After the Storm

I woke up this morning and took Bella out.....and walked outside to a beautiful, crisp morning!! It was wonderful! It felt so nice and cool, I loved it...made me ready for fall. Later that morning as we sat down to breakfast, I looked at the paper and saw some interesting facts and even more interesting pictures of some of the devastation. More than 775,000 customers were without power, 32 cities and towns had to be evacuated, 2,000 people were in area shelters. Hartford, Fairfield, Litchfield, Middlesex, New Haven, Tolland, and Windham counties all still have flood warnings. 25 homes in East Haven's Cosey Beach and 4 homes in Fairfield were destroyed. An elderly woman in Prospect died when a power line fell down on her house and caught fire. Another man in Bristol is believed to be dead after he and a friend tried to canoe one of the crazy, swollen rivers. The friend was able to make it to safety, but they hadn't found him last I knew. They did find the canoe down river wrapped around a tree...so sad. The shoreline had to deal with storm surges of 4-8 feet. Thirty-five communities had declared a state of emergency. Many towns and cities had 6-10 inches of water that came down in just a few hours. There were winds reported at 40-60 miles an hour. The highest wind reported was 63 miles per hour. After reading all of this and seeing the pictures, I really had to thank the Lord for taking such good care of us. We were truly blessed! Later on when I went out, I couldn't help notice how beautiful the sky was, barely a cloud, and such an amazing blue color. I couldn't help but think how bad the storm was, the time that we waited for it, then the time that we went through it, and though it wasn't bad here, it was bad in other places. Then thinking how the Lord helped bring so many of us through it as we asked. He brings us through it and allows beautiful days like this to show us what He can do after the storm.
Thank you, Lord, for getting us through this storm, and bringing us to such beauty on the other side.