Whoa, Nelly!

I had my Weather Channel radar up on my laptop screen, keeping an eye on the storms making their way to our area.

I had my husband giving me doomsday warnings via text message.

I told him "It's dwindling away to nothing! We don't even have any red heading our way!"

About 60 seconds after I said that to him, I heard what I thought was a torrential downpour beating the roof of our house. I kept that thought for about 5 seconds. Then fear set in as I realized that sound was wind. I immediately started doing the only thing I know how to do in such situations...pray. I can't remember what I was praying but I do remember I got to a point where all I could say was "Keep us in the palm of Your hand" over and over. I heard creaking and cracking and thumping the likes of which I'd never heard. I thought it was our air conditioner being shoved by the wind through the window and into the dining room. I could feel outside air being blown around the room. It lasted maybe two minutes but felt like an hour.

As soon as it stopped I cautiously walked to the dining room, expecting the air conditioner (which was still running) to be hanging into the room, at least knocked ajar. I was shocked when it appeared to be perfectly fine. I whispered another small prayer asking to not be electrocuted as I turned the A/C off and unplugged it. I decided to go to the back patio door and try to asses the damage, if there was any. I was surprised when I pulled the curtain back and saw that the only thing left of our patio furniture was the umbrella base, sitting there alone and deserted.

I called Jason. He said he was on his way home. When he got home, we started working on getting all of our patio furniture out of Uncle Clay's (who happens to be our next-door neighbor) yard and moving it into the garage. I told Jason "Maybe we should just double check the air conditioner from the outside and make sure it's safe to use."

This is what we found in our backyard:

I'm thankful. Thankful for a lot of things. But tonight I want to thank my God for these specific things:

• My babies are all still snug and safe and sound asleep in their beds, unaware of any danger that could have been.
• Tonight's events were very minor.
• We don't have a hole in our roof and our bedroom is not collapsed in on itself. It appears the only damage is to the gutter, which is a fairly inexpensive fix.
• That I have an Abba who is there for me in the storm. The literal storm of nature as well as the figurative storm of earthly struggles. He gives me peace even when my fear may be a little over-dramatic and my imagination is running away with me. He is bigger than any straight-line winds or tornadoes.