Hurricane Matthew impacted Savannah in the early hours of Saturday morning, October 8th. Before Hurricane Matthew came, I remember being in this sense of "strangeness." Wait, what? A hurricane is coming? Oh, ok. Wait, WHAT? We might leave because of it? And leave we did. I packed us and loaded our ENTIRE car while Kev was at work. We caravanned with the Spinks early Thursday morning with bare essentials to spend a few nights at my parents' house and some of our most special possessions. Just in case. By the time we made it safely to my parents' home, the entire county, plus others, had been ordered to evacuate. I'm so glad we left when we did.
Going to hometown and being at my mom and dad's house was super relaxing for the most part. We met up with friends we hadn't seen in for.ev.er. Nolan even had a play date with his birthday buddy, Maddie, and Nate and Paige came and stayed a night. Saturday was a full house spent grilling out and hanging with family and friends. It was such sweet time. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for being such amazing hosts! But in between it all, all I wanted to do was turn on the television and tune into the weather channel. I couldn't stop thinking about what we might come home to after the hurricane came through.
I wrote a little blurb on Facebook about where my heart was at:
Having to evacuate your city and leave your home behind is such a weird feeling. God can (and most certainly does) use things like hurricanes and evacuations and unknown outcomes to expose our hearts. The things we love, the things we fear, the things we ultimately find our hope and worth in are brought to light. To my Savannah area family and friends and anyone else affected by Matthew, whether you chose to leave or chose/have to stay: may we not miss this unique opportunity to lean into Jesus. May our prayers be for protection not of our stuff, but of our hearts. That God would be gracious to expose them and move us to be deeply reminded that our hope is not in what we have or have left as Matthew comes and goes, but in what we have in Jesus. In what He did by sending Jesus, in what He's doing and using to accomplish whatever He wills to draw us near to Jesus, and what He'll do one day because of Jesus to make all things new again. And may this spill over into our love for, conversations with, and actions toward others. Even now, He's sovereign and working. No matter what, souls all over have been and will be affected, even devastated, by this storm. Please hit your knees in prayer for us all.
"Than any comfort, Jesus is better--make my heart believe."
God was so gracious to us. All of our friends and family stayed safe. And our home (minus a little damage including a tree in the backyard) was spared too. The first several days after Hurricane Matthew were spent cleaning up (Nolan stayed at Nana and Papa G's for a couple of days, and that was incredibly helpful) and helping neighbors with whatever they needed. We didn't get power back until Wednesday, and then we slowly began to get back into the day-to-day of things. Our city is still a little bit of a mess with piles of debris and trees lining the sides of the street awaiting pickup.
#SavannahStrong
