Storms

Recently, central Texas has been hit with quite a few storms. We've also had a few tornadoes land very close by. One actually started to come down, up the road from where we were, before going back up. It was frightening and yet extremely thrilling. There is so much power, and force that these storms create that you can't help but feel a little excited when they roll through. It could also be that after watching Twister at a young age I had dreams of being a tornado chaser? But that's a story for another time. Anyway, my geology teacher always said "Mother nature is a hard, hard mistress. And she doesn't give a damn about anything." Now, I never doubted this. We see so many natural disaster that happen all over the world on daily basis. However, I've lived here my whole life and we've never had sirens go off. So, when they went off a few weeks ago (and again this past weekend) I didn't know whether to take it seriously or continue on with what I was doing.

I know it's probably on the "unsafe side", but we always laughed about these "Tornado Warnings" because they would never ever come anywhere close to us. It was like a joke between the locals. A lot of us would just smile when out-of-towners got all worked up over storms. In fact, when this recent one came through I was taking a nap with the little and our two dogs. A coworker of mine was texting me and then I got a call from my boss. All of them asking if we were okay? Whether we were taking shelter? I looked out our window and saw clear skies. And I actually giggled. All of this worry for nothing. About ten minutes later the sirens went off. I ran out of the house to see what the skies looked like and sure enough that storm was right above us (hence why I couldn't see it earlier). Ten minutes later my brother told us to get out of the house and come to theirs because they could see rotation. The rain started coming down and they were huge drops. Five minutes later we were rushing to my parents house; dogs in tow.  Our timing couldn't have been better because just as we got out of our cars we had high winds, hail the size of baseballs, and reports that a tornado had been spotted on the ground. And this was just the first round. 

Two hours after that first storm hit we had another one, and it messed up our vehicles. Another tornado touched down in a neighboring town. A few days later, we had another storm with more hail. It's been raining pretty much every other day since. And this past weekend we had two more tornadoes come through a few miles away and golf ball size hail as well. To say we've taken a beating...well for us is an understatement. I know there are places that get it much much worse, and we were lucky to not have any fatalities. We also live in a very rural area, so land and homes are pretty far apart which I think plays a pretty big part in that. Still, we've had floods and major damage to houses, and vehicles. A lot of us walked out of our homes with our heads hanging. Grateful to be alive, and yet really bummed out at how much damage there was. 

There has been a bright side though. Our lakes are filling back up which was really needed. So, I'm not completely against the rain and thunderstorms. I could just do without the hail and tornadoes. And if I don't hear those sirens go off again this summer, I wouldn't hate that either. 

Hail, from the first round; they got bigger

So much hail; looked like snow & the temp dropped

Second round on it's way

Funnel cloud; bounced right back up

Wordless Wednesday

This was taken on 4/28/15, but it's pretty much been our view for the past few weeks. 

Miracles

In my last post I spoke to you guys about my aunt. She had recently been diagnosed with Stage IV Gallbladder cancer. She was told that it was very aggressive and resistant to treatment. Anything they did at this point was only going to buy her time. We were pretty much told that this was it. But my mother, kept insisting that this was not the end. "Miracles happen every day, Raquel. God has the last word." And so with that, we kept praying. 

I've heard so many tragic stories though. In my heart I knew that the chances of recovery would have to come down to just that: a miracle. And so I started to prepare myself for the time when I'd have to let go. When I'd have to be strong for my mom. When I'd have to say goodbye to my aunt. That alone was unreal to me. I'm 27 years old and still I'm the one who seeks out my mother when I need to break down. When I need a good cry. When I need that reassurance that I'm going to be okay. She has always been my strength. So, for us to reverse roles when she needed a moment was so unexpected. It definitely made me appreciate her that much more for all the times she's helped me back up. And during this difficult time, she needed us to believe. She needed us to get on our knees every night, and say a little prayer. She needed me to give her a hug, and let her know that everything was going to be okay. And so, I did just that. 

Now, I know that there are so many people out there who believe in God, and just as many that don't. I'm very much aware that my religion isn't the only one out there either. And I won't treat anyone else any differently for not believing the same way that I do. Well, maybe if they use it as an excuse to hurt someone but that's another can of worms. It's their free will and in the end I have no right to judge. However, for me this is it. And at the end of April, we received some pretty amazing news. And just like my mother said "God has the last word." 

Many didn't know what I was going through these last few month's. Well my family and I. Here's part of my testimony....
Posted by Linda Graciale on Thursday, April 16, 2015