For as long as Anabel Horchem can recall, she wanted to be a mother.

The thought dates back to the time of being a little girl herself, she said. It was simply something she always envisioned.

There were many ups and downs along the way in her effort to become pregnant. The journey became so familiar with failure, she believed motherhood would ultimately skip past her.

However, at the age of 38 her dream came true this past November. She and her husband, Jimmy, welcomed baby girl Amelia into the world.

Times in the Horchem household were not just good; they were great.

Her life now revolved around Amelia and Jimmy. What could ever knock this world off its axis, she wondered.

There was a one-word answer to that question. Tornado.

Her memory now shifted back to the early evening hours of March 10. Only an hour or so before daylight surrendered, Anabel’s life was set to enter its darkest period.

Huddled into the bathroom just off the kitchen in their 2,300-square-foot Elmwood Drive home, Anabel hovered over Amelia in the bathtub, with Jimmy covering them both, in an attempt to offer protection from a house under attack – first from softball-sized hailstones and then the tornado bearing down on their Aroma Township house.

In an instant, her world began to spin out of control. Her axis was tilted.

“It all happened so quickly. We thought it was just a bad thunderstorm,” she said.

They quickly knew it wasn’t. Sirens wailed. Winds blew. Anxiety peaked. Terror gripped.

Destruction followed.

“I was praying out loud. I remember saying ‘Jesus, please protect us. Jesus, protect our baby.’”

Fear – like no other fearful episode she had ever experienced – gripped her.

“For a split second I thought we were not going to make it. I remember thinking that when I wake up, I will see Jesus. He will be there as well as my mother,” she recalled.

Her mother, Rosa, of Kankakee, died at the age of 53 in February 2021 at St. Mary’s Hospital due to complications from COVID-19.

It was 6:28 p.m. Within a minute or two – neither she nor her husband are sure – the storm passed their home.

Family survived

Heavy damage was inflicted upon the structure. Thankfully, the damage was limited to the building. The trio sheltering in the 6-foot-by-8-foot bathroom was alive and unharmed.

“I never doubted that when I opened my eyes I would see Jesus. I never doubted my salvation,” Anabel said.

Fortunately, death and her encounter with the Lord would have to wait.

And as the nation celebrates Mothers’ Day, Anabel and Amelia, along with Jimmy, are all safe and sound.

Their house? That is another matter.

Their home, like most in the Oakwoods subdivision just south of Waldron Road and immediately north of the Kankakee River, was heavily damaged.

The rebuilding process is underway. The hope is they may be able to return in mid- to late summer.

Such timelines are secondary at the moment for Anabel. What is most important is being able to hold her precious daughter, born precisely at 10:26 a.m. Nov. 26 at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox.

What is the importance of 10:26? Jimmy explained it is the month and day of his birth.

While the Horchems retreated to the safety of their bathroom as the house was constructed on a concrete slab – meaning it has no basement nor crawl space – Anabel’s brother, Juan Toledo, lives only across the street.

However, they were unable to get to his residence because of the large hailstones plummeting to Earth. Jimmy felt an attempt to gain shelter at his brother-in-law’s basement was too dangerous.

They were forced to ride out the severe weather in the bathroom.

And while weather services has issued tornado warnings, the Horchems didn’t really expect one. Who does? That was, of course, until Jimmy saw one about to cross the Kankakee River with a path set on his house.

That is when he retreated to the bathroom where Anabel was in prayer.

“I held her and hovered over her to protect her as best I could. Jimmy then hovered over both of us,” she said.

She readily admitted that she did not expect her family would survive. At least not the entire family.

Likely hundreds of nearby Aroma Township residents felt the same.

“I really did think we weren’t all going to make it out of there. But I remember thinking ‘At least let her make it,’” she said in reference to her baby.

Forever grateful

Oddly enough, Anabel and Jimmy had a conversation only several weeks before regarding who would raise their daughter if something were to happen to them.

Why she had that thought, she did not know.

The thought, she said, of not being able to see Amelia grow up, not being able to watch her become a young lady, was something real to her.

It was now 6:35 p.m. on March 10. The tornado departed their residence. The threesome exited the bathroom. They did not receive a single scratch.

They walked outside. Massive damage engulfed them.

She held her daughter as tightly as she ever had.

Others stepped outside, including her brother from across the street. He and his family were also safe.

Moments of absolute terror had passed. Her prayers were answered. She was alive, and her baby was in her arms.

“I had come to the point in my life where I didn’t think being a mother would happen. But it was always on God’s time, not ours. I wanted to have at least one blessing in our life.”

Anabel was asked if the tornado changed her outlook? Specifically, even though conceiving Amelia took years, would she want a second baby?

A grin formed.

“We are just letting God take the wheel,” she replied.

She walked through the room in her house, which was once the family room. It will be the family room once again, but much work – from the ceiling to the floor – will need to be completed.

A top-to-bottom rehab is set for the one-story home.

“We are very blessed to be here, to be alive. There is not a day that goes by where we are not grateful.”

This mother certainly will have a great story to one day share with her special daughter.