On May 22, 2011 an EF-5 tornado tore through the center of Joplin, Missouri flattening homes upending lives. If the initial blast of wind did not destroy a home enough, the heavy rains and storms that followed in the coming days took care of gutting whatever was still left. For the Vaness family, only their Kitchen was left relatively unscathed, as their second story blew away and the first was logged with water and debris.

Tyler Vaness, 16, walks across the roof of his family's home looking for his dad's guns as his mother Belinda, left, tells him to get down as she fears the other half of the roof will collapse on the morning after the EF-5 tornado tore through Joplin, Missouri. While the home was nearly gutted by the storm, enough still remained for the insurance company to not write it off completely. In order to provide a better future for his children, father Robert Vaness decided he would do as much of the rebuilding himself, spending long hours each night after work to build his home again.

Robert Vaness and a neighbor take a moment after installing a window into the front of the Vaness home three months after the tornado flattened their entire neighborhood. While other neighbor's wait for contractors to begin building homes, Vaness decided to build it on his own, to get the family out of the camper they are living in and back into their normal lives.

Robert Vaness kisses his wife Belinda goodbye as they leave for work in the early morning inside their camper trailer as they rebuild their home and recover from the May EF-5 tornado that devastated the community and changed lives forever three months earlier.

Robert Vaness fixes a lightbulb on his storage shed next to his home in Joplin. He thought the bulb was completely broken as the shed lost part of its roof to the storm, but in fact it was just shaken loose by the winds. "It's the little victories that get you through the day," said Vaness.

Three months after the tornado gutted their home, Belinda Vaness and her husband Robert talk about their plans for the weekend in their camper trailer. After a long work week, Belinda was hoping to ride their motorcycles and see a concert, but Robert wanted to get more work done on the house, trying to finish the ground floor bathroom and sheet rock so the family would be able to move out of the camper and partially into the home by October. Living with a teenage daughter and wife in a single bedroom trailer has been a challenge for the family, learning that personal space must be shared. "We've grown a lot closer." said Vaness. "Before everyone could be alone on the computer or watching TV, now we talk more... It makes you realize whats important."

Father Robert Vaness pauses for a moment while cutting sheet rock for the first bedroom of his home he is rebuilding on Friday, August 26, 2011 in Joplin. He hopes to move the family out of the camper by October before winter begins. "If we have another winter like last year with 30 inches of snow, I definitely don't want to be living in a camper with three-inch walls," he said. "My parents taught me to work hard, to work for the things that you want." Even though the rest of the house will not be finished by winter, at least this main room and a bathroom will be ready to give the family a bit of normalcy and a little more space.

Robert Vaness hits golf balls he found after the tornado across the vacant lot next to his home on Monday evening, three months after the EF-5 tornado destroyed the neighborhood. While a handful of residents have sworn to return, Vaness is concerned about what kind of house will be built next door - and more importantly what kind of people will move in as some of his neighbors are unsure about rebuilding and may just sell their land to move elsewhere.

Belinda and Kaitlyn jokingly threaten to use their Kung-Fu moves on dad Robert Vaness after a take-out dinner of Chinese food in the only room of the home was was not gutted by the tornado: their kitchen. After the storm and hours of work to rebuild their lives, the family has become closer to one another, not

"I'm exhausted," says Robert Vaness as he waits for his daughter Kaitlyn to finish using the shower before sunrise. Each morning Robert must drop her off at a friends house in order for her to catch the bus as there is no school bus service where their camper is. "Between my normal job and rebuilding the house I probably do 90-100 hours a week... very little sleep," said Vaness. "I feel exhausted in my body, but in my mind I'm constantly trying to figure out whats next. I have friends and family that tell me to rest, but if I take a day off I feel like I'm lazy, that I'm not taking care of things I need to take care of."

Robert Vaness wipes his brow after installing fiberglass insulation and sheet rock the garage of his home. He had been up since 2:30am working an earlier shift at work, but it gave him a precious few extra hours of daylight to work at the house. "If I don't keep going, plugging away, I feel like I'm letting someone down."

Three months after the second story was blown away by the tornado and the ground floors gutted by rain and debris, the Vaness home stands tall among the barren dirt and bare trees under the starry night. A symbol of hope and a small victory illuminated in the dark night, Vaness is looking forward to normalcy and routine after the home is finished. "Get up. Go to work. Come home. Sleep."