Joplin, MO

I am not a city person. In the 2+ years that we have lived here, I think we have been to Joplin maybe twice. That is not to say that I haven't been to Joplin numerous times, though. Growing up, Joplin was the closest city and so if we wanted to watch a movie in the theater or go to a mall, that is where we went. I was quite familiar with the city growing up. I keep thinking about how just the day before my sister was in Joplin buying stuff for their trip to Florida and the week before my mom and dad was there getting stuff for Ronald's wedding.

So, I was driving the other day, listening to a radio station out of Joplin, when I heard the DJ say that one of the top things on the want lists were duct tape. Odd, I thought, to a woman but any man could see a million uses of it in times like these. I started thinking of the boys and how I really wanted them to understand the enormous damage that Sunday night's EF 5 tornado did to Joplin. So I got a few things together to have Levi's cub scout troop get together duct tape, feminine products (yes, I said, pads and tampons....for the cub scouts to gather.....), and toiletries. When I called the American Red Cross they said that there has been so many clothing and food donated that they are telling people to stop sending them and to work on these other needs. Can you believe that? Just a few days after the tornado and so many people have come together and there is actually to much of certain things?! I love Americans!!!!! So the boys and I headed off house to house to collect these items on Wed. morning. People were very generous. The one that touched my heart the most was a boy a little older than Levi. I told him that he didn't have to worry about it since his parents were not home but he really wanted to give us something. So he went back inside his house, came out, told me that he couldn't find his diamond but that he wanted to give us his toy motorcycle. We were a few houses down when I noticed this same boy, later, running towards us. He was yelling, "I found my diamond!" I thought, "Oh man....how am I going to tell this boy that he can't give me his mom's jewelry with her not being there?" when he came running up with this HUGE paperweight fake diamond. It was so sweet of him.
The boys raised $49.00 that day. Here is what they bought at Wal-Greens.

So today, Amanda Bishop, Renee Roberts, Hyrum, and I went to Joplin to deliver the goods (a lot of people stepped up from church to donate). This is one of the first things we saw. Once again, I love Americans!
I had to take a picture of this. You know that a play area is safe for your children when the Burger King is destroyed but not the kids play area inside!

This is a local church that was taking in donations. When I called the American Red Cross on Tues., they were completely full with donations along with the Salvation Army. They wanted us to bring our goods to MSSU. By the time we got there this morning, they also were full and we were now delivering to this church.

There was sooooo much there! I wanted to take pictures inside of all that was donated but I felt guilty as I noticed people were "shopping" there. I wanted to give them privacy.

We decided to park our car and go walking and these are the things we saw. Nothing was more disturbing than to see the X with the numbers inside them. Most of the time we just saw 0's but there were a few cars that we saw numbers on. I can't even imagine coming upon these places and finding the dead.

It was interesting that as the more destroyed these places became, the more odd places we would find these X's. And they had to start marking home addresses on odd places (like refrigerators) because the homes no longer existed.

Have I mentioned that I love Americans?!

At one point I started feeling sick to my stomach. It was becoming a little all to real. Needless to say, I was grateful for the laugh when we came across this garage sale sign! We even ran across a "For Sale By Owner" sign. Thank you for your humor, Joplin!

This was our stake center once upon a time. We are now in the Rogers, AR stake but who could deny that very obvious Mormon foyer chair!?!

This is a picture I didn't think I would be taking. When the news covers the Joplin disaster, they always show the St. John's hospital. Every time I see it, I realize the damage, especially to the community that desperately needs the hospital, but I always wonder why they don't show more of the homes. The hospital is still standing whereas the homes are just gone.

Well, you just can't describe it until you are there in person.

Once again, it is a miracle that anyone could survive through such force.