rebuilding

“But as the thunder rolls

I barely hear You whisper through the rain

"I'm with you"

And as Your mercy falls

I raise my hands and praise the God who gives

And takes away”

Praise You In This Storm

Casting Crowns

It’s officially been a week.
172 hours. 10,320 hours. 619,200 seconds.

I have a really horrible memory but pictures help me a LOT so it was really important for me to go and take pictures of everything and write about it all, so here it is:

It’s been a hard week, physically and emotionally.  From the time that the tornado hit at 5:15 pm on Wednesday until midnight on Thursday, I slept 2 hours.  I didn’t even feel the exhaustion set in until I got into bed on Thursday night.  Adrenaline really was my best friend- from working volunteer centers like the Rec Center and across the community and calming down students and checking them out of dorms, it was a long 30+ hours. 

I spent a fun 23 hours with my family and then loaded up my car with donations from the neighborhood and local dentist offices with sleeping bags, clothes, water, toiletries, purses, paper towels – literally anything you can think of. 

this isn't an accurate representation of all of the donations-
students from the dorm came and added tons of stuff to the pile!

This week I’m working 34 hours at work to cover shifts of those that needed to be at home and with their families so I hadn’t seen any of the damage. 

I had a break today for 3 hours, so I took my car full of donations to the Temporary Emergency Services off of 15^th Street.  It was amazing see all of the volunteers and warehouse FULL of supplies.

Then, I selfishly tried to wander down 15^th Street to try to see the damage and I literally had the wind knocked out of me.  Pictures don’t do this place justice.  There is nothing along this road.

it is amazing to me that entire buildings can be torn apart while
buildings like Subway right behind it are entirely intact

this couple was next to me during the 30 minute drive
down 15th street and you could just feel her heartbreak

The worst part is that other areas in our city were hit so much harder than these pictures show.  It’s unbelievable.  I can’t even begin to describe what’s going through my head.

As horrible as all of this looks, there is SO much good going on.

These pictures are just the ones i saw along McFarland...so amazing.

(For those of you who aren’t in the Tuscaloosa area, this is a really 

neat MAP that our newspaper put together)

I can’t stop listening to these songs though and I just wanted to share them:

"God of This City"

chris tomlin

"Praise You in This Storm"

casting crowns

It is most amazing to me that the campus WAS NOT TOUCHED.  Our 13 story girls dorm was just blocks from the tornado's path and the destruction of that building could have been absolutely catastrophic to the physical and emotional state of the campus.  God is good, all the time.

There are still no words to describe the mood of this community but we are so strong and so resilient.  I have so much faith that we will bounce back so fast, the nation won’t know what hit them.

Thank you so much for all of your support, thoughts and prayers.  Though I know it’s not for me personally, the support from all the other college campus is UNBELIEVABLE.   Auburn has really really stepped it up for their sister campus, UGA is doing amazing things, Ohio State is even doing fundraisers.  I know these aren’t the only ones, but when we realize how dumb things are like football and rivalries, it makes me so emotional. 

Please, keep praying.

i love the hospital as a sign of hope
in the background

“You're the Light in this darkness, you're the Hope to the hopeless, you're the Peace to the restless, you are.

There is NO ONE like our God.”

rejoicing

"But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life."

Titus 3:4-7

I have SO much to talk about after a busy and hectic weekend at home!

Thursday night, I took the boys out to Stevie B’s, the worst/best pizza buffet out there.  They decided to get creative and make Pizza Jenga:

(obviously...)

Friday I just hung out with the fam and we celebrated Banks’ birthday (sort of...) at the always-delicious La Parilla.  The wait staff sang to him and made him wear a hat and he secretly loved it:

Saturday afternoon was so much fun.  I got to see some precious friends from high school and dye eggs all day long!  I took WAY too many pictures (the rest are on Facebook), so here are just a few:

Saturday night was a blast because we celebrated Banks’ birthday (for real this time!) at Longhorn with the entire Martin clan present:

he was getting really into it...

we love each other

Sunday, of course, was glorious glorious Easter! I love being home for Easter and flowering the cross is one of my favorite traditions.

Then, the Allreds and Koronkowskis came over for brunch in the backyard and it was absolutely beautiful.  I took far too many pictures, so you can see them all on Facebook if you’re just dying to see all 83 of them! 

this is my favorite!

I am so blessed to be surrounded by such a pretty back yard because Easter is such a pretty reminder of renewal and rebirth.  This month I felt like I could really use a few “do overs” and Easter is a great time to remember that Jesus died for our “do overs” and that we are drowning in his love and mercy and I am SO thankful for that!

Happy Easter!!

therapy

"All hard work brings a profit..."

Proverbs  14:23a

My therapy is cleaning.  It kind of always has been, but I cannot function if my "space" (whatever that is...) isn't clean and organized.  Spent a solid 3 hours cleaning out my room this week in Tuscaloosa so that I could bring it home in stages back to Marietta since I'll be here all summer.

After fully stuffing my car, my room looks exactly the same.  How did I remove all of that junk and still have a ton of stuff left in my room?!

My very sweet brothers helped me unload my car tonight and they dumped it all on my bed:

(you probably can't tell from this picture, but the stuff c-o-v-e-r-s the bed...)

How in the WORLD do I have that much stuff?!

Anyways, I'm currently working on getting all of it put away.  Good thing I have 2 more trips back home before summer officially starts.

Speaking of: I only have 8 more classes until summer starts, praise the Lord!

here goes nothing...

I have attempted to write a blog like 928742 times before (and realistically, I mean twice).

I'm hoping that by sharing this with more people I can help keep myself accountable to keep this thing updated and relevant to me and to readers.

I wanted to start restart a blog for a few reasons:

1) I had an English professor tell me this semester that I am very creative and that I am a very good writer but I have trouble combining the two.  So, I'm essentially taking the first step to "creative writing" since I'm an English Education major.

2) I have been struggling lately with self image.  I am not "overweight" and I am not "ugly" but for some reason, it's really been an issue for me in the past month or so.  I have been struggling to find the balance between these two Bible verses:

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 

your works are wonderful, I know that full well."

Psalm 139:14

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, Who is in you, 

Whom you have received from God? ... So use every part of your 

body to give glory back to God..."  

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

I need to reach the point where I recognize that God has made me a beautiful woman but because I was made by Him and for Him, I need to respect my body by taking care of it!  My goal is to lose 15 lbs. by August 1st and I am fully confident that I can do it!

3) I really like sharing stories and most of all sharing pictures so I really look forward to expressing myself through writing- it's certainly a new challenge and I'm excited about it!