Good Stories for a Sunday morning.

Today I though I would post some wonderful stories from here locally where I live. The first one is very special. Last April we had some really bad tornadoes hit the middle Tennessee area. Luckily were I live we did not get any damage, although I did see a funnel cloud right above the house across the street from me but it never touched down. Where just a little ways north of us in another county they got hit hard. 9 people died in Gallatin, TN. We were on the weather channel for several days as headlines. It was amazing because more people didn't get hurt,,but also because some of the houses where just wiped completely away from the foundations. I am talking big brick homes worth about a half a million dollars. Well in one of the neighborhood that got hit a tragic but a wonderfully heroic story happenned. A young mother of two young boys was at home alone with them. Her husband is a fire fighter in another county. He called and told her to take cover as a tornadoe was coming straight toward their house. She was already headed to the basement with the boys. As soon as she got them downstairs the tornadoe hit and she threw her body over them to protect them. The whole house came down on top of them. The boys had a few scrapes,but Amy, their Mom, had all of her ribs broken, her back broke and a severe head wound. She was very critical for several days and during that time her husband was told she was paralyzed from the waist down. She got out of intensive care and as soon as her head wound was better, she was sent to Atlanta for instense rehab to teach her how to do every thing from a wheelchair. She was the hero out of all the terrible tradgedy. Her husband started a blog about her progress on the site for people with life threatening injuries. The little boys and her husband were on the news and her little boy Jair who is 6 years old said "my mommys my hero, she saved me",,it really brought tear to your eyes. Well finally Amy got to come home to the house that they had been renting, she returned a little less than a month ago. During her stay in Atlanta, her family, friends, neighbors, and church family started passing around a petition to send to "Extreme Home Make-Overs" with Ty Pennington. They wanted them to build a new handicap friendly home for the Hawkins family as theirs was completely demolished by the tornadoe. You could even go on line and sign the petition which I did. They had to have like 50,000 signatures before they would even consider it. Well they got the signatures, and this week the Extreme Makeover team arrived here in Gallatin. They sent Amy, her husband, her mother and the boys to Disney World for the the week, and they built Amy her new wonderful home. In one week they built a very exclusive handicap friendly home,,it has so many extra amminitys for the wonderful family. Here is link for pictures and more on her story.
http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060729/NEWS01/607290345
The extreme make-over story will be on sometime this fall, they have not given a date for it yet.

Another story is about a young war hero from our very own hometown of Kingston Springs. This young man graduated from High School with my son and they were friends. He was in the Army and in Iraq last August when a rocket hit his truck that was in a convoy over there. His 2 buddies from this area were killed instantly. He was still alive and came to finding he was on fire, and trying to pat the flames off of him. He was spared from death,,but was severly maimed. He lost both of his legs above the knees, one of his arm and hand is crippled, and he was burned over 60 % of his body.
Our little local paper has kept up with his story while he was in Texas at the Walter Reed Military Hospital. Every week they would talk to his father and on the front page of our paper that came on fridays, there would be a update. This young man has been through so many surgeries and has been in excrutating pain. But survived.
Well the week after July 4th, Kevin was finally well enough to come home. Everyone in Kingston Springs spread the news and most of the town came out at 5 p.m to line the main street into our town holding yellow ribbons and flags and posters to welcome him home. It was very thrilling and touching. He and his parents were in a van and they oppenned the side door and drove down the street so he could wave to every one. They have had several welcome home partys for him and he was awarded the purple heart last saturday.
Here is a link to his story.
http://www.ashlandcitytimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060802/MTCN0101/308020035/1292/MTCN01

Kevin has to go back to Texas this week for more surgery and to get fitted for prosthestic legs. He stays in our prayers constantly. But he his a strong young man and has a plan for his future as he tells in this news story.

Thanks for letting me share these wonderful stories. They will warm your heart, and remind you that even though bad things happen, sometimes good does come from them.

Hope everyone has a lovely Sunday!