First, thank you all SO much for all your kind words and
love. They have indeed been felt and needed. This has been a very emotionally
draining visit to say the least. Everyday we're hearing new stories, new
updates. The death toll keeps rising. When we first got here, it was around
116, today it rose to 139. Theres still about 100 people missing. We are so
blessed to not have any family or friends injured or displaced by the tornado.
Everyone you meet out here though was in one way or another affected by it.
Just going to get food or going to the store, the conversation always comes up
"so where were you when the tornado hit?" A lady at Taco Bell had
family missing who were right in its path. When people ask us we tell them were
here from Idaho helping out, and theyre shocked. And then you hear about all
the people from all over that came out to help. The amount of volunteers here
is overwhelming. For several days we drove around asking who needed help and
they tell us someone already came by and helped them. I signed up at a local
organization to volunteer and there were more volunteers than people to help. I
then went over to the local college Missouri Southern State University and
signed up and was sent over with a crew to clean up fallen trees. When we first
got there a man approached us and asked us to keep our eyes out for his young
nephew. It was the story everyone had heard about. A 16 year old sucked out of
his car returning from graduation and was no where to be found. And we were
asked to look for him while cleaning up the trees. Just unreal. Today he was
found in a river. James Dad works at Freeman Hospital and has told us so many
stories of people that came flooded into the hospital that are just heart
wrenching, one in particular. A woman was holding onto her 16 month old son so
tight that she broke both her arms, but he was still ripped out her arms. They
just found him recently as well. So many stories, so much heart ache. We were
able to clean up a lady's yard who wasnt home but her neighbor said she would
appreciate it. There was a tree uprooted that we cut up and brought to the
curb. Turned out that the tree also broke a water pipe in the ground and was
flooding the yard. We were there when the water company was driving by checking
on houses and was able to get them to turn the water off. If we werent there
who knows how much water would have dumped out and how high her water bill
would have been. We also helped out James friends sister who had some down
trees as well. Since theres so many volunteers we've been finding other ways to
help, like getting James friends house ready to rent out to someone displaced,
and James dad who has been putting in a ton of overtime at the hospital around
here on the farm. Weve definitely been busy, and are very tired. I have a lot
of cuts and bruises to show for the hard work, and wear them with pride. That
being said, Im exhausted and am going to call it a night. For now Ill share the
one picture that tugs on my heart the most. Theres a lot more to come, but this
will do for now.
