A Not-So-Slight Wrinkle

Todd has been very busy this week booking tickets and reserving rooms on all the legs of our journey. He has such a knack for finding the unusual, memorable out of the way places and I look forward to sharing them with you, but in another post. As Todd was firming up plans for some parts of our trip, we had some bad news about another part.

If you will remember from our itinerary, we were planning to stay in Iowa with my uncle and his family, whom Todd has never met. My mother has booked her tickets to join us for this part of the journey to show the kids the farm where she was raised including the house her father built. Whereas the Statue of Liberty, Niagara Falls, etc. were to be great "re-connecting to America" moments, the Iowa visit was to be a more personal, connect with the family history moment and I was really looking forward to it.

However, on Sunday, a tornado blew through the area killing at least 7 people and destroying many, many homes. President Bush has declared the county a disaster area and the Iowa National Guard has been sent in to help clean up. You can read in more detail and see photos here: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080527/NEWS/80527022

Fortunately, none of our extended family were physically harmed. My uncle's house, where we had planned on staying, has suffered some damage. My cousin's house, however, was completely destroyed. His boat, which was stored half a mile west of my uncle's home was later found east of my uncle's home. No word yet on the status of the house my grandfather built.

Now, lest I scare off any of our other gracious hosts along the way, I would like to point out that this devastation PRECEDED our family's arrival by more than six weeks and our kids are in NO WAY responsible for this kind of destruction!

So, unless the hotels are still booked with storm refugees six weeks from now, we still plan on coming through New Hartford to see the family, and hopefully the farm. If you could, in the meantime, pray for my cousin Brett and his family as they deal with the complete loss of their home. Even in the midst of our moving chaos, I can only imagine how completely overwhelming it must all be for them.