Living the Small Town Life: Rangers Ballpark: Protection from the Storm

David is a big Texas Rangers Baseball fan. You will usually find the game on the radio in our house most every night they are playing (except when David gets home from work after the game is over). In the past we have gone to alot of the games, but this year has been hard with late work nights and a very active toddler. We finally made time for our first game of the season when the had a ticket specials where a ticket was the same price as a tank of gas.

We were excited driving to Arlington for the big game. Dark clouds loomed over DFW, but we were sure they would pass as usual. We had a nice supper all packed in our cooler (because the Rangers are cool and let you bring in your own food... homemade bean and cheese burritos, chips and rotel, canned fruit, cookies, water, and juice), and we were decked out in our rangers gear. Walking to the stadium I got a little nervous and asked David if we should leave because the sky looked so sickly. David said that we were there now so we would just stay. So we climbed to our seats in the upper deck. After around 2 innings, they come over the loudspeaker and order everyone in the upper deck to evacuate their seats, move down, and find new seats because of high winds. We found great seats right behing right field and under a shelter. We watched another inning or so then the sky broke loose. The field was quickly covered (which was fun to watch), then we sat back and ate our supper... until we looked at our phones. We had alot of messages from Mom and Katie saying call us immediately to let us know you are ok! I called my mom (who was crying), and she asked if we were ok. I was a bit confused until she told me that there were tornados all around Rangers Ballpark. A little later it started hailing pretty bad. Later, the Rangers staff calmly directed everyone to the concourses/walkways. People who were by the dugouts got to go underneath the stadium. So there we were squished like sardines in a mass a people crawling towards and unknown location. I was terrified- moreso than I had been in a long time. Mom and Katie kept texting updates to us. Brieleigh was such a trooper. One guy saw the look on my face and said that the storms were passed, and we would be ok. David was so calm. He kept hugging me and led us against the wall instead of walking aimlessly in the crowd. He told me that if this was our time to go then that was God's plan.. it was comforting actually.

After some time, alot of people decided to leave. We were not about the leave not knowing where the storms were. Mom said they were right int he middle of Dallas at the time. It was safe to go back into the stadium so we found some wet seats and watched them uncover the field. A few minutes later they recovered it because more thunderstorms were about the move through. Brieleigh had cabin fever so I followed her all around the stadium to let her energy out. The next round of storms were withough tornados but the rain was even heavier. We hung out in the gift shop. Once the rain finally stopped around 11ish, we decided it was save to make the treck to our car and head home so that we could get David to the airport around 5am the next morning.

So our first Rangers game this year was a mere 3ish innings and alot of "excitement". (They did finish the game after we left, but it ended around 2am.) We are so thankful for the Lord's provision! His hand was definitely felt. Moral: don't go to a Rangers game when severe thunderstorms are looming.