Sanity Break

We take a break from our regularly scheduled programming to bring you this important sanity check. Can I just say AHHHHHH! I am missing my days of working in a restaurant (I don't say that too often) because when you got frustrated you could just go in the walk-in refrigerator and scream as loud as you want and no one could hear you. Well, today I am screaming on the inside so as not to cause the neighbors to call 9-1-1. I'm sure you're thinking, "what's the story here?" so here goes...

On Wednesday nights I lead a small group of high school girls. I normally have to be at church at 6:15pm, but last night was our local school's homecoming parade and two of my girls were in it. So I left the house right after dinner (about 6pm) to go to the parade and then church. James was going to bring our girls and Sierra's friend for church at around 7pm. He was trying to get them ready to go and told Raquel to go to the bathroom and then come to the van. Meanwhile, Sierra's friend arrived so James just stuck his head back in the house to call Raquel out to the van. Little did we know what we would find later that evening.

James brought her home from church at about 8:30 and called me. His words, "Raquel flooded our basement!" sent me reeling. I was picturing the stacks of pictures and photo albums I had left sitting out after going through them to prepare for my talk last week. Also, we have our desktop computer, a TV, all my craft supplies, our guest bed, and all of our storage down there. 

Turns out that Raquel had put a paper towel in the sink AND left the HOT water running the entire time we were at church (not quite two hours).

I called my dad to have him come over and help us. He told us to call my sister's husband's sister's husband Mike who does restoration after property damage. He headed over to our house too. We managed to get it all at least on the road to repair. So I don't get sucked into the spiral of negativity amidst the noise of 5 fans running in my house right now, I thought I would make a list of things I am thankful for in this experience.

1. Timing: We caught it relatively quickly. Thankfully we were not gone all day with the water running. That would have been catastrophic.
2. Help: My dad lives nearby and was able to bring a dehumidifier, fan, and help with the manual labor.
3. Mike: We know Mike and he was willing to come over to our house at 9pm with an industrial blower fan and he is bringing more stuff today. He also was able to tell us what steps were a priority and what to do
4. Location: It happened in the girl's bathroom and not ours. Their bathroom has vinyl flooring and ours has carpet.
5. Floor Vents: There is a floor vent in the girls' bathroom. It acted as a drain to get a lot of the water out of that room. Mike said just turning the fan on on the furnace would get the air out of the vents.
6. Carpet Cleaners: I own one and it was a huge help. I just turned it on the water extraction mode and sucked a whole lot of water out of the carpet.
7. Sleep: The girls' room, which is directly across from their bathroom, only got a small area of the carpet wet so they were actually able to sleep in it last night (with 3 fans running).
8. Rugs: I own some really heavy rugs. Our basement is unfinished, but we have it set up so it has carpet and wall-coverings in about 70% of it. The area where the water came down was our storage area. On the perimeter of that area I have some rugs. These rugs absorbed a lot of the water. My pictures were actually on the opposite end of one of the larger ones, but it acted like a dam and stopped the water from getting to them.
9. Little sisters' friends night: Because Sierra needed a flashlight for church, James had come downstairs to find one. He had moved his sleeping bags in such a way that they caught a lot of the water and funneled it away from our stuff in storage.
10. Floor Drains: We have a drain in our basement floor less than 10 feet from where the bulk of the water came down.
11. Attitude: I am thankful that I was not upset at my husband. He was upset at himself, but I knew that it could have easily happened to me. It would not have helped anyone if I had been angry so I am so thankful that God allowed me to remain calm (could it have been that lesson on peace that I had just taught at small group?).
12. Protection: I am thankful that nothing of great importance or value was ruined.
13. James' Work: I am thankful that James was already working in Wooster today so he did not have to leave until 8:15 as opposed to his normal 7:15 departure time.
14. Finances: While it won't be fun to pay the water and electric bills connected to this experience, I am thankful that God has blessed us with some savings so we will not have to go into debt.
15. Blessings: I am so thankful that I have a home to live in, food to eat, cars to drive, a family that is healthy and many other blessings. When I compare this occurrence to what many people, especially in the developing world, have to deal with on a daily basis, my light and momentary troubles pale in comparison.

Well thanks for listening to me vent. I feel a lot better now that I have put this into perspective. I hope your week is going better than mine!

33 Blessings - #1 My Parents

For an explanation of this series, please read this.

I really struggled with the order of these blessings. I knew that there was no way that I could put them in order of importance or impact on my life; there are just too many important ones. So I decided on a rough chronological order. So today we begin with the people that brought me into this world - My parents.

I was blessed to grow up in a Christian home where my parents loved me and loved the Lord. They were (and are) a constant source of love and support. They have been married for 37 years now and have two daughters, two sons-in-law, and three grandgirls (as my dad calls them). They are both social workers, though dad is "retired" now. He enjoys wood-working and gardening and keeps us supplied with fresh produce all summer long. My mom, after years of doing often court mandated chemical dependency counseling, is now an independent counselor enjoying a variety of voluntary clients. I am so grateful for them and the influence they have had on my life.

My parents on their wedding day - August 4, 1973

My family in 1984. My mom was 32 (same age as I am now) and I was 7 (the same age Sierra is now).

 

My parents a few years ago

  

The bead that will represent my parents:

Sometimes the bead's color or composition will represent something about the person or experience, and sometimes not. This time I chose a pink bead because it is my mom's favorite color.

33

It seems like such a nice neat number. It was the number of years that our Lord walked this earth. It is also the age that I will be next month. When I was younger I am sure that 33 seemed so old, but I feel so young! Now I look at my parents and think that they are young too! I guess our definition of "old" changes as we age. 

Anyhow, last week I spoke at an event at our church. There were 45+ women there and I was terrified. Thankfully I had many wonderful friends and family praying me through the experience. I was supposed to share my testimony and then teach a jewelry making class. I was desperately trying to think of a way to combine the two. Then it came to me (thanks, God!). I decided to make a bracelet with 33 beads to represent 33 blessings in my life. These blessings may not all be positive memories, but things that helped me become who I am, and, hopefully, who God wants me to be. So, today I am beginning a new blog series where I will share with you these 33 blessings. God is truly faithful and I hope He is glorified through it!