Tomatoes

Last weekend we had the highest risk of a major life-threatening tornado outbreak ever predicted for our area. There was a lot of hype and a lot of people out buying survival supplies for their basements. People made fun of it all, but I was glad for all the hype because it probably saved a lot of people's lives when the predictions came true. There were around 100 tornadoes (some very large and dangerous) in Kansas that day and night and NO deaths! We had an EF3 hit here in Wichita that did a lot of damage to our southeast area of town. At one point, we were huddled in our basement bathroom with two very tired kids and sleeping bags and pillows ready as the tornado headed STRAIGHT for us (it turned before getting to our area). Our weather radio kept saying over again, "This tornado is extremely dangerous and will be wiping entire neighborhoods off the map" etc. It was terrifying! I could hardly stand the thought of being apart from my kids if something happened. Let's just say, the entire city of Wichita was in prayer and everyone got only about 2 hours of sleep that night. Several neighborhoods and businesses were destroyed and a major clean up is under way this week (Brandon is going to help a family from our church tonight). Amongst all of this, Eli was our constant supplier of laughter. He has been referring to tornadoes as "tomatoes" for the past couple of months. He came home from school one day talking about how they had had a "tomato" drill and it stuck. The night of the tornado he prayed for everyone in Wichita and was bouncing off the walls talking about what we should do if there was a "tomato". It was hilarious and so cute! We were very thankful to be spared in this crazy storm and still praying for all those affected!