God rocked in Gadrock

Well, since we last talked, we did some traveling....and when we say God had his hand of protection over us, we aren't exaggerating. On the morning of April 27th, we packed up the 4Runner and headed north to Gadsden, AL - Barbara's home town. There was news that a rough storm had come through the area that morning about 6 AM and that another rough patch was due in that night. We timed our trip just perfect - arriving at lunch time - and managing to miss any bad weather during our travels. All three girls handled the 4 hour road trip like perfect princesses! A quick hour stop in Calera, AL to stretch all of our legs (and eat some lunch) was just what was needed to keep everyone happy. When we got into town, we met up with the Brewer family (Jana, Chad, Alex and little baby Jorja - who is only a few weeks old and absolutely adorable...we loved snuggling with her!), took our bags to the Williams (Jeanie and Freck) house and get ready to enjoy some time with good friends! About 5 PM, bad weather started showing up on the television...tornadoes. We were very fortunate that nothing hit Gadsden - or in the area where we were, on Noccalula Falls Mountain. But others were not so...especially in Tuscaloosa, AL and other places north and southwest of Gadsden. The 1/2 mile wide tornado went over the entire state, touching down in several places. We thank God that we were safe. For a few minutes, we went into the storm shelter off the Brewer's basement but came out when we realized the worst of the storm we were going to receive would be hail. After that, we had a wonderful visit with our friends!!!!! On Thursday we headed up to the Lumpkin (Rhonda, Keith, Baleigh and Sydney) house and even enjoyed a great lunch and visit to the Smith house (Peggy and Ronnie). That afternoon we packed up the car again and followed the Brewers to B'ham where the Tuckers (Julie and Dustin) just gave birth to their 1st child, little William. On Friday we hung out with the Brewers some more before meeting up with Barbara's cousin, Whitney, and her little one, Addison. It was awesome getting to meet little Addison for the first time and all our girls fell in love with her immediately....and her "Aunt Barbara" did too especially when she said my name! (Which wouldn't be that big of a deal until you hear that she hasn't even said "Mommy" yet but said "Barbara"! Hee hee! Love ya toots!) On Saturday six of us gals headed to Noccalula Falls for a picnic lunch and a day out...then off to some shopping where we ran into Krista for some hugs and hellos! By Sunday we had to say goodbye and everyone was sad to leave...with promises to get back up to Gadrock again soon, we left with smiles on our faces and in our hearts! We had a wonderful trip home and can't wait to do it again! Love and hugs to everyone!!!! We already miss you all!!! XOXOXO

PS - Note from Barbara: One of the coolest things for me to do, was to show Abby a lot of landmarks around Gadsden that she now understands. For example, Rhonda showed Abby the church where Eric and I got married. Abby thought that was so funny and told her "Ms. Rhonda, we're going to keep that a secret from Mommy, OK? It'll just be our secret." Ha ha. But now when I say something about us being married, she says "I know all about that. I saw your church." And I also took Abby to see the building that used to be my high school (it's now a middle school). She got the biggest kick out of seeing "Mommy's school." She would see something and say "What's that? Did you ever go in that store when you were here Mommy?" It was just a really neat thing to do with her and to be honest, it made me get excited about doing it again with the twins when they are older.