You Can't Stand Up All by Yourself

View of two bedrooms upstairs. Downstairs is where they were watching television.

Saturday night, my dad, Bob and his wife Jeanne, were watching television when they heard sirens. They moved to the laundry room, the safest place in the house (although the furnace is there as well), when they heard what sounded like a train go by. Debris, dirt and shattered glass started to come under the door to the laundry room. When the storm seemed to have passed, they assessed the damage. “It seemed like it wasn't that bad,” my dad said, “until we went upstairs to find that the side wall and a portion of the roof was gone.” My sister Tara and her son Zach, who live with them, had been at the movies.  

The next several hours were filled with texts and calls from family members making sure everyone was accounted for and safe. They tried to assess the damage in the dark and in the rain. And my brother Rob who lives in Texas had to convince my parents to walk away from their house with nothing but the clothes on their back, trusting that tomorrow is another day.  

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My stepmom, Jeanne behind their home.

Faith runs deep in my family – and the types of faith we practice run wide. We are varied in our styles and understanding of God. But when the walls blow away and the roof caves in, our differences become window dressing.

​Our faith as a family says the following things today:

• When all is destroyed but lives are spared, God has been present.
• God's presence is most profoundly and obviously seen through the hands and feet of humans who offer love and kindness, gentleness and compassion.
• We are blessed so that we can be a blessing.

And I believe most profound to us today is that we see and feel brokenness within our family being healed through this tragedy. And we are humbled by that.

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front of the house

If you are the praying type, please join me in prayer today. I'm praying for the emotions that will emerge particularly for my little sister Catie (who no longer lived there but who seems to be feeling the hurt of losing her childhood home). I'm praying for the healing that I believe is happening within relationships. I'm praying for safety, from nails sticking up from boards on the ground and from the possibility of the roof caving in. 
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Thank you to all who have donated. We assume much will be covered by insurance but believe that there are costs that will not. It is for these costs that we started the GoFundMe Site. 

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One more thing - My dad has always loved this song and it seems more than appropriate for this week in our lives.  I'm pretty sure it will be sung plenty of times today while they are working so I will leave you with it.