It has been a week...

In case you wonder what it is like to be here the week after the storm...its very surreal.

Yesterday was the first time I went to the other side of town where all the damage is.  I have been helping with donations and stuff at the church and just haven't needed anything on the other side of town so I didn't go there.  Something seemed very wrong about going just to drive through and look at the damage without having a place to go help.  But yesterday Lance was off, it was field day at Brock's school so I spent all morning there with him and then we all ate lunch together and Haley and I spent the afternoon out shopping.  We went to get pedicures and complete strangers would look at each other and ask, "Did you have any damage?"  The answers of course were different with each one but there was a common thread, a since of community, a shared interest in each other that isn't normally there.  It reminded me in some ways of the months following September 11 except this time there is no evil group that caused this and its not so much a since of we are Americans it's we are Tuscaloosa.  Although you don't have to be living here to be part of that "we" you just have to share that common interest in everyone getting back on their feet.  After we left there we headed over to the mall and the traffic was HORRIBLE on McFarland.  There are signs in front of most businesses that say "Yes, we are open" because the damage around them does make you question it.  There is still steel pieces in the bushes near where signs used to be and what trees that are standing near the mall are pretty beaten up.  National Guards are everywhere and its very surreal to think that there are youth groups planning to come here for their mission trips this summer.  There are tarps nailed to the top of the buildings that are standing and huge piles of metal and wood have been bulldozed to piles in many areas.  Tents are outside where buildings used to stand with people working under them as if they are inside the store that used to stand there.  The night the storm came through an old friend saw me on facebook and said they heard you could stand at the mall and see straight to the stadium.  I thought about that as we were leaving the mall and you could clearly see the stadium.  As I sat at the light and looked to my right there were men with guns guarding the truck in front of CVS with the big satelite on it and to my left there were two more guards with guns sitting by the Regions truck in their parking lot.  It reminded me of how sad I felt for those people in Mexico last summer when we got off our cruise boat at one of the ports.  Police with big guns were everywhere there and the people were so used to it they didn't seem to notice.  Now they are here in our town.  I don't want that to be needed, or normal around here.  As we turned and went past where Hobby Lobby used to be there were more of those bull dozed piles but lots of wood was in these and that was very overwhelming to me.  It made me burst out in tears and I felt like I couldn't breathe, my chest felt tight.  It was the mere thought that that wood used to be the walls of peoples homes, they raised there babies in those homes.  Are those people okay? Were they home when it hit?  Are they still looking for family members?   Everywhere you go people look tired and worn.  The victims are tired from all the events of the last week and the thought of this only being a week into their new reality.  They have a long road ahead of them to get back to a new normal.  The volunteers are tired from trying to be where needed and feeling guilty for doing any of the things for yourself that you used to take for granted.  While doing laundry or cutting the grass you feel so blessed to still have a home or yard to do that and feel very selfish for not being out at that minute helping those that don't.  I have been very blessed through this that my family was not harmed, we didn't have any damage.  We were affected by lightening from the morning storms but after all that happened that night its not even worth mentioning.  I hope my children have seen through us and through being there helping others that its important to do so. I always say it's a contagious thing, if you see that look in the eyes of someone you have helped you will want to do it again and again.  I hope my children have "caught that".   The stories both good and bad from the last week will be told again and again, I hope the feeling of community lives on as well.