Ukraine Adoption

Fallen trees and a sad little girl

A sudden, crazy storm with mini-tornadoes ripped through our neighborhood yesterday. Our beloved maple tree in front of our house was ripped from the roots and knocked over onto our driveway---and John's car. Remarkably, the damage to his car was minimal: a handful of fist-size dents.

Tara and I had just left the house in my car, which was parked closer to the tree and would surely have been crushed if it was still there. We missed it by 10 minutes. Upon arriving home, Tara burst into tears, hysterical really, saying she loved that tree. Just hours earlier, she was trying to get our cat to come out of the tree. He was chasing a squirrel.

Down the street, a yellow-orange glare was flashing through the sky by an angry downed wire. Smoke filled the air. We lost power. Across the street in a backyard, three huge old trees fell down domino-style upon countless wires. They looked twisted and turned and dark like a jungle. The roots pulled out of the ground were taller than me; Austin's friend posed for a picture. The light rain was still falling, it was the only gentle thing of the night.

Late into the evening, people rode bikes through the neighborhood to survey the damage. Neighbors in shorts and wet hair gathered in the street to talk about where they were when the winds hit town. Children were riding their bikes and skate boards, trying to delay their bedtimes. I talked with some neighbors I haven't seen in ages. Destruction brings people together. We are thankful that no one in our area was hurt, though we have heard that six people died in our state's storms yesterday, mostly due to fallen trees and flooded streets.

Today brought sunshine and we can see even more clearly, our tree lying there like a tired old friend. Lots of phone calls to insurance companies and tree-cutters. Our homeowners insurance won't pay for tree removal, but auto insurance will pay to repair John's car. That's because the tree hit the car. If the car hit the tree, then insurance would have paid for tree removal. Go figure. That's America for you.