As a military spouse, we know things happen that will challenge us....moving every couple years, making all new friends, and the dreaded deployments. As if going through a deployment isn't hard enough, you can count on everything and anything going wrong. This one has been a challenge for me: dealing with sicknesses in our family back home, "R" had a 104 fever for a week, a small baby that didn't sleep, and then the normal small things that always come up. I want to think nothing will go wrong until my husband gets back, but we still have awhile, so I'm not holding my breath.

The one thing I wasn't ready to deal with by myself was a tornado! Well, my biggest concern happened yesterday. The kids and I were upstairs playing, and my phone was downstairs. Our dogs aren't allowed upstairs, but our small one kept coming upstairs.  Probably 10 minutes later I felt like I needed to go downstairs, and I checked my phone. Sure enough, we were in a tornado watch.  No big deal, we've been in those many times, except this time it just felt different.  So we were rushing around to get our things together to take into the shelter.  It was just 45 minutes from the time the watch was issued to the time my phone received the emergency warning text saying we were in a tornado warning and to take cover.  It was happening, one of my biggest fears was happening, and I didn't feel prepared.  "R" was a huge help with putting the last couple items in the shelter, and we got settled and ready to ride this storm out.  Then he looked at me, grabbed my hand and told me he was scared.  So I said a prayer for us, and I was trying so hard to keep my voice from quivering.  It didn't matter how hard I tried, he heard it.  He asked if I was scared too, and I was honest and said yes, but we will be okay.  We then sang Jesus Loves Me and This Little Light of Mine, and we both felt more at ease.  Once we were given the "all clear", we prayed again and thanked God for keeping us safe.  I'm not saying I want to go through that again, especially without my husband, but I know that with God, I can do anything!

 Remember, no matter what you're going through, big or small, you can always count on Christ.