Tornado Relief - The Laupp Family

As many of you know, a line of storms carrying several tornadoes made it's way through the Midwest. The Laupp family sadly happened to be directly in it's path. The family of 5 (Soon to be 6) held on tightly to one another as the storm took quite a bit of their home. Once the first responders rescued them from their basement, they walked out to learn their lives would be uprooted for quite a while.

They are currently residing in a hotel room as they figure out their next steps. If anyone has met the Laupps for even a minute you know just how kind of a family they are. Lets return some of their kindness they have shown countless others. Here is Allison's recap of the night...

"Nathan Laupp and I have quite a love story, we have been through an incredibly beautiful and tough journey together and always come out ok. And we will this time.

The back story on our house: we broke ground in our (very early) 20s. The day we were married they began pouring our foundation. We practiced our first dance in the excavated dirt in what is now the basement that saved our family’s life.

My dad was the general contractor on our house. I still remember the fire code being different than the other houses he built. I’m 2006, as our house was in later stages in being built, he found out they required “hurricane straps” on trusses. I still remember him talking about those damn hurricane trusses having to be added.

I remember thinking how we are nestled into a hill, on a terraced landscape, and how I had heard that tornadoes follow the path of least resistance, so we probably wouldn’t need them, but of course they were added.

We have lived here 16 years. Every memory of our marriage and beginning our family, bringing home our babies is in this house. Our backyard is our spot to go and play and explore. So many memories of climbing these old oak and walnut trees, pushing the kids on the swings that hung from their thick sturdy branches. They’re gone.

Our house looks like it was hit by a tornado…because it was. It feels like it is destroyed. But I truly feel so thankful that we were able to hold 3 healthy children (with one on the way) tightly in our arms, whispering that it was going to be ok. To take deep breaths. And as our ceiling and trusses collapsed and ripped apart, and everything fell to the floor above us, this 16 year old house filled with memories protected the only thing that really matters."