My heart absolutely ACHES for Joplin. I've seen so many pictures and heard so many stories of lost family members - especially children. A friend that I graduated high school with is a nurse and she went down to Joplin to help this weekend and it's bad. She posted some pics on Facebook and the only thing I could say was "Wow". Our ward was called to volunteer down there this weekend and I've heard that things went well, but there's still so much to do. If we are asked to go volunteer again, Jason will be going (he couldn't this weekend because my grandma and aunt were in town). Over 30% of the town is just gone. It could have been us. A slight shift in the storm's path and it would have been us. I'm grateful for the safety we had that night and that the storms we had in the following days weren't as bad as they were predicted to be. I'm glad that my family in St. Louis was safe in those mid week storms as well.

I hope and pray the citizens of Joplin are able to put the pieces back together and can find comfort in this difficult time