Gratitude

I am so thankful this morning for so many things. At this moment, I am thankful for my cup of coffee that I made inside, in my coffee pot, with electricity!

As most of those we know in these parts, we were without power for much of the week. Almost 5 days to be exact. Sadly there are still some we know that do not have power and I can't imagine how frustrated they must feel. I believe the stresses of not having power were hard enough for any of us, but sharing the frustration with another family, all under one roof was tough. We had to bath and shower in the dark bathrooms (neither have windows) by candle or flashlight. We had to run a generator borrowed from my brother's pastor. The generator ran the fridge, deep freezer, a few lights, a fan, and the occasional computer for my brother. It became a joke in our household that the reason we were without power was because of my giving up the computer for the week. God must have a sense of humor!

Sunday night we were going on a coffee run when my brother met me at the car and said the power was out. We figured it would be a little while but never did we anticipate that we would be without power for as long as we were. The winds Sunday night were fierce. Tress and brushes were ripped up and thrown like a tornado came through. We drove around for a bit to see what had happened to cause the city-wide outage. Some of the pictures were not real good because the wind was causing so much debris to fly that my camera was picking up the debris rather than the actual image I was trying to photograph. Here are a few picture I took of what we found...

This was a tree that was down on State St. right in front of Burger King.



Though hard to see, this another tree that was down in front of Burger King just further down from the other. You could not get through at all on this end.



After our drive around town, this what we came home to find. This tree and set of power lines is located right by my brothers home on Homewood. This tree is across the street and only one house down from us. We almost drove right into the down power lines because you could not see them.



This is the same tree as above but this is what it looked like the next morning. Sadly, this wasn't the worst of it!



A little further down on Homewood there was the worst of the damage. Our street was one of, if not, the worst streets in town. Salem got hit pretty hard.



This tree was uprooted! I can not believe that winds alone could do such damage. We had no rain or lighting...JUST WIND.



This tree is the one that did most of the damage on our street. We were talking with some of the families that lives down on that end of Homewood and the homeowners had to pay $2400 to have the tree cut up and removed. They were responsible for the removal.



This is the damage the tree caused across the street in the neighbors yard.




Full view of the damage between the houses.



This is what the generator/power box looked like. It's amazing that no one was hurt!

It has been a tough week but I have learned a few lessons through it all. I am so thankful that we are all OK and that nothing serious happened to our families. Sadly, through the trials we were all facing this week I got the tragic news that a 3 year old little girl died due to E-colia. I do not know her parents personally but I went to school with her aunt and uncle. It is so hard to understand why things like this happen in our lives. But I know that God does and that He promises to work ALL things together for good. My heart still aches for her family.

All that has taken place has played into my seeking the Lord this week. It seems like the moment that I chose to give up some things in order to seek Him, He opened the doors wide open for me to find Him. In the midst of life's storms, He is the one constant. I have allowed my circumstances to fog my view of Him. This week has been a week of renewal. It is hard to understand or explain it all. God is like that, as we all know. I have not found the answers nor do I think they will come over night. But what I do have is a peace. I know that God is truly in control and that there is never need to worry or fret.
"Be anxious for NOTHING"
So my trust is in Him. I believe that He will provide the answers at just the right time. In the meantime I will follow His instructions to be patient and wait on Him.

Well, I think that will be all for today. I actually began this post this morning and it is now 10:15 p.m. I think the events of this week have left me drained. I did not sleep well the first couple of nights. It's all caught up with me and now I'm beat!

Until next time, have a wonderful weekend. TTFN