Two days after my sister's wedding, a huge tornado ripped through Joplin. The company that Kevin works for also has a nursing home in Joplin that was hit. They asked for volunteers to come and help at the facility, so Kevin left that Monday. He wasn't sure how long he would be gone, but he figured it would be a day or two at the most.
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| The devastation was unbelievable. I have NEVER seen anything like this... |
That next Tuesday, huge storms ripped through the midwest yet again. We weren't in danger here, but they issued another tornado warning in Joplin and Kevin had to take cover in the hotel stairwell. I think I just about had a nervous breakdown with all of the craziness, so when Kevin said he thought he would be in Joplin for the rest of the week, I packed the kids up and we went to the lakehouse.
It's about an hour and a half away from the lakehouse, but at least Kevin could come back in the evenings and see us. My mom came up the next day and watched the boys while my cousin Andy and I went to meet Kevin in Joplin. Because we didn't get to the safety training in time due to traffic, we couldn't go out into the affected areas with Samaritan's Purse. We worked in a warehouse sorting food donations instead.
Even with all the craziness, we still had lots of fun at the lakehouse.
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| Feeding the turtles |
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| Eating who-knows-what |
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| Caleb was so excited about the turtles! |
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| Noah would have jumped in had we not been hanging on to him. The kid has no fear. |
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| Lola and her angel boy |
As we were getting ready to leave, we left the garage door open while we were packing the car. Noah found his way to the top of the garage stairs and jumped (not fell) down the 3 stairs. He landed face first on the concrete floor. You can see in this picture his swollen and bruised nose, busted lip, and bruised forehead. Poor baby! We were SO thankful it wasn't any worse and we didn't have to take him to the hospital.
It was an eventful week, to say the least, and it was good to get home!
