Chalk Talk Mondays

I feel very thankful this week. Thankful for my life, and my family and our small, but beautiful home.

If you didn't already know, my home state of Alabama was ravaged by tornadoes last week. I've never seen destruction like this. It's impossible to fathom until it's right in front of your face and even then it's hard to believe it's real.

If you've seen the pictures on the news, they are shocking and heartbreaking. But I promise that it doesn't compare to seeing it in person. Entire towns are gone. Hundreds are dead and hundreds more still missing.

Maybe it's because this is my home, where I was married, where we started a family. It's just so real when its this close.

It's breaks your heart and at the same time restores your soul. It makes you proud to be an Alabamian. Ive never seen a whole state rally together like this. Everyone is putting aside their differences and pitching in to help. No one's sitting around complaining or waiting for their FEMA check. Every small business and fire station and grocery store and radio station is collecting supplies and donations to help. Volunteers, adults and children alike, are pouring in from everywhere and flocking to neighborhoods that were destroyed to help with the clean up. Even folks who lost their own homes are out volunteering to help others.

As terrifying as the tornadoes were to witness, the recovery has been equally amazing to watch and participate in. No doubt it will be a long recovery. Things will never been the same for some areas and some people.

But we will be stronger for it and more thankful for sure.