Awesome story!!!!

[Tann3100]

Don't know how many have heard about this story but a little background about it.

This happened real close to where I live at. A brother firefighter for Brentwood TN was at work when a tornado struck his home in Hendersonville TN while his wife and children were there.



Here so you dont have to click on link. My following post contain more information from the beginning of the story.

From extreme hardship to Extreme Makeover
TV show rebuilds home leveled by storm

By SYLVIA SLAUGHTER
Staff Writer


HENDERSONVILLE — The mother whose body lay between her two young sons and death in a devastating F3 tornado in April received a surprise visitor Friday.

Ty Pennington, his bullhorn in hand, arrived at the temporary home of Amy Hawkins, her husband Jerrod and their sons, Jair, 6, and Cole, 3.




The hyper host of the popular ABC reality show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" bellowed, "HAWKINS FAMILY, COME ON OUT!"

Jerrod walked to the door, the boys ran and Amy, 34, who was paralyzed from the waist down while covering her sons' bodies with her own during the April 7 tornado, wheeled her chair.

The couple had heard rumors that they might get a home makeover, but they didn't believe it.

Besides, they didn't have a home to make over: They had lost their home in the tornado and were living in a temporary farmhouse while Jerrod, also 34, waited for Amy to get well enough to talk with him about rebuilding.

Amy, whose vertebrae and ribs were crushed, her lungs punctured and her head traumatized, was just dismissed in mid-July from the renowned Shepherd Center, a rehab hospital in Atlanta.

She is busy continuing her intensive and painful therapy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Thoughts of a home of her own were undermined by her persistent will to walk again, time back in Jerrod's arms and catching up with her sons' growth spurts during her almost four-month hospital stay.

She was humbled by the gift of the home, she said at the building site Friday before she and her family were to be whisked today to a week's vacation at Disney World.

The Hawkins' new home will be built on the site of their old home, where a small American flag flew, a massive oak still lay toppled and a tree was still tilting where the wind blew a pair of scissors into it.

Amy had first visited the land where her home stood last week.

The site didn't bother her as much as she thought it would. "I had to visit it," she said. "It wasn't going to be real until I saw the site. Now, I have closure."

Having an "Extreme Makeover" home built there wouldn't bother her at all, Donna Hawkins, Jerrod's mother, said.

"Jerrod, Amy … They're just so humbled that so many people have cared about them and their loss. … They're already talking about how they can pay those people back."

Hundreds of thousands of people responded to the Hawkins' plight as word spread across the United States and abroad about the mother who risked her life to save her sons.

People called her a hero, and at least 70,000 of them throughout the Midstate and elsewhere petitioned "Extreme Makeover" to help the family.

Though the Hawkinses don't know what the "Extreme Makeover" team, the townsfolk and other volunteers will build for them, the couple does know that the home will be state-of-the-art and wheelchair-friendly.

Jerrod hopes it will have a safe room.

Amy's mother, Marsha Koenings-Hurst, of Rockford, Ill., will stay behind in the rental house and be the consultant between Pennington and company.

Koenings-Hurst hopes that the "Extreme" crew will remember that grandson Cole loves stuffed cows.

Three of them made it through the tornado.

As members of the show helped the family pack for their vacation, Cole pulled his clothes out of his suitcase and replaced them with the salvaged cows.

"He sleeps with them," grandmother Hawkins said. "Since the storm, they have been his security."

So have his mother and his dad, a Brentwood firefighter.

"Jerrod and Amy, they believe in family," grandmother Hawkins says. "… My daughter-in-law … she amazes me. The other day she was telling me that she played tennis with the boys. She served some, now she's looking for a tape on how to play tennis in a wheelchair. She's a survivor, my son's a survivor, my grandsons are survivors. They bless us by their being."

[Tann3100]

More links on the story easier to post them

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs....12/-1/ARCHIVES

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs....17/-1/ARCHIVES

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs....396/0/ARCHIVES

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs....18/-1/ARCHIVES

http://tennessean.com/galleries/2006...ges/mom001.htm

[rfd599]

Tann:

This is an awesome story! Jerrod is originally from my hometown, Byron (IL), and worked on the Byron F.P.D. with my brother before moving to TN. His wife is from Rockford (IL), where I work, and the local paper had this story on the front page this morning. It is great to see good things happen to good people when hardship strikes.

Also, thank you to all that signed the petition for them to get on the Extreme Makeover Show!

Nick Dinges
rfd599
www.IllinoisFireStore.com

[hwoods]

Folks in some other parts of the world could certainly learn something from the people of Middle Tennessee. I have a Son and daughter-in-law who live South of Lebanon, in Wilson County. Several times since they moved there in 1994, they've worked along with their neighbors to help repair a home after a Tornado struck.

[RspctFrmCalgary]

Has this episode aired already?

[Tann3100]

not yet they have not relased a air date as soon as they release one I will post it in this thread

Take care
Tann

[FTMPTB15]

Great story. What that mother did, I truly consider heroic. As much as the word "hero" is tossed around these days, it's nice to see an example where someone's actions are actually considered heroic (in my opinion!). I'll be eager to see that episode when it airs!

[MalahatTwo7]

Truly KUULL great story Tan.

[HM604OH]

I just recevied an e-mail with more information for those who signed the petition. The build will begin Monday July 31 and the family will return August 4th. Here is the link with the build information:

http://www.capitolhomesoftn.com/ExtremeFamily.htm

I took a look at some of the pages and wished I lived closer so I could actually see this take place. They promise to post photos on the web site showing the progress throughout the week.

[Tann3100]

I know some guys that work over there at HFD and they will be taking some pictures.