La Crosse Weekend Excitement

This is a picture of the baby-sized rocking chair that we purchased this weekend at a garage sale-- it fit perfectly on John's bike & I know in a few years, our little one will love it!

This was quite a weekend for us! We had an "encounter" service for church (a time of extended worship & lots of healing prayer), it was our neighborhood's rummage sale on Saturday, we took advantage of the weather & grilled out a lot, snuck in a movie, had a monopoly marathon with some friends, & it was our last church service at Cornerstone Community church (they have been graciously letting us rent their building while we've been looking for a new one). And what better way to go out than with a tornado that hit La Crosse right smack during service?!

During the sermon, we all hoofed it down into Cornerstone's basement-- adults & kids alike-- while Wade (our pastor) finished his sermon. It sure was exciting! I was nervous to come home to see the state of our house (I was mostly concerned about how much water would be on our floors due to the fact that 90% of our windows were open), but we were pleased to see absolutely no damage anywhere. I didn't realize how big the storm actually was & how devastating it must have been for some people until today.

When I woke up this morning, I read online just how bad it was (click here for a local story). Since one of my clients lives in an apartment complex that was highlighted in the article, I decided to stop by on the way to work. I was shocked to see all of the damage, only about 8 blocks from our house. The police had evacuated a 15-block area (we were in that radius... whoops!) to spend the night at a high school nearby because of a potential gas leak. In the end, everything ended up being just fine. There were many roads blocked off & many enormous trees & power lines down everywhere.

Today I had the opportunity to snap a few photos to catch some of the destruction (most of these pictures are less than a mile from our house).

I am so incredibly thankful to God that we didn't have any damage & somehow, no one in La Crosse has been reported to have died or even be seriously injured. Incredible!

In other exciting news, I'm in my 29th week of pregnancy & feeling pretty good. I only have 2 weeks left of work, which is going to be a HUGE adjustment for me, but a welcome one. After praying about it, we decided that it would be better for me all around to take some extra weeks before the baby comes to rest, garden, prepare the baby's room, can, etc. It was a tough decision because we could obviously use the extra money (esp. since we'll be going to one income after this little one hatches), but I think we made the right decision. As the weather heats up & as my body gets more & more clumsy, I think it will be best for us all if I take it easy :)