In respect to the world's sufferings, wars, genocides, hurricanes, persecutions, our momentary struggles are mere mosquitoes in our ears.  Yet, they do make us who we are...

Today is the one year anniversary of when the tornado hit IC.  One year later, I still can't help but recount how God spared us and showed His Sovereignty to all of those in IC.  

And think about it... a college town, the Thursday before Easter weekend, during store business hours, prime bar time through the ped mall, across apartments and houses where students don't have basements, and again, a college town.  

And think about it... people, students included, actually heeded the warning sirens, employees followed procedures, and those employees who didn't follow procedures actually saved lives because the procedure area would have killed them, it was the day before Good Friday and thankfully, St. Pat's was not full of their congregation, students did what they could to hide under mattresses even in their 3rd story apartments or find the center of their homes.

And think about it... lives were spared.

For me, it comes so strange.  It will forever be the scariest night of my life* and we were not home when the tornado hit our house.  We were driving home from D-port and in our car, we were within reach of one of the tornados that night and God in His Sovereignty spared us.

The sky was the eeriest shade of black the whole drive.  It was illuminated by the most elaborate, brightest lightning show I never hope to see again.  The crashes of lightning came one on top of another on top of another and broke, what felt like, on top of our car.  Between the torrents of rain, the kind that wipers are no good on, and the flashes of lightning that were so bright they made your eyes see spots, the drive was a literal blind shot in the dark.

Josh drove with great skill and the kids all slept (so deeply you'd think they were under anesthetic) in the backseat and I prayed.  The last 8 miles home were the worst.  Just before we stopped for a moment to phone a friend.  They told us about the tornados all around, watched their radar and told us if we were going to go, to go right now.  We left.

Still sheets of rain, still lightning, still pitch black, no stars, no break in the clouds, just black with lightning that made you see spots... and then hail.  Ever seen Twister?  "We've got hail."  I prayed even more desperately.  Then the winds and rain picked up stronger as our car was shaking all around.  Then a loud noise and deep rumbles all around.  We knew it was out there, but only God knew where. 

In my mind, I can only imagine what the scene looked like from above, but I imagine the twister, moving along its path and then God just flicking it with His finger saying, "No, you don't get to cross the interstate, not tonight." 

We couldn't get to our house due to all the downed trees so we tried to go to my sister’s house a few blocks away.  We actually saw her on the street as she was trying to get to our house on foot to see if we were all right.  When we did get near our home, a block away, we talked to all our neighbors outside and they told us how a tornado hit our neighborhood just 20 minutes before.

We had to trek through neighbor's yards to get to our house and after Josh did an initial survey that it was standing, we transported our still sleeping kids to home where they slept until morning, never knowing what happened.  We were spared.  Lots and lots of debris, a few broken windows and a totaled yet driveable car, seriously, just buzzes in the ear to losing your whole home.  God didn't hav