Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Anniversary (04/11/05)
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TITLE: Tornado Alley Anniversary | Previous Challenge Entry
By Celeste Kooy
04/16/05 -
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Several ideas came to mind, but we finally settled on a road trip to the outlet mall in Stroud. It was close, there was a hotel nearby, and it certainly fit within our tiny budget. We began saving.
At our wedding the previous May, my mother had been in an absolute panic. She was certain that a tornado would strike at any second during her weekend visit. Although her fears were valid (May is famous for dropping tornadoes and wall clouds in the middle of violent rain storms), God smiled on us that day. The sun shone, birds chirped, and it’s possible that an orchestra played when we kissed after the ceremony. (Actually, it was more like a cheap synthesizer posing as a church organ.)
Certainly we hoped for such a day on our first anniversary, and it so happened that the weekend of our trip dawned cheerfully and free of clouds. By 2:00 in the afternoon the day before we were to leaver, however, the weatherman cast shadows over our plans. We were thankful that our plans were leading us indoors.
Later that afternoon, the sky was black and the weather was not only dismal, but dangerous. Now the meteorologist was breaking in on regular shows, tracking a horrible storm that had decimated portions of Oklahoma City and was headed right for us. We were glued to the television, watching the giant red digitized blob of a storm swallow up our nightly programming.
That evening, remnants of the tornado ripped through our town, taking out transformers and threatening lives along the way. The only class F4 storm in recorded history not only devastated parts of Oklahoma City that day, but also completely flattened the outlet mall in Stroud. Had we planned our trip two days sooner, we might have been greeting Jesus face to face and not sitting in the bathtub with the radio. Later, we had a chance to drive through Stroud. All that remained of the outlets was the concrete foundation upon which merchants had once enticed customers.
Some anniversaries sneak right by without the decency to make a lasting impression. My first anniversary, though, left me wondering about my own foundation. Would I be able to pass the test of life? Will I run to God when I really have nowhere else to turn?
In our sixth year of marriage, my husband and I sold our little house in Oklahoma and moved to Canada. We stuffed a U-Haul truck full of all the belongings we didn’t sell, and then we squished into the cab with our eighteen-month old daughter between us. Five days later, my husband dropped us off at my parents’ crowded Calgary home, and returned to Tulsa to await arrangements with immigration. It was four months until we were reunited and in our own place. Jason lost his job four months after that.
He stays home with our daughter now, and I am working a little more than part time. The depression I have battled for twenty years is beginning to lift, and I am happier now than I have been in a long time.
My foundation is Jesus. He is my rock. I build my life on him so it doesn’t matter to me if we have a lot or a little to be thankful for. My storefronts were swept away when my husband lost his job, but my Rock hasn’t moved.
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