thunderstorms.

There are so many things that I love about spring in the Midwest.

The return of color, as yards turn green again and flowers start to pop out.

New babies on the farm, fresh calves and sweet baby chicks.

And thunderstorms.

Since we bought our previous house, back in 2006, Mr. Farmhouse and I have loved sitting outside watching thunderstorms.  We would sit out on the back patio at the previous house and when we moved into the farmhouse, the front porch became a favorite place to watch storms roll in from the west. 

When the storm gets close enough that we almost can't handle the rain and wind, we gather up our belongings and rush inside to watch from the safety of the living room windows.

On the morning of May 4th, however, I was at work when the storms started to brew out in eastern Kansas.  Mr. Farmhouse was at work, as well.  The two younger girls were at my parents' house and our oldest had stayed the night at her cousin's house.

Because we were handing out meals at school in a drive-through fashion, I had been keeping my eye on the radar.  There wasn't much happening around school (about 30 miles northwest of where we live), but the forecast was looking kind of scary down at the farmhouse.

When it looked like it should be over with, my sister-in-law had sent some pictures of their backyard.  Their chicken coop was flipped over, their swing-set was all but demolished, and let's just say their trampoline had seen better days.

The farmhouse sits about 3/4 of a mile north of their house, so I started to wonder if there might be a chance that the same straight-line winds had hit our place.

I called Mr. Farmhouse and asked him to head out there on his lunch hour and check things over.

I had a virtual meeting coming up, but I couldn't shake the feeling that there might be some damage on our property, so I made arrangements to participate in the meeting from my phone.

I climbed in the car, secured my phone into the cradle on my dash, and headed home.

About 15 minutes into the meeting, as I was visiting with my colleagues about what the fall might look like at our school, I got a notification text message from Mr. Farmhouse.  I ignored it, thinking I would check it out after the meeting got over.  Then another text came through.  Still, I continued through the meeting.  Finally, he called.

I clicked out of the meeting to answer and I could immediately tell Mr. Farmhouse was shaken up a bit.  "It's not good.  I think the house is okay, but you'd better get here soon."

Within ten minutes, I was home.  

As I came upon our property, I could see bits of our barn strewn about through the pasture.  There were pigs out of the pen, grazing in the yard.  The carport looked as if it had been picked up and set back down, and the girls' playhouse and basketball goal were both toppled over.  The garden was destroyed and parts of the roof of the house were peeled up.

It was an overwhelming sight, to say the least.

And yet... nobody was home.  Nobody was hurt.  The animals were all accounted for.

All I could think about was the fact that we were all safe and healthy.  

The view looking through the space where the barn wall used to be.

Mr. Farmhouse tries to salvage some of our tomato plants, following the storm.

I knew that the rebuilding process would be a little inconvenient, but that evening when I climbed into bed, I just prayed and thanked God that we were all still here.  That the damage had not been worse...and that we had only lost "stuff".

As we have been wrapping up the school year, our last few weeks have also been filled with learning about insurance claims and scheduling contractors to come finish the work we can't do ourselves.

We have started working on rebuilding the girls' play-set and spent a full day cleaning up the debris from the barn.

The Bible tells us to be thankful in all circumstances and we are trying hard to apply this command to this situation.

Thank You, God, for protecting us. 

Thank You for giving us the strength and physical ability to clean up our property. 

Thank You for sunscreen and work gloves.

Thank You for home insurance and friends & family to help with clean up.

And thank You for ​Mr. Farmhouse and these sweet farm girls.

Thanking God as we put the farm back together here at the farmhouse,
Hannah

♥️🏡♥️

PS. During the same storm that blew the barn away, a tragic storm-related accident happened not very far from our home.  Please join me in praying for the friends & family of a sweet, sweet woman who lost her life in this storm.  Pray for the children who witnessed the tragedy, the family who is putting the pieces back together after the tragedy, and this woman's granddaughter.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.