ELON, Va. – Leveled homes, uprooted trees, millions of dollars in damages -- that's what an EF3 tornado left behind in Amherst County one year ago Monday.
After months of recovery, some families are getting used to a new normal, but others still don't even have their own place to call home.
One year ago, that same EF3 tornado ripped every wall off the Childress family's home.
The bathtub from their master bedroom burst through the window of the third house down the street.
A birdhouse is all that remains of what they called home for nine years. And a year later, they're still trying to rebuild.
"It was just a Sunday like every other Sunday. You just don't know what the day is going to hold for you," said Sharon Childress.
April 15, 2018 was the day life forever changed for the Childress family.
The home, the memories, the life Sharon and David had built for their three children -- gone in an instant.
"I saw the walls lifting, I looked, the doors flew open and my thoughts because I'm the mom, I should've protected Bryson, that we're both going to die and it was my fault," said Sharon.
When the tornado hit, David was just minutes away, picking up two of his sons.
When David Childress pulled up to what used to be his home, he said "it was gone. Everything was gone. my heart stopped."
"I floored it. Drove as far as I could. Had to park at the end of the driveway and I got out and told the boys to stay in the car and I ran as fast as I could," said David.
Sharon escaped with a concussion and some bruising.
The tornado threw their oldest son into the front yard, leaving him with broken bones, broken ribs and he nearly lost his eye.
"Our house was sitting here and our bathtub out of the master bedroom ended up in three houses down, it went through their window," said "It was unreal to see your life of accumulating material things strewn all over the yard and nothing was left."
"I think at this point a year later, we're ready to come home."
And that's exactly what they're preparing to do, just feet from the house the tornado took from them.
The physical wounds may have healed, but the emotional scars from that day will undoubtedly last a lifetime.
"God left us the most important things and that was my wife and my son," said David.
Rebuilding more than just a home. But a life, and a family.
"You just don't have words to describe what that means, I'm just home, that's what it means, home."
Not many of their belongings survived last April's tornado, but one thing that did is the plans for a house they thought about building when they moved here back in 2009.
Those plans that survived the storm and are what is standing today -- the home they hope to move into by the end of this week.