Our hearts and prayers in Australia...

If you live in the U.S. right now, with half of the country being pummeled by crazy ice and snow storms, you may not have heard anything about Cyclone Yasi. After all, the place it's scheduled to hit in just a few short hours is half a world away--Australia. 
So, you might not have heard that it's forecasted to be the most powerful cyclone to ever hit the country; that it's a Category 5 and the size of our infamous Katrina...

Photo Source: NASA

...or, most significant to our family, that my husband's little brother now lives in Cairns and is scheduled to take a direct hit!

In the summer of 2009, my husband & I, along with his parents, traveled to Australia to visit his brother (who's been living there since 2007). Hands down, everyone's favorite parts of the trip involved areas in Queensland (some recently devastated by the worst flooding in decades) and areas that are in the direct path of this weather monster. 
So tonight, our hearts and mind are flooded with concerns for family and for the places & people in Northern Queensland that we have such treasured memories of, like...
...our friends in Port Douglas, Wavelength Marine Charters, who took us on the most fantastic snorkeling excursion of the Great Barrier Reef...

  ...Mossman Gorge & the Daintree Rain Forest (considered to be the oldest, continual living rainforest on earth)...

  ...Palm Cove (the gorgeous costal town where we stayed)...

 ...and SO many more!

While I know people deal with tropical storms, hurricanes, and cyclones "all the time", this seems to be some especially scary stuff! And to see that some of these stats are actually worse than Katrina, well, that is rather terrifying.

Photo Source: News.com.au

So, if you have a little extra room in your prayers tonight, we would appreciate you lifting this up too. 
To: Tyler, Alex, and all your friends, "family", & colleagues there--please be careful and stay safe! We love you, are thinking about you, and praying it's not as devastating as is being predicted!