The First Day

The First Day is about a day in my life that changed my life forever. It is a day that one might say reset my life. It was a day that lives out in my history as September 11, 2001 lives out in everyone’s history. A day that will never be forgotten. This was January 21, 1999.

I was your normal 19 year old girl that had just graduated high school and was starting my second semester in college. I lived in a small town in Arkansas named Beebe about 30 minutes from the capital city of Little Rock. I was still living at home with my parents along with my twin brother and my younger brother. 

When I started college the degree I was going after was Meteorology since I had a passion and love for weather. I wanted to know everything there was to know about weather; how it worked, why it happened, where and when it would happen, etc. I didn't want to be a meteorologist that did the weather on your local news station, I wanted to be the one that actually went out in the storms and reported back what was actually going on. Well all that was about to change. 

Since my passion was for weather I studied weather maps, watched the news, had my Farmer’s Almanac I consulted, ect. One night about two weeks before January 21st, I noticed a storm system coming into Alaska. I watched it and I thought to myself and told my mom “this could be a very bad storm if it holds together.”  As the days went on I watched this storm system move into the lower 48 and noticed it was holding together pretty well. I thought maybe when it passed over the Rocky Mountains maybe it would break up, but it didn’t. As it moved closer to Arkansas, it got stronger and stronger. As a person that knows the weather, I knew all the signs of a tornado and a possible tornado outbreak. When meteorologists are calling for very bad weather and you walk outside the next morning to humid conditions, warm temps (especially in January), and sunshine, you really need to pay very close attention to the weather at that point. 

January 21st started out as any normal day. Got up went to class and every so often I would walk outside to check the weather and I would check the temps, barometer, etc. About 2:00pm that afternoon my dad headed to work in Little Rock to work the night shift like he always did.  About 3:00pm me and a friend of mine (which is now my sister-n-law) went to pick up her sister from school in Cabot, about 15 minutes away. We took her home and then she and I headed back to my house. At that point it was close to 5:00pm. The sun was starting to set and it was starting to cloud up. Around 5:30pm, my 2 brothers got home along with two other friends which made 7 people in the house. I would say around 6:15-6:30pm, we set down to eat supper and was watching Channel 7 News. At that time severe thunderstorms started really moving through the state. Around 7:00pm they were reporting supercell thunderstorms moving through the Little Rock area with possible tornadoes touching down and this storm was heading our way. Around 7:15pm the news was saying there was a tornado on the ground in Ward headed towards Beebe. So we did like any normal family would do and went and got in the hallway, NO WE DIDN’T!!! We all went outside to see if we could see any signs of the tornado. We listened to the news more and they said the tornado was fixing to hit Center St. in Cabot, but in reality it was fixing to hit Center St. in Beebe, MY STREET!! We didn’t hear the sirens because the tornado had already knocked them down. We started hearing a noise like a train coming towards the house and we all thought that was a little odd because the trains go the other direction, then we realized what it was. My mom yelled IN THE HALLWAY! We all got in the hallway and my sister-n-law thought it was a good idea to close the door to my brother’s bedroom so she didn’t have to see the tornado which looking back probably helped to save our lives.

When we all got seated in the hallway, I realized I was sitting right underneath the attic fan. So as usual my mind went to math and thought “well if the tornado does come through the house, it will go north and will take the attic fan to the backyard hopefully.” Sure enough the tornado came straight at the house. The house started shaking, everything was moving, the front door was slamming shut over and over again until it finally shattered, then the power went out.  After that all we could here was glass breaking, leaves and dirt were flying through the hallway hitting us like needles. What took 15 seconds or less felt like eternity. It continued and then the roof fell in on me, I remember trying to crawl under my sister-n-law and another friend and that is all I remember. 

After the tornado was over my mother started yelling out names one by one for everyone to sound off TJ! BRIAN! MICHAEL! TAMMI! COREY! and finally ANGELA! (This is the hardest part of the story I am writing.) I said nothing. She yelled again ANGELA! Again nothing. My younger brother said at that point he started crawling over people to get to me. Again my mom yelled ANGELA! Once again nothing. Then my twin brother yelled ANGELA! and I said something, I can’t remember what it was. Let me get off the story for just a moment to tell you why this is the hardest part of the story for me. It wasn’t because I was hurt, it was because later I put myself in the shoes of my brothers and my momma. I thought about how it would feel to have a sister and a daughter that wouldn’t answer me in one of the most dire times of my life. To not know if my sister or daughter either couldn’t here me, was knocked out, or was dead. To me the thought of that breaks my heart to know that they had to go through that and had to endure that kind of heartache and pain. I cry everytime I tell this part of the story.

After everyone had finally sounded off we started to get up and I looked up and I saw stars, the sky was clear and the roof was gone. It was pitch black so we couldn’t really see anything. We walked through the living room and out of what used to be our front door. When we got in the yard everything was pitch black. Everything from what we could tell was gone except a couple of houses down the road and the house across the street. Once my mom got to a phone she called my dad. She said “the house is gone.” He said “our house?!” She said “yes!” We then went to the college which was about 2 blocks away so we could have some type of shelter and could decide what to do from there. 

The next morning we went back to our house to see all the damage. My mom and dad started crying. I think I was in shock. We looked through the house and the hallway where we set, the area was pretty clear but right next to where we set was a huge radio that if it had come any further would have killed me. There was a bar stool on the other end that if it had come any further would have killed my mother. All around the area of the hallway were shards of glass but none where we were. We opened the door that my sister-n-law had closed and nothing was left but the wall to the hallway. The tornado had side swiped our house taking off the back end  and part of the living room.

After that we started to pick up the pieces of what was left of our home. Trying to find clothes, pictures, school books, etc. We had a sun up sun down curfew for the city to keep people from stealing. As the days went on our lives started to kind of settle. We started to rebuild, went back to school and work and  we all split up and stayed at different homes or dorms for several months before we all came back together under one roof. This went on for about two years before the house was completely ready for us to move back into. 

After we had moved back into our home, my younger brother had gotten married and moved out and my twin brother was engaged to be married. During this time was when I was really questioning my life and what I really wanted to do. I didn’t know if I wanted to be a meteorologist anymore. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. One night my twin brother invited me to a group at our friends house and we started hanging out. As time went on I realized what was missing in my life. I realized it was Jesus. After I had asked Him into my life and really started to know Him, things started coming together. Things started making sense. I met a guy that turned into my best friend and then my husband. I ended up not finishing college but going into ministry with my soon to be husband instead.

As the years went by I thought of that night often and one night God revealed to me the reason I didn’t die that night, it was because He was protecting me and my family. He had and has a plan for each of us. So now I don’t have a meteorology degree but I still love weather, but I also have a very deep respect for it now. One of my missions while on this earth is to love people at all cost no matter who they are and one of those ways is by protecting them from weather, in hopes that they will never have to endure what I went through and never have to go through what my mom and two brothers went through that night. And when and if people go through what I went through I now know how to love these people as well. I have been in there shoes. I have walked in their shoes. I have cried those same tears. I thought those same thoughts. 

As we come to end of this part of my story let me share with you one thing.  There is nothing on this earth that you will ever do that Jesus Christ doesn’t know about. Every part of our lives God has already planned. Every hardship or heartache you will ever face, God has made a way out for you. Every pain you will ever endure, God has a reason in hopes to make you stronger and to make others stronger through you. You see God allowed me to go through that tornado not only to show that He was the one who saved me and family, but also He knew I could endure it. He knew that by me going through that tornado many lives would be touched and hopefully spared because I listened to Jesus and I understood my calling and I didn’t keep quiet. 

My prayer for everyone that reads this is that if you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior that you would come to know Him. All you have to do is ask God to save you and He will, I promise. I pray for those that have left Jesus behind, I pray You come back to Him. He is waiting with open arms for you. No matter what or how deep in sin you may be, He’s waiting on you and loves you. To those who are reading this that are strong in their faith with Jesus, I pray this strengthens your faith and you grow to love Him even more.

Remember that Jesus Christ will never waste a hurt or a teachable moment. 

Remember that Jesus will never leave you or forsake you.

And remember that no matter what you do in your life, Jesus will never stop loving you.