joplin

I live in Carthage, MO. about 12 miles from Joplin. Joplin is where I go all the time. went there today for a birthday party. thought about going to target or starbuck's afterward but decided to just go home.

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after celebrating my brother's graduation on Saturday & going to the birthday party Sunday afternoon something felt wrong. Mathew doesn't worry about storms. he looks out the window, check's the weather app on his iPhone & that's about it. if he's not home, he rushes home & then doesn't worry about it because he's with us. sweet. but this time I ignored him & turned the TV on. I heard "tornado touched down in Joplin...." then it cut out. I grabbed Douglas & Isabella & told Mathew that we were going downstairs, he of course said ok & kept playing Xbox. I took them to the basement. went back upstairs, grabbed some crackers, a drink, my shoes, my phone & my lap top. turned the tv on. nothing major. a little later I heard Mathew's phone ring. then he came downstairs too. His dad had called to tell him about the tornado in Joplin. We don't have cable, satellite, or anything. we settled for internet & Netflix but we do get local channels. the one we got said where the tornado touched down in joplin. Liz lives close to there. so do A LOT of other people we know. I texted Liz. They're ok. My friend Deb's husband was in his car at a burger place. He's ok but their car was smashed & he got hit by some debri. but nothing major... I went to weather.com. I saw a button that said "streaming tornado coverage live from Joplin, MO". we clicked on it. saw this.

Mathew & I both said "that's not Joplin!.... is it?!" no one was talking, the guy Mike Bettes a storm chaser was walking around trying to see if there was anyone in the damaged cars. every window on the hospital building was broken. some places could only be recognized as a houses because just the foundation was still there.

it WAS Joplin! I almost started crying. The guy, the weather chaser. Mike, he said that he saw people die in front of him. he didn't realize how close they were to it. that he'd never seen anything like this. then, he started crying. 

That's Academy Sports & Outdoors.  Me & the kids were just there last week!

we were planning to go to Chuck E. Cheese's for lunch tomorrow with the Mom's group.

NO damage here but please pray for Joplin, MO. Please pray for Mathew's cousin's grandpa. He was in that hospital in the first picture. and as of right now, we Still haven't heard how he's doing.

I'll keep you updated. Thanks for your prayers.

*update: they found him. he's well. but there are still a lot of people hurting & searching for loved ones.*