We Are Branson

    I love living in Branson. It's the strangest little town, but has some of the nicest people I've ever met. This has proven so true over the last 48 hours. In the aftermath of the tornado that hit early Tuesday morning I have seen so much love in this town. My roommate and I were completely unharmed. Our only set back was losing power for about 36ish hours. With just that minor set back I had so many friends and co-workers offer to let us stay with them. It's really comforting to know that although I don't have any "family" here, I do have my Branson family here to love and support me.

   This morning I wasn't sure what to expect as I headed into my classroom. I knew the kids would have lots to say. And they sure did. We took about 30 minutes to share this morning. And even though a lot of them talked about being scared, overall they were so mature about everything. I honestly think my 8 year olds are handling this better than some adults.

    I did have one student that lost her house. As she told her story in class, we all discovered that her trailer was crushed during the tornado. Tonight I had the opportunity to visit with her and her mother for a few minutes. Her mom showed me pictures of the trailer, over half of it was flattened. Luckily her mother received a phone call warning her the tornado was coming, and she was able to get my student and her sisters to a nearby house for shelter. If they wouldn't have gotten the phone call my student would have been crushed inside her bedroom. Seeing that picture just brought a whole new sense of danger and relief to my heart. I'm so thankful she is okay. God is so good.

    In comparison to what happened in Joplin last May our damages are nothing. We didn't lose any lives and only had reports of minor injuries. In fact many parts of town are completely unharmed and open for business.  But it is still hard to see the community you love hurting. Thankfully, this is a community that shows love and compassion daily, under "normal" circumstances. I know we will continue to help each other through this. We are love. We are compassion. We are family oriented. We are neighbors. We Are Branson.

I do have a few cute quotes from the day:

"I don't understand how the trains were able to keep going and blasting their sirens during the tornado?" -she was confused by hearing people say the tornado sounds like a train and hearing the warning sirens (don't worry we got it all straightened out).

After I explained that I still didn't have power as of this morning on of my girls said:
"Oh...so that is why your hair is in a ponytail..."

After saying we were lucky to only have minor injuries one of my special needs boys said:
"Oh no! Minors! They are so bad!"
-As part of our school discipline policy student receive minor and major forms for poor choices. It was kinda hard explaining the difference to my little guy.

And this one was sweet, from the little girl who lost her house:
"My clothes, toys, and all that other stuff don't mean anything. We can buy more. But you can't buy a new me."