An Unforgettable Weekend!

I guess one never knows what one day or another day will bring but God in His infinite grace always does. My weekend started with a drive down to El Centro on Friday morning to pick up Mom. We had lunch together and then drove on to Yuma to spend Easter weekend with Donna, Greg and the kiddos. As always when we get together there is great food and fellowship. Linette, Thor and Frank joined us that night for our yummy wine and cheese fest. The kids had fun playing Bingo and the boys enjoyed a couple games of pool.

Saturday morning I had a great time coloring Easter eggs with Alyssa & Josh. They had never done that before so it was fun to share this experience with them. I love to see their creative juices flowing. Meantime Donna and Greg put together a delicious steak dinner that we all enjoyed in the beautiful weather outside and then later that evening we went to the Saturday Easter service. The sermon was about Thomas, the absentee. Have we been "absentee" with our walk with the Lord? He is always there with open arms to say welcome home.

Sunday morning I drove Mom to the Easter service which was partially held outdoors. What a beautiful day! We came back grilled hamburgers and ate outdoors again. After dessert we took our stuffed selves to the front yard and hid the eggs for the kids to find. Fun times! They had fun trying to find all the creative places we hid the eggs. After they found them all then they hid them for the adults to find =) So cute! It was finally time to say goodbye so we packed up my truck and Mom and I drove off.

A few minutes later I was pulling into the gas station in front of the Marine base when the big earthquake hit. It felt like someone was standing on my back bumper jumping up and down on it and it seemed to last for a long time. When things settled down I called Donna who was already looking it up online. Should I pump gas right after an earthquake? It worked and I so filled the tank then got back on the road to Imperial. I called Timothy to see if they were home from camping yet. They were driving back from Borrego Springs and had not felt anything. When we got there we surveyed the "damage" at their house. A broken ceramic water bottle dispenser and a few things fallen out of the medicine cabinets into the sink. Didn't seem too bad. So after having some coffee and a snack it was time to go drop Mom off and get back on the road to LA. Well, little did we know what we'd find at Mom's condo.

The pictures don 't really capture the chaos and all the broken glass that was everywhere in every room. It was shocking to walk in and see everything turned upside down and broken. Even the back door has been jarred open. The Fire Department came through and turned off the gas and water since the water heater was leaking. We were so thankful for God's protection! After taking some pictures we locked it up and drove back to Timothy's. Grace and Sara arrived around midnight and we all were kind of in shock and had a hard time sleeping that night with the numerous and quite strong aftershocks. Early on Monday Grace, Donna, Sara, my friend Frank and I began cleaning up the mess and putting things back in order. It took us almost the entire day to finish.

Throughout this whole ordeal it has been such a blessing to see the Lord's hand of protection and the wonderful support and care of friends. God is good!