looking forward to celebrating "easter on six mile" this weekend. easter was really different this year. but worshipping amongst the rubble and then delivering about 1300 meals in our community was awesome.

He is the GOD of this city. He is the hope of these people and yes, better things are yet to come....