Joplin moving forward

It seems like there is a lot going on with Joplin lately, so I thought I would just blog a list of all that I know of lately.

1.) This pic is from JM's cell phone. Tonight the hospital had a memorial for the staff. At the end, they gave the staff a marble cross - the marble is from the hospital that they were able to save and give everyone a piece. On Sunday, they are having their public ceremony to start knocking down the hospital and then breaking ground on the new location.

2. The Joplin Humane Society is supposed to be on the Nightly news on Sunday. I think it's supposed to be about their sponsor program which is what Jenna and I did here.

3. Today, Academy Sports and Payless opened their newly re-built stores. Academy let 40 students have a little shopping spree before they officially opened. (More on that here.) And of course, these stores joined several others that have been opened and a few more that are still in the process of re-building on the same street.

4. The Will Norton memorial field has received several donations and they will be building soon. This will be a sports field for kids with disabilities. More on this story here.

5. Homes of Hope and Habitat for Humanity have started building other homes for families.

I'm sure there may be a few other stories out there I might be missing, but these are the main ones I've heard about. When we came the week after the tornado, I blogged here about the amazing spirit of the people here. Well, 7 months later, it hasn't stopped one bit.

At tonight's hospital ceremony, they played the song, "Blessings" by Laura Story. What a perfect fit. (Lyrics here.) Because out of that absolutely heart-wrenching, devastating, terrible night of May 22, so much good has come from it. Be thankful in every circumstance.