1:24 a.m.

...That's what time it was when I was awakened from a deep sleep by the tornado sirens this morning. I guess no longer have to wonder if we live close enough to them to wake up for middle-of-the-night twisters! As soon as I figured out what was going on, I went to get Zach and the three of us made our way downstairs to turn on the TV or radio to see just what was going on. At first, the cable wouldn't come on and so we started listening to the radio and the first thing we heard was "Jessamine County take cover." Oh crap, I started thinking about all the stuff we needed to move out of the closet under the stairs to actually "take cover," since "the killer is at your door," (reference to another storm in the recent past where the weather man actually said that...Kentucky meteorologists...WOW is all I have to say.).

The cable came back on and sure enough, we were under a tornado warning. I tried to put Zach down so I could empty the closet, while David grabbed a bunch of pillows from upstairs, but he was shaking and so scared so I had to do it one-handed. We were trying to act as calmly as possible so he wouldn't be traumatized too much. But I guess there's only so much calming you can do for a nearly-two-year-old when you wake him up at 1:30 a.m. and run downstairs, only to start throwing things out of the closet.

We all got safely in the closet and piled the pillows on top of us. Zach kept saying "mommy?" and I was just telling him to shhhh so we could hear the TV and know when we could come out of the closet. We started praying outloud, telling God how impressed we were by his mighty display of power, but that we were also a little scared and just asked for more faith to believe he would protect us. Zach kept saying "pay, pay," his way of saying pray. Then after we finished, he kept saying Amen! By then, he wasn't even shaking anymore, he was just laying calmly with his head on my shoulder because he knew we had his back.

Having lived in Texas and Oklahoma, I've been through more tornado warnings than I can actually remember and I even like that kind of weather. But in Kentucky, I just don't have the same faith in our weather folks to give us advance warnings and I HATE middle of the night storms that leave you with what we called back home..."tornado eyes." Even with all that experience, I was a bit frightened last night. Mostly because I'm a mom now and everything changes...so cliche, but so true....when you become a mom. You worry so much about your babies and being able to protect them.

I was thinking even as I was praying that it was so silly for me to be afraid when God is totally sovereign and that He has OUR back. It reminds me of one of my most favorite scriptures, Zephaniah 3:17: The Lord your God is with you; He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.

Wow...He is with ME? Little ol' me?...well not so little, but you know what I'm saying! He is using His MIGHT to save ME? Why then, do I even fear anything but God? Praise the Lord for this day and his mighty power to save us.