So thankful, but heartbroken....

Most might have heard already, but we had a scary night here in Georgia.

I can say that it was honestly the first time in my 28 years here that I've ever actually was scared enough to take cover. Around 10pm, I decided to set up the pack-n-play and move Olivia to my closet just in case. David and I then headed to bed, but stayed up listening to the radio. At 1:00am they made the announcement that a tornado had touched down in our area and we were to take cover, so I decided to wake him and move us both to the closet too. We then waited the next few hours huddled in my closet. Luckily, we were fine and in fact, David and Olivia slept through the entire thing.

The scariest part of the whole night for me was that once I had read on facebook where they were saying the tornado had touched down, I was frantically calling Nicole begging her to be up and take cover. The tornado had hit street over from their house and I know them and knew they were probably all still in bed (which they were). I waited a good ten minutes before I got a response and she finally called to say they were okay and in the closet. I think my heart was about to come out of my chest during that time. I wouldn't let her off the phone until the storm passed and we felt okay to crawl out of our hiding places. Thank God, they were safe and had no damage.

Unfortunately, not everyone in our area was that lucky.

(via)

To give you an idea...that building is only about ten minutes from our house and only three from Nicole.

It's crazy to see places that you drive by everyday now completely destroyed.

A few people have lost their lives and a few are still missing. Though we don't know anyone personally, we do know people through association, so it's been hard reading everyone's facebook statuses all day. These people have been in my thoughts and prayers all day. I cannot imagine waking up this morning to everything being gone. As one friend graciously put it on facebook, it's been a day of thanksgiving that we were spared, but your heart breaks for those who weren't so lucky.

And to see what is going on in Alabama....I cannot even begin to imagine.

I'm thankful to report in the last 24 hours, this is the only damage we've had around the Mabrey household...

Nicole and the kids were left without power, so I insisted they come and hang out with us today. It's no fun without power, let alone no power and two small children. Amy had a rough night too with her two, so we are all firm believers when it's going to be a crazy day with the kids...we just let them be crazy together.

Today however has been an absolute gorgeous day.

Thanks for all the calls to check in on us. Thank you for those calling my phone at 1 a.m. to tell us to take cover (even though I didn't answer, I was afraid to wake up OK). Thank you for those who were on facebook all night keeping everyone up to date. I'm happy to report we are safe and damage free. Please pray for those who were not so fortunate.

Here's hoping to a calmer night tonight.