And you thought your week was bad.

Wednesday morning I awoke to the sound of high winds and heavy rain and hail.  It was about 5:15am.  Jake was at work, Sean was asleep in bed with me and Kurtis was asleep in his room.  The wind was becoming more intense and the house groaned in protest.  Then the whole house started shaking.  Being a California native, I thought "earthquake", but I knew that was not what it was.  I sat up in bed and pulled Sean close to me, ready to run for it.  It sounded like a roaring train and I thought our roof was about to be ripped off.  The power went out and, being in Bellemont, it became pitch black.  The shaking stopped, but the wind, rain and hail continued.  Kurtis burst into my room crying, shaking and saying that his window had broken.  I hugged my boys and reassured them we were safe.  The first thing Kurtis asked was if we could say a prayer.  Of course.  We had a prayer. 

After the prayer, I said, "I think that was a tornado." I couldn't see anything outside it was so dark.  I took the boys night light downstairs to get another flashlight.  I heard voices that sounded closer and clearer than they should have been coming from our dining room window.  As I moved closer I saw all the glass.  I put shoes on and went into our backyard.  Both fences were severely bowed and one almost completely torn down.  I then saw the roof of our shed on the ground in front of our window.  The tornado had ripped the roof off the shed and thrown it against the window.  I went around the house with the flashlight to make sure everything else was still intact.  Other than the window and fences our house was okay.  Many of our neighbors; however, were not as fortunate.  I will post pictures of where we were soon, but this is the destruction from the tornado in another part of the development.

Both houses in this photo had almost all their windows blown out by the tornado and part of the roof ripped off.

This is our friend's boat that was catapulted into another friend's house above her son's bedroom.  They got out in time before the ceiling collapsed over all three bedrooms.

This is another friend's home.  They must have been in the eye of the storm at one point.  From what their daughter relayed to me.  Everyone in that home was lucky to be alive.

I know without a doubt God was watching over the families of Bellemont.  There were no major injuries, not even the woman who was picked up and thrown 5 houses down by the tornado!  There were a few broken bones and some needed stitches, but that was it.  I will post more photos soon.  We just praise the Lord that we were held in the hallow of His hand that fateful morning.