Our day in Joplin

We got up early on Saturday morning, dropped Jenna off at my mom's and headed down to Joplin. We loaded up our trunk to take food to the Knapp family. They are keeping a couple of other families in their house right now that have completely lost their homes.

Our first stop was the Knapp house. We were also going to help move the mother of one of the ladies that was staying at their house. So then our next stop was to go out and find work gloves. One of the absolutely most amazing things is that on just about every corner there is some tent set up that is just giving away food, supplies, donations, anything really. We heard that the high school parking lot had several tents set up and we went there. They had a grief and counseling trailor, a chain sharpening station and this huge tent that all kinds of things in it. I don't know why but this big tent was one of the hardest things for me to take in. There were just piles and piles of everyday neccessities like toothpaste, toliet paper and ziploc baggies. And people could just come and get whatever they needed - no questions were asked, you didn't have to put your name down, nothing....

After that, I got a free tetanus shot at this Walgreens parking lot. The parking lot was very busy and they had a few other things going on here. Again, with the tetanus shot, all I had to do was tell her my name and nothing else was asked.

Again, St. John's hospital where JM has signed on with and will start on July 11. They are going to completely demolish this and re-build at a different location. (They aren't saying where yet.) We have also heard they have guaranteed everyone that worked here their jobs. The details of JM's job are still a bit fuzzy as of now, but we are thankful that he will still be able to stay in Joplin.

One of the things I find completely interesting are these play structures. We saw this one, another one at a church and I saw the photo of the Burger King one. They are all completely still up. The Burger king picture shows the building around it all down, but the playplace is still intact. I have a new found love for these play structures now.

This was Dr. Knapp's office. They had to spray paint Suite 311 on the ground so the insurance company would know where exactly it was. They were able to somehow (and I still don't fully understand how) go down in there and dig out their personal files and belongings.

This 13 passenger van was found on top of Dr. Knapp's office. Most every car you see looks crumpled up and from far off just kind of looks like a toy. Also, the cars (the ones that were in the area) that people are still able to drive have their windows blown out or some kind of exterior damage. It also looks like something you would see on a movie.

And back to us cleaning out the people's house - There were probably around 10-15 people helping move out this older couple's house, but I think I heard only 2 of them directly knew each other. The rest were friend's of friends like we were. I can't imagine having a bunch of strangers go through your damaged house, but I guess at that point you are just truly grateful for the help. One of the mother's of this couple died around September so they still had her house across town that they were fortunate enough to be able to move directly into.

This was the house directly across the street. (The house we were working in did not have this much damage - it just had the roof blown off and was completely water soaked.) Another thing I found completely interesting is that every place has some kind of spray paint on. They marked X's to notify that the place had been checked. And some of the other people that lived in the homes would also spray paint on their house. We saw some said that said, "We are ok here." And another one down this neighborhood said, "I survived. Thank You Jesus!" And some people like this house pictured tried to inject some humor into the situation. Not sure if you can see it, but they have a spray painted sign that says, "Sale, Everything $1."

And John Michael with the Knapp's boys. Spencer in the orange and Bradley in the neon green. Bradley is the one that went to college with JM. We were just so glad to know that they were ok.

Even though this city has been through so much in the past week, the spirit of the people is just unbelievable. A few other things I don't think I mentioned - We were in this church parking lot and the Knapp's had their dogs out and a man in a truck just pulls up and gives them some dog treats. There was a lady going down the street of the house we were working on with a wagon passing out a bag of toliet paper, paper towels, hand sanitizer, etc. Again, free food was everywhere. We met a few other people that had come up from Conway (JM's college town). Church buses from various locations were all around. Volunteers would just come up and ask if you needed help with anything. Police had come in from other cities and were helping to direct the traffic.

To actually be there is a million times different than just seeing it through the photos. We are glad we went and were able to do what we could though. Things like this definitely change you. And yes, we are still looking forward to actually moving there.

I should also mention that we got back in around 10 so we let Jenna spend the night at my mom's. Her first time. This is probably the longest I've ever been without her and I can not wait to just get her back and hug on her.