Stuck in Tennessee

I've been planning on making a trip to Arkansas to see my old friends from high school for the past year. A close friend was getting married, so I talked Trapper into coming with me. We got everything ready and took off, leaving the kids with Trapper's parents, who flew out just for the occasion. The weather looked great and we were excited to have some time to ourselves. We didn't want to rush the trip, so we took our time staying in several different places: Nashville, Memphis and then down to Little Rock. By the time we got to Little Rock, the weather started to get a little darker. The night before my friend's wedding, it rained more than Trapper had ever seen it rain before. On our way home from a movie, we struggled to see through the windshield and almost wrecked onto the curb. I think I scared Trapper to death when I panicked and grabbed the wheel to dodge the pole. Yeah...I was just trying to save our children from living a life without their parents. Needless to say, I will try to warn with my words and not my hands next time. The whole night I did my best to ignore the crashing thunder and not tihnk about how we could get swept away in a tornado in any second. I really hate tornadoes. HATE. As you can probably tell though, we made it through the night and still live. My friend's wedding was beautiful, and the rain held off just after they kissed as husband and wife. I'm really happy for her. During the reception it began to rain cats and dogs and we decided it was time to head out. My next post will be about seeing my old friends and how elated and nervous I was.
We tried to get as far as we could to Memphis after the wedding, but with all the tornado warnings and severe thunderstorms lurking about, I wasn't ready to go that far. So we made a stop in Brinkley, Arkansas. We made it to a place that was in between all the really bad stuff. I was grateful to the Lord for watching over us. We wanted to get a head start and make it back to Ohio by the following night, so we left at 5am and started back on the road. We got as far as Fairview (where we are now), Tennessee, which is in between Nashville and Memphis. And there isn't a big city in between. Everything's small and wet. There were a lot of stand-stills and detours along the way, but in Fairview, we became blocked on every side. No way to get out. Every road we tried was flooded. Stinkface. So, we're waiting..........and waiting. Stupid me didn't bring a book. But we do have playing cards and the laptop and our phones and I bought a sudoku book. In the little town of Fairview, the power has gone out in a lot of areas, so the Flying J next to the interstate is the only place to go for food and water....that we know of. Also the phones are out and our cell phone signals are very weak.
We hope to leave by tomorrow morning, but we may not have access to the roads. Nashville sounds like it got hit really hard, so I'm going to pray as much as I can and ask the Lord to bless us with dry roads tomorrow.
My one worry is my children. We miss them more than we ever have and wish we could be with them. We really wanted to tuck them into their beds tonight. *sigh* But we'll just have to be patient and wait. Until then, my in-laws are taking off back to Utah and a friend in my ward is going to watch them tomorrow. THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH Katie. We owe you a BIG fat juicy one. Seriously. We hope to be back by tomorrow so we can see our little ones. I'm really hoping.

And Pray for the people out here. There are people who are stranded and who have lost their homes. Some have lost their loved ones and some can't get to their loved ones, like us. Nobody is taking credit cards out here and the gas pumps are out, so it is a tender mercy from Heavenly Father that we ended up with a full tank and at least $40 in cash before we became trapped. And we were blessed to get one of the last rooms available in one of the only motels around. Pray for those who haven't been as blessed.