reuben's adventure

Well, Reuben had another adventure and a close call on Monday night. We had a bit of a storm and I was going around closing windows. I got to the bathroom window that's on the same side of the house as our room, where Reuben was asleep in his crib. All of a sudden there was a huge wind in through the window and I couldn't close it, and a noise like I've never heard before. I remember thinking, "I don't care if the sirens aren't going, this is a tornado." So I ran into our room, grabbed Reuben and yanked the food pump tube out of his g-tube, and ran downstairs, yelling at Eric and Annabelle to come with me. Eric came to the basement and reassured me that there didn't seem to be a tornado, but a branch had fallen from the tree in back. So I came back up to the kitchen with Reuben and was trying to explain to Eric what I'd experienced when there was a blinding white light outside the kitchen window. The electric meter is there and I knew immediately that the branch had fallen on the electrical service. I wasn't sure if the house or the tree was on fire, but I wanted to get Reuben out. Eric went to the basement to shut off the breakers while I ran out the back door with Reuben, headed toward the neighbors. There were branches across the driveway so turned the other way and ran to their front door.

Thank God, once again, for Ron and Pat, who didn't bat an eye when I arrived on their doorstep at 9:30 PM, with a dripping wet baby and a dripping wet dog. We called both the power company (to shut off the service) and the fire department, because we weren't sure whether the tree was on fire, or the house was on fire, or what.

When the fire fighters and the utility company arrived, they used their big lights to show us what had happened.  The entire tree had come down -- the main trunk missed the place where Reuben was sleeping by about ten feet, and instead grazed the corner of the house and fell on the sun porch.  Another branch split off and fell the other direction, onto the driveway, the fence, and the car.  Reuben really does seem to be protected by a lucky charm.

Ron and Pat let us stay the night  at their house, since Reuben needs electricity for his food pump and the service had to be shut off.  Mom came up the next morning to help, and Dad came up after he got off work with the chain saw to chop up the branches as much as we could.  The electricity was turned back on around 3:30.  Pretty soon Ron, Pat, Bev, and Tim were all over here helping us chop everything up.  We just have amazing neighbors.

The tree service came and removed all the wood; there's very little damage to the house; and we should know early next week the extent of the damage to the car.

All in all, we were very, very lucky, and blessed once again with the help of family and friends.

Love,

Jonna, Eric, and Reuben