We're coming home!

I haven't had much time to write lately but I wanted to let you all know that we are finally coming home. Richard has his last flight tomorrow morning (Thursday June 26). Providing that he passes this flight, which we fully expect him too, we will be leaving Altus, Oklahoma on Saturday and making the nearly 1600 mile trip back home. We should be back in Santa Rosa by Monday July 1st. Richard will be working with his recruiter in Santa Rosa for a few weeks, until July 11th. Then we will be moving down to Fairfield, CA and starting our first PCS (permanent change of station) at Travis AFB. We are so excited to finally be coming home, all together! The last time we have all been together as a family in Santa Rosa, CA was last November. It has been and very long and difficult journey for us all, but we have learned a ton about life and how much the Lord can provide for us. His faithfulness is so amazing! We have also learned how strong we can be and how much we can do with the Lord by our side, as well as how much we CANNOT do without Him! Thank you all for your support over the last year! We look forward to seeing you all soon-

Since we really have no pictures to go along with this blog here are a few photos of Steven that we took and little bit ago. Steven is getting such an independent spirit. He often tries to assert himself and blocks Richard from leaving for work, lol. In the end he reluctantly gives in and we wind up walking Daddy to the car and waving "byebye" as he drives away. He loves his Daddy! Enjoy :)

Altus, OK- the OTHER windy city!

As we finished up our gourmet meal at our favorite little spot, McDonald's, we noticed the dark clouds headed toward the town. We decided, along with a few other customers, to cut our trip short and head home before the rain started. We had no idea what we were in for! We got home and got Steven ready for bed. Just as Steven and Richard were finishing the nightly brushing of the teeth with his Cars toothbrush and Thomas tooth paste, it started to rain and thunder. We get a lot of thunder storms here so Steven has learned the word quite well. We read or stories and preceded to bed as usual. As I layed him down in his bed Steven said "thunder?" I told him yes and that he didn't have to be scared. He said sweetly, "okay, muah!" I gave him a kiss and left the room. Within a few minutes it was raining harder than I have even seen it. The thunder was getting closer and much louder. Richard, being the manly man that he is, was outside standing under the overhang watching the storm (so were about four other guys in our complex). MEN!!! Geesh!!! Anyways, once he was thoroughly soaked and the wind started to pick put he decided it was best to come in. Thank God he did, because shortly after the storm really started to get severe. As the thunder got louder Steven began to wail in his crib. I went in and picked him up to comfort him. He just kept repeating "thunder? thunder?" Soon we could not see anything outside the window; not even the grass that is right outside our door! Then we saw something flying towards the window and took cover in our 4' by 8' kitchen. Steven and I huddled with the dog in the kitchen while I plead with Richard to get anyway from the window. LOL, what is it with men and weather? It is like watching our dog sniff out food; you practically have to beat him our the head to get him to stop inching towards your sandwich as you eat it! It was blowing pretty good for about 10 minutes or so. When it stopped raining we went outside to see what had happened. We were greeted by pure carnage- snapped powers lines, broken windows, shredded trees, displaced heavy objects, roofs and entire second floors destroyed. Pretty much the typical post-tornado scene we have all seen on the news. Words cannot describe the sinking feeling in you heart when you see the place you have been living torn to pieces. Streets that you travel on nearly every day have been changed forever. It is such an eerie feeling driving through town as you watch people begin to clean up and rebuild. The worst part of this all is that it may not have even been a tornado! Apparently they have these things called straight line winds that can do the same damage as a tornado. Although the news reports says that tornado(s) cannot be ruled out, they are calling it straight line winds of up to 87 mph! That's faster than most people drive their cars of the freeway- yikes! Well, needless-to-say we are looking forward to heading back to California and our earthquakes.