Five Houses and a Creek

That's all that separated my home from destruction. I'll get back to that in a bit...

It has been quite a crazy weekend. Let me backtrack to Thursday. When I picked Caleb up from the Bradford's, he complained that his wrist hurt. He was trying to put his shoes on and couldn't even move his hand. He had not said anything to Jenny before I got there but told me that he was trying to jump off the swing, changed his mind too late, then tried to grab on again and missed, flew out of the swing backward and fell on his left arm. I took him to the walk in and they x-rayed and the nurse practitioner said that she didn't see any obvious fracture but she would send it to the radiologist for an overread and call me on Friday. Caleb was out of school on Good Friday, so he got to stay with his favorite cousin, Sara. She lives in the Blackman area. I made arrangements with her so that if I found out his arm was broken, she could meet me in Triune so I could take him to his orthopaedist in Cool Springs. I got a call from the nurse practitioner around 10:30 telling me that his arm was, in fact, broken. I called ortho and got him in at 3. I called Sara to let her know. We planned to meet at 2:15 at Triune. Around 12 we were all told to go to the basement to take cover for a tornado warning. We were all in the basement of our building huddled around our computers watching the coverage. When they said that there was a tornado on the ground in Murfreesboro, I started praying. I called my mom to tell her to pray. Then they said it was on Fortress Blvd. Sara lives just off Fortress. I almost lost it. I just prayed, pleading for protection for my family. I was able to speak to Sara several times during the storm and she assured me that they were fine. I was also trying to call people on my street to find out if I still had a house. I live on the north side of town and I heard there was another tornado there. I couldn't get anyone to answer. We were given the all-clear in our building and we went back to work. I left around 2 to meet Sara, but she called me and said that she couldn't get to me. I called ortho and told them that Caleb wouldn't make it, so they told me to come to the office and pick up a splint to get him through the weekend and when he came in on Monday they would cast it. I headed home. It took me quite a while to get to Sara's house. When I arrived they had no power. We went walking through their neighborhood. Just behind their condo complex are homes that were completely destroyed. It was awful, but no one was hurt. People were already pitching in to help clean up. We stayed at Sara's for a while and then went home. I had gotten a call from my bro-in-law, Jay, saying that our house was OK. When we got home I found that a tree had fallen on my deck and my gutters were down, but otherwise everything was OK. At the house on the corner of my street the trees were ripped out, roots and all. Across the creek was where the worst damage was done. Total devastation and a young mother and baby were killed. It was just terrible.

On Saturday Caleb had a baseball game at 8am. I had planned on sleeping in because of his broken arm, but Caleb wouldn't hear of it. He said that he had to go support his team, even if her couldn't play. When we got there it was cold and misty and we were short several players. We had one player on the way, but only seven players on the field, and we needed eight to start the game. The coach asked if he could put Caleb in the outfield to avoid a forfeit. I said yes, so Caleb put on the coach's glove and went out to center field. He actually had to field a couple of balls, then the other player showed up so he didn't play the rest of the game.

Sunday was Easter. It was a nice day. We went to see Monsters vs. Aliens. It was really funny.

Yesterday Caleb had an appointment with the orthopaedist. He said that he wanted to put Caleb in a cast so he could continue to play ball as long as he promised not to slide. He doesn't want him falling on that arm again. Caleb was so excited. He gave Caleb a red and blue cast to match his Red Sox uniform. Then we had to go by my office so he could show off his cast to Matt and Jamie. Then we went home to wait for the insurance people and the tree surgeon. The tree surgeon didn't get there until late so he is coming back today to remove the tree. I'm hoping I can get a new deck and siding. We shall see.

Please continue to pray for the families touched by the storms this past weekend. It will be a long rebuilding process for everyone.