#57: Survive first KS tornado

Well, my to-do list should be to survive them all really... but here's the story of the first one:

A week after I went back to school, I had just sat down at my desk to pump when over the intercom, our principal blares through the blissful silence: "EVERYONE!  Get in your shelters!"  She reacts emotionally first. every time. no matter what.   I put everything quickly away as two classes of kindergarteners file into my room (without windows, my room makes a pretty good shelter!).  We are sitting there, pretty clueless, until J texts me: "Tornadoes there??"  I was like, oh boy, this must be for real.

I'm not sure exactly how I came up with this luck, but the choir teacher was in my room, too, and she did a phenomenal job quietly entertaining the kiddos.  Another K teacher came with graham crackers - that was another great idea for keeping the kiddos calm and entertained.

Another text came in from J: tornado touched down at, well, about a block from our house!  YIKES!  This was for real!  After Joplin, I knew not to mess around one bit with watches and warnings.  My mind went to the babies.  I trust M wholeheartedly, but I just wished I could be with them if something terrible happened.  

A long-term sub that was in one of the K rooms started getting texts too, and her face kept saying it all.  I was trying to pointedly look at her so the kiddos wouldn't get nervous. 

THEN we started getting texts left and right - tornado touched down, about two blocks from where M and C were!  A tornado was moving north to where... where we were! 

It was an intense about hour and a half.

The principal gave periodic updates, too, but she still had a twinge of emotion, so that it sounded like she was crying at one point.  (don't get me started on her, by the way).  Finally, we were all able to leave the shelters, and figure out what exactly had happened and what the damage was.

Long story short, there was no damage.  How incredible!  Even J was in a storm shelter at his school (in the middle of finals week!), but the tornado turned out to be an F-0, while it went through KC anyways.  Praise the Lord!  M talked about going in the basement, but babysitter M said everyone just played, ate snacks and had fun!  So thankful to Jesus that my first KS tornado experience turned out to be so harmless!