Monday morning we left Mt. Vernon, Illinois after our complimentary continental breakfast for our final day of driving. We chose not to fly (I was adamant I was not going to fly) because of the ridiculous TSA security procedures. I will not willingly submit to being personally violated through expensive X-ray photos or aggressive physical searches. Nor would I allow the gamble of purchasing expensive tickets with the hopes of avoiding these measures. Driving is just fine, thank you.
We crossed into Kentucky and then Tennessee. We met our friend Channing outside Chattanooga for a late lunch at Cracker Barrel. We love Channing. We all met in Louisville while mutually attending the Southern Seminary and have remained friends since. Channing is ministering in a Baptist church in Whitwell preaching, teaching & counseling. Being fully systematized in His theology, he addresses the serious implications of dangerous worldview philosophy from a Biblical framework, just as easily as he wins people over with his redneck charm & humor. He plays guitar, enjoys hang gliding and ballroom dancing. He is searching for the right woman.
Finally we arrived back across the Georgia state line. As we got closer to Atlanta the sky grew more and more threatening with dark grey/black clouds and rain. The wind began to pick up acceleration also and motorists reduced their speed significantly. As we continued to drive I noticed that those same black clouds appeared to be dipping down toward the earth in the distance on either side of the highway. I've never seen real tornadoes before and I was growing more and more concerned that I might be seeing them now! Then we crossed a point on the highway where a tornado had certainly passed through because the trees on both the right and left sides bore an obvious path of destruction and we had just missed it by about 5 or 10 minutes! That's less than 3 miles at the speed we were driving. Scary.
We finally arrived back to G'Wanda's house to pick up the girls. I was so thrilled to see them! After reading about the Edwards' and having a significant time of refreshment, I felt eager and energized to return back to my role of motherhood. The girls were somewhat distracted when we entered (Dora the Explorer). Moriah was the most exited of them all. "Hey Mommy!" She said quickly with a smile then her attention turned back to the TV.
Shiphrah was on the kitchen floor amused with the plastic storage containers and looked up at me as though I were a faint memory from somewhere that she just couldn't put her finger on. Either that or she was really thinking, "Oh, Momma! Where have you been?" Her expression was just an open-mouthed worry. I did my best to comfort her, though she did not cry or refuse for me to hold her. It took about 30 minutes for me to get her to laugh and smile again! Note to self: Don't ever leave my babies for six days again!
Lily was so preoccupied by Dora, she wouldn't even look my direction! When Dora was over, she finally acknowledged our return and after a little coaxing came over to give me a hug and kiss and sit in my lap. I guess some people just can't compete with a cute little Latino cartoon. :-)
We ate dinner and Jeramy replaced the car seats and loaded up the girls stuff only to notice that we had a flat tire! A screw had become lodged in our rear passenger tire at some point along our journey! I had not noticed it before, neither was I looking! We drove through our fare share of road construction, but we had no idea when or where we picked it up. We drove along in complete ignorance as to the condition of it. And we had just as much uncertainty as to whether we would make it home without an immediate repair (at 8:30 p.m.). We pumped it back up and prayed the whole way home and arrived without any problems. Can you imagine that tire blowing out in the middle of a storm or some other state far from home? God certainly showed us a great deal of grace on our journey!
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