Well ~ knock that off the bucket list...today I have officially lived through my first Earthquake! I was a Navy brat growing up and we lived an hour north of Seattle, Washington for 2 years and did earthquake drills every month (and Volcano drills too), but never once did we experience either of those activities.
But behold today while in Central Virginia we get a 5.8 earthquake with the epicenter only 4 miles from our home! Talk about frightening! I didn't know what was going on at first. The beginning of it sounded and felt like a low flying jet (they fly around the North Anna Nuclear Power Plant less than 3 miles away from us), but as I went upstairs to check the kids the whole house started to shake and knocked my off balance and thus me faling down the last 6 steps of the stairs. The kitchen cabinets were flyiing open and cups were falling, items were falling off the bookshelf and the computer desk. The walls sounded like they were going to crack apart around me. After about 25 seconds or so it stopped.
I finally got upstairs and Madeline was still asleep (and snoring at that), my precious moments and items from our wedding had fallen off the shelves upstairs and David was awake. He didn't seemed to be bothered by it and was playing with our marriage certificate holder that my parents gave us the day we got married. He started helping me pick-up the items that fell and then the after shock came through and more stuff started to fall. So I grabbed the kids and ran outside. A second aftershock came through while outside and the ground moved under our feet. My oldest was at school (which has been cancelled for tomorrow as her school was deemed "unsafe") and it seemed like forever for her to get home.
She said "elephants ran through my school," and that they had them go into the bathroom and then once it stopped they evacuated outside. This was her second week in school and they are already out. They kept the kids outside until school was dismissed and the placed them on the buses and sent them home. She didn't seem too shook up about it, but was devastated that her "pack-pack" and lunch box were still at school.
I am just so thankful right now that no one was seriously hurt here and we didn't lose anything "valuable." Our house appears to be safe as well, which is even more of a blessing! God was definitely looking out for us today as neighbors of ours (well people a couple miles away) had major damage and one their home collapsed. So we will be helping them clean-up where and when we can. Keep our local families in your prayers that have suffered injuries and damage today. Pray that God will heal them and help them recover from this tragedy.
The Kidds
Baby-Bug Boutique
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