Today is the two year anniversary of the tornado outbreak. Same as last year it's a dreary, rainy day. We're under a severe thunderstorm watch as I type this.
We made plans a few weeks ago to clean our garage today. In the weeks after the tornado everything anyone found was put in storage containers and boxes. First it went to my brothers house and sat in his garage for three months until we bought our new house. As we moved the stuff here we went through some of it and threw away a lot of stuff. Wet sheetrock sticks better than superglue. Just trust me on that one
Of course the adventure wasn't over because over time mold set in. So, even some of the things we were able to save initially had to be thrown out. I guess sometimes it doesn't matter how quickly you get to things, once they've been rained on like that there's no hope of saving them. The rest of the stuff we recovered has been sitting in our garage since a few months after the tornado. Then, last March we had more stuff make it's way to the garage when the flooring men and painters had to move everything out of the house because of the second tornado. That meant that more stuff made it's way to the garage and less stuff made it's way back into the house.
Brandon asked if it would be too hard on me going through our stuff today. I told him that I was going to be thinking about what happened anyway today, so we might as well clean. Brandon's parents came over and helped us watch Lily and clean.
We were in Athens today before we started working on the garage and we stopped for lunch at Applebees. When we left it was starting to rain lightly outside. For some reason I was taken back two years to that moment when I was running through the neighborhood, with a blanket wrapped around me, and not another soul in sight, feeling helpless and lost. Sometimes two years seems like yesterday.
Our garage is looking a lot better. We have a few trash bags filled up now. We aren't finished, but we're a lot closer.
On a closing note for the second anniversary, sometimes you wonder if life had a soundtrack what would it be. On the afternoon of April 27, 2011 my soundtrack would have been "I Will Praise You in This Storm" by Casting Crowns. The first time I heard that song was a few weeks after the tornado. It still brings tears because the words are so literal to me. Every time I hear it I think of those moments after the tornado when I didn't know what to do. I was lost, but God took my hand and took care of me.
"Though my heart is torn, I will praise you in this storm" - Casting Crowns
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