Friday, April 13, 2007

Welcome Home

There are so many things we miss when we are in Brazil. We often talk about the various things our mouths crave or experience that we wish we could have. Then there are the things that we forget we miss. Last week's snow, for example, was a welcome (though cold) treat. Tonight we had a chance to be reunited with another meteorological friend.

We are in Dallas for the Sponsoring Church Workshop. We were resting a bit before the dinner tonight and flipped on the TV. A spring storm was headed our way and it looked to be pretty bad. We decided to head out a few minutes early to try to beat it to the church. As we stepped out the door of the hotel, the tornado sirens went off. I spent long enough living in Oklahoma to be completely unfazed by that fact and we headed off to the church. After a brief parking lot conversation about whether it was better to be parked under the large tree or far away from it, we walked inside through light rain. Two minutes later, large hail started. We chatted with everyone for about five minutes and then were herded into the safest room in the building. After a little bit, we were back on schedule and had a nice dinner. Now I'm sitting in the hotel lobby listening to details of all the damage on the TV news.

I didn't know that I could miss tornadoes. And really, it's not tornadoes I miss--it's the adventure of it all. I have some fun memories of hanging out in the Mayfair basement. I know that Russ has even more tornado memories--they were such a big part of his childhood. Even though storms like this are scary and do a lot of damage, the fact that we had tornadoes tonight makes me smile a little bit. It feels like God has been using the weather to say, "Welcome home!"

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

i miss storms SO MUCH! it's ok to miss them. sf weather is so blahh.

Matthew said...

I miss tornados too. Very rarely we get a good thunderstorm but it's not the same.

thekeyboardguy said...

Yes, "Welcome home, here's some huge chunks of ice...". Funny enough, I don't miss the snow from home, oh, wait, that's because it's still freezing here! Hope you found some warm clothes....

thegermanygirl said...

What I miss are the warm summer rains in Oklahoma. Anytime it rains over here, the temperature drops and I sit there and freeze. But warm summer Oklahoma rains are great for splashing in puddles!

Matt said...

That is such a great story. I have a few tornado memories as well. Now I miss tornados, too. Thanks a lot. Still working hard and hoping you are having a great trip.