Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Tennessee Is Amazing!

Hi, all!

Well, it's been quite a week here in Tennessee, but Friday is finally here, and that means it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on!  Are you ready?  Let's get started!

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Historic church in Nashville

I'm sure many of you have heard about the tornado that ripped through middle Tennessee Monday night - I know this because many of you have emailed me to see if I am ok!  (And that is definitely whoop-worthy - thank you so much to everyone who checked in on me!)

The building is gone, but the sign and the spirit remains

Tuesday morning I woke up at the butt-crack of dawn, as usual, and checked my email while drinking a cup of coffee.  Then over to Instagram, and there was a message from Janice Grimes of Quilts of Compassion, asking if we were ok after the storms the night before.  Storms?  What storms?  I turned on the local news and was shocked to see that a tornado had passed through Nashville, Mt. Juliet (my previous hometown), Lebanon, and Cookeville.  

East Nashville houses after the storm

Our old house is about ten minutes south of I-40, which was fortunate for us - the tornado tracked just north of I-40 for what we now know was more than 50 miles on the ground, touching down just west of Nashville and continuing all the way to Cookeville, TN.  

West Wilson Middle School in Mt. Juliet

However, just about ten minutes north of I-40, the tornado wreaked havoc.  This picture is of the middle school, and we are told that they probably will not be able to resume classes there this school year.  Next door to it is a Christian school and Baptist church, which also sustained significant damage.  My eye doctor's office right across the street was seriously damaged, too.

Houses in Mt. Juliet, TN

So many of our friends sustained damage to their homes, but fortunately no one that we knew was hurt badly.  

Cookeville wasn't as lucky - the storm totally wiped out whole neighborhoods, and most of the storm-related deaths happened there.

But I'll tell you the wonderful thing about Tennessee - and I saw a Facebook post this week that stated it perfectly.  It said...

If you've only recently moved to Tennessee, hold on.

You're about to see why it's called the Volunteer State.

People were out right after the storm to help their neighbors.  Go Fund Me accounts were set up.  Churches were mobilizing.  Anyone who had a chainsaw and a pickup truck was looking for a tree to cut up.

This is the heart of Tennessee - when people are in trouble, everyone wants to help.  I've never lived anywhere quite like it.  They actually had so many volunteers in Mt. Juliet the police department said that they couldn't handle any more right now!

And despite the storm and the damage and all the roads closed and buildings damaged, people still stood in line for hours in order to exercise their right to vote on Super Tuesday!  They actually kept the polls open until 8, and extended hours at the polls in the most-affected areas until 10 to give people the chance to vote.  

And I think all of that is worth a whoop whoop, don't you?

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And now it's your turn!

What's making you whoop it up this week?

What's making you do a little happy dance?

Share!  We want to dance right along with you,

And it's always more fun to dance with friends!

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah