Surprise!

As you probably already heard the midwest had an earthquake. Why do they call us midwest- wouldn't we be just as much mideast? Anyway, the epicenter was only 30 minutes away from us. I had no idea what an "epicenter" was until Friday. My husband and I were fast asleep of course. It was 4:30 in the morning for goodness sake. I'm so thankful it happened on my husband's day off. Anyway, I felt it right away but my first thought was that it was a sonic boom. We only live 2 hours away from St. Louis and near there is a Air Force Base, sometimes they do their practice runs with their big deal fighter planes over our house. Not usually that early, but that was the only thing that I've ever heard or felt that would explain it. A sonic boom happens in an instant. Boom its over. This wasn't over. It seems like you can do a lot of thinking in a short amount of time. Once I ruled out a sonic boom, there was only one explanation. I've felt an earthquake before, when I was a little kid. My parents grabbed my brother and I and ran outside. During my momment of realization, my husband sat up as if he were on fire and I finally found my voice, "EARTHQUAKE". However, our bodies were slower to react than our brains. For a few seconds we just sat there. Then finally he jerked me up out of bed and we huddled under our bedroom doorway. Later, we agreed that was something we'ld seen people do on t.v. It was very unreal. I'm not sure how long it went on all together. It seemed to come in waves actually. It would die down a little and then the rumbling would get louder again. We moved into the livingroom- the front door was still shaking a little. I switched on my husband's scanner and he opened the front door to look out at the neighborhood. Everything was just as it should be. Dark and quiet. Then slowly lights started coming on and eyes peaking out from behind window blinds. Everyone wondering if they were the only ones who felt it. My husband called his mother's house. She and my neice live in a mobile home and we worry about them everytime something like that happens- usually after a storm. Our neice answered the phone and was she excited. We gathered enough information to know that they were alright. Soon after my brother called. They live about an hour from the center and they felt it. We called my parents who live 10 minutes from us and they felt it. Once everyone was accounted for my husband went back to bed. Me... I was WIDE awake. I stayed up and watched the coverage of the earthquake on the news. When the sun started filling the livingroom with light I started to notice things were amiss. A picture here and knick-knack there, were on the floor or on its side. I went around the house putting things back in order. Since Friday morning there have been two other trembles- that morning around 10:00 and Monday morning around 12:30 a.m. There have been many more felt nearer the center, but those are the only ones big enough for us to feel. They say that we may feel more throughout the week. My mother even heard that we have yet to feel the worst one. Its pretty nerve racking. But, we are trusting the Lord to protect us.