Central Virginia Earthquake 5.8

Today, we had the shock of our lives!  We live about 30 miles from the epicenter near Mineral, Virginia.  I asked everyone in our little family to share their thoughts, feelings, and story of what happened to them.   These are their stories.

Eli (4 years old) - Watching Winnie the Pooh-Cowboy Pooh, the house started to shake up and down.  My Mom came and picked me up and we woke up Charleigh and hugged each other on the bed in Charleigh's room.  I was brave and did not cry.

Spencer (6 years old) - I was in Art Class when the building started making noise.  Two people began crying.  People started screaming.  I knew it was an earthquake, but nobody else knew.  We went to the big kid playground to line up for the earthquake drill.  It stopped when we got to the big kid playground.  The earthquake shook me a little.  I was brave.  This is non-fiction.

Marchus (7 years old) - Our teacher told us to go in the middle of the room when our schoolhouse trailer shook up and down.  Someone fell down.  Kids started to cry.  I knew it was an earthquake when no one else knew what was happening.  We lined up later and went to the little kid playground.  Since we had an earthquake, we stopped our reading groups and our teacher taught us about earthquakes.

I was in my room and was startled.  I thought the property manager was on the roof cleaning the rain gutters.  After two seconds, I realized what was happening.  I didn't know what was going to happen in the next 30 seconds, I just knew I wanted to hold my babies.  I grabbed Eli and woke Charleigh up and just held them.  I, too, did not cry and didn't think it was all that bad.

Laron was at the UVA Hospital in the cafeteria.  He and his friend casually walked under a beam while continuing their conversation.

The yellow vase was on the shelf above the orange mug.

This yellow vase, the books on the floor and basket on Marchus' headboard are the only things that fell down.

Cell phone lines were down for about an hour.  I wanted to reach out to our extended family to let them know we were okay.  I didn't know if the kids were alright until they came home off the bus at 3:45pm.  I felt peace and knew that no news is good news for a while.  Laron couldn't call until after 5pm.  We have felt aftershocks.  We couldn't all be reunited until 9:30pm when we came home from Mutual.

I thought it would be good for the kids to tell their stories to help them process the event and remember to stay calm and help others in calamities such as this.

I am grateful for eternal families and am daily reminded that our relationships continue after death.