The weekend went out with a BANG

We went to my parents' farm near Eldora this weekend for a nice visit. The car trip went really well both there and back. The girls slept beautifully while we were there, except for one night when there was a little thunderstorm and Reagan and I slept together in her room. It was just nice to be there again. They have done a lot of work on their house lately. They just put in all new Pella windows and plan to reside the house soon, too. We helped with some painting and other miscellaneous projects (by "we" I mean Brian). I sang in church Sunday morning. While we were at church, a storm rolled through. There was a lot of wind and some hail and a tremendous amount of rain. After it calmed down a bit, we drove back to Mom and Dad's. As we drove, the scenes of storm devastation got worse and worse and worse. Sheds demolished. Tree limbs all over the road. Trees stripped of all their leaves which laid in a strange green blanket on the ground. Piles of hail in the yards.

We were so nervous to get home and find out what damage my parents' place sustained. It was a lot. Amazingly, none of the new Pella windows broke. All of the old ones which are ready to be replaced were broken. They had several huge limbs down. The house was clearly hit by tennis ball size hail. Some pictures of the damage are below.

But honestly, the worst damage - the most devastating and upsetting part of this storm was the destruction of the crops. If you don't live in Iowa, right now all this beautiful field corn is supposed to be a deep dark green and have tassles on top (you can see a few stalks in a whole field with the tassles on). The soybeans have been stripped of all their leaves and pods. If that still doesn't make sense, let me just say to you I cannot imagine how a wind and hail storm - at its very worst - could possibly create this kind of damage. It simply escapes my comprehension. Please be in prayer for the farmers whose crops have been so destroyed. Also be in prayer for all the people in this area who have lost power (my parents included). It will be a long dark night - one with even more storms forecasted.