If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear.

Today marks 4 weeks since we had the deadly tornados here in the Dallas area.   Yesterday I decided to take the kids to go see some of the destruction that was caused by the ef4 tornado that hit close to us.  The closest hit spot to us was about 5 miles away.  The first response the kids had when they saw the apartments that were hit were "Wow!" and "Oh my goodness!". 

To go back real fast to Dec. 26th(the evening of the tornados).  I get the Code Red alerts(somthing that the DFW area does with texting/calling with flood/tornado/any kind of weather warnings and such) on my phone.  I heard my phone indicate that I had a text so I checked it out and it said that there was a tornado warning in our area.  I just let everyone know so they had somewhat of a heads up.  I then went to Ben's room and turned on the radio. The kids were all in the living room watching a show from netflix.  As I was listening to the radio, Ben comes in and is on the verge of tears and says "I don't want to live here.  I want to move somewhere where there aren't tornados.  I want to live in the desert."   I love the fact that he didn't want to be hurt or anything.  I was able to sit down with Ben on his bed and explain to him that Yes-there was a tornado warning but did that mean the tornado was right there right then?  No.  I told him that that is why I had turned on the radio so I could listen to what was going on, where the tornado was, what it was doing, what the anticipated path was(at the time the first tornado was down in Ovilla area).  With being able to explain to Ben what I was doing and why I was doing it, and being able to do in in a calm manner, helped Ben to calm down.  Yes he was still nervous and a little scared but he was doing better.    After about 15 min give or take, I went and changed the channel on the TV(kids kept watching netflix on the computer--thanks HDMI cords) so that I could watch the news and see things.  After about 5-10 min they said a tornado had touched down in Sunnyvale.  So I went and told Mike so he knew(he was in the bathroom).  His comment was "So it's basically here?"  I replied "More or less".   I come back out and tell the kids to get their flashlights that they had just gotten for Christmas and to get them to the hall bathroom.  Ben asked if he could take his tablet too.  I told him yes.  Shortly after having them do that the Tornado sirens started going off.  So I had all the kids get to the Bathroom.  I pulled Angela's toddler mattress near the door of the bathroom and all of us (with the exception of Mike who was still in the other bathroom) were in our hallway bathroom.  Shortly after we got in there the power went out.  The kids were all grateful I had had them get their flashlights.  Mike had finally come in to where we were.  As I was sitting on the toilet hold Angela I took her flashlight and started making the shadows(dog, duck, bird) on the wall.  The favor was the dog.  I made it so it barked and panted kind of thing and it got Angela laughing, which in turn helped the other kids especially.  I'm sure some of the thoughts they had(especially Ben) were "Wait, there's a tornado in the area, we're in the bathroom yet mom isn't acting scared or nervous but making shadow puppets on the wall and making Angela laugh.  What?"  After about 20 min of no power it came back on and we were able to watch the news and knew that the tornado had passed.  I was able to briefly talk with the kids on why it was important to be prepared, and that is why I had done the things I had done.

Back to yesterday as we drove past the apartments that were damaged(I-30 and George Bush) and then again a small neighborhood, I was able to go over again why it was important to be prepared and that I did what I did so that we were prepared.  And Ben brought it up to the fact that the tornado could have change directions.  I was able to go over that with them that had the tornado in fact changed directions and come closer to us we had a plan, we were ready, so that we would have had a good chance of surviving had it happened. 

Was I scared?  No. I had an understanding of what tornados could do.  I knew what to do if it did come our way.  I had turned on the news so I knew when/how to do things and get things in motion.  I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for the peace he brings.  I love the quote "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear."  And I saw that that night.