Thankfulness #27: Surprised by Spring (and more...)
Drama Festivals. Mission Sundays. Swimming Lessons. Birthdays. Renovations. Holidays. Too busy to shovel the ridiculous drift of snow on our brick patio out back. F-i-n-a-l-l-y spring arrives. A sudden change in temperature from the negatives to the plus side. Uh-oh! Water in basement.
After a relatively short moment of calm that gave me enough time to (1) call the people I needed to contact (including insurance) and (2) begin disaster control, I started to panic. And fret. Slowly, but surely, my stress levels rose, even though my husband calmly assisted me in the clean-up before his parent-teacher interviews that evening. I almost made it through bedtime stories with our kids. But then my son accidentally jabbed me in the ribs. I yelped, and started blubbering. My husband come home to a distraught wife.
Then I started to vent, cry, and, (yes, swear). Not at my husband. Not a God (officially, anyway). Just at the general situation and the potential negative repercussions of this mini-flood in our basement. I started to rant and rave, with tears streaming down my face. What if we have to rip out all our carpet, replace half of our dry wall, install a sump pump under our concrete, and re-slope our yard! WHAT IF!??! There goes our hard earned savings for my D.I.Y. kitchen! Painting those cabinets were a lot of *#$@!!! work. We should have just gone further in debt when we first moved in here by completely overhauling our kitchen instead of being so d*mn responsible! (Yup, thinking about myself here!)
My husband calmly listened. God heard it all too.
A day past and I felt better. The damage seemed minimal. Our carpets were almost dry. I started to breath easier.
Yesterday, our insurance adjuster arrived to assess the damage. His conclusion: the damage is not covered by insurance since it's ground water seepage. That was the bad news. The rest was very good news. The damage is minimal and would be below our deductible anyway. Our carpet just needs some professional cleaning, something we planned to do in the next year or two. Our dry wall is a little damp. A few fans should do the trick. We don't need a sump pump. We live on a hill. We don't need to re-slope our yard. We just need to be more proactive with removing snow in our back yard, especially during years when we receive unusually large amounts of the white stuff. Which all means, I can still renovate my kitchen on a small budget. :)
I also received two other surprises that day. First, a hospitable lady in our church called me "randomly". She asked if I needed assistance on hosting our Missionary this coming weekend for Mission Sunday Part 2. She felt a bit sheepish calling "out of the blue". I smiled and told her that, yes I did need some assistance, since our basement, including our guest room, is out of commission for the next week or so. What an answer to a prayer that I didn't have a moment to pray yet!
My other surprise was finding something that I lost about a month ago. I had gone sledding with my kids and for some crazy reason I decided to keep wearing my favourite turquoise earrings. Well, with all the tumbling in the snow, I lost one. Of course! I was sad about it, since it was a gift from my mother and they are probably the only hip earrings I own. Anyway, today my daughter suggested that we take the scenic route back to our house after our morning in the park (finally!!!!). As we approached our favourite tobogganing hill, I suggested to my kids, "Hey, maybe we should look for Mommy's earring now that the snow is almost gone!" We prayed for a miracle. Moments later, I found it, shimmering in the sun.
Dear Lord Jesus,
Thank you for letting me be honest in front of you (even if that means I might use a few questionable words). Thank you for your forgiveness during moments of discontentment and selfishness. And thank you for your mercies yesterday. I don't deserve them, as much is due to our own negligence. Yet you shower mercy and grace and goodness on me, my husband and our family. Thank you for smiling on me during this moment in time as I've been surprised by spring.
Love,
Your Daughter
Update: This morning we discovered water in our basement again. We are baffled. I was tempted to pull this post off my blog today, since I wrote it yesterday. But, then I thought, "No, yesterday was a blessed day. I will post this in faith that God will help us take care of the crisis today." If you believe in prayer, please pray for us, that God will grant us wisdom in solving this problem.
After a relatively short moment of calm that gave me enough time to (1) call the people I needed to contact (including insurance) and (2) begin disaster control, I started to panic. And fret. Slowly, but surely, my stress levels rose, even though my husband calmly assisted me in the clean-up before his parent-teacher interviews that evening. I almost made it through bedtime stories with our kids. But then my son accidentally jabbed me in the ribs. I yelped, and started blubbering. My husband come home to a distraught wife.
Then I started to vent, cry, and, (yes, swear). Not at my husband. Not a God (officially, anyway). Just at the general situation and the potential negative repercussions of this mini-flood in our basement. I started to rant and rave, with tears streaming down my face. What if we have to rip out all our carpet, replace half of our dry wall, install a sump pump under our concrete, and re-slope our yard! WHAT IF!??! There goes our hard earned savings for my D.I.Y. kitchen! Painting those cabinets were a lot of *#$@!!! work. We should have just gone further in debt when we first moved in here by completely overhauling our kitchen instead of being so d*mn responsible! (Yup, thinking about myself here!)
My husband calmly listened. God heard it all too.
A day past and I felt better. The damage seemed minimal. Our carpets were almost dry. I started to breath easier.
Yesterday, our insurance adjuster arrived to assess the damage. His conclusion: the damage is not covered by insurance since it's ground water seepage. That was the bad news. The rest was very good news. The damage is minimal and would be below our deductible anyway. Our carpet just needs some professional cleaning, something we planned to do in the next year or two. Our dry wall is a little damp. A few fans should do the trick. We don't need a sump pump. We live on a hill. We don't need to re-slope our yard. We just need to be more proactive with removing snow in our back yard, especially during years when we receive unusually large amounts of the white stuff. Which all means, I can still renovate my kitchen on a small budget. :)
I also received two other surprises that day. First, a hospitable lady in our church called me "randomly". She asked if I needed assistance on hosting our Missionary this coming weekend for Mission Sunday Part 2. She felt a bit sheepish calling "out of the blue". I smiled and told her that, yes I did need some assistance, since our basement, including our guest room, is out of commission for the next week or so. What an answer to a prayer that I didn't have a moment to pray yet!
My other surprise was finding something that I lost about a month ago. I had gone sledding with my kids and for some crazy reason I decided to keep wearing my favourite turquoise earrings. Well, with all the tumbling in the snow, I lost one. Of course! I was sad about it, since it was a gift from my mother and they are probably the only hip earrings I own. Anyway, today my daughter suggested that we take the scenic route back to our house after our morning in the park (finally!!!!). As we approached our favourite tobogganing hill, I suggested to my kids, "Hey, maybe we should look for Mommy's earring now that the snow is almost gone!" We prayed for a miracle. Moments later, I found it, shimmering in the sun.
Dear Lord Jesus,
Thank you for letting me be honest in front of you (even if that means I might use a few questionable words). Thank you for your forgiveness during moments of discontentment and selfishness. And thank you for your mercies yesterday. I don't deserve them, as much is due to our own negligence. Yet you shower mercy and grace and goodness on me, my husband and our family. Thank you for smiling on me during this moment in time as I've been surprised by spring.
Love,
Your Daughter
Update: This morning we discovered water in our basement again. We are baffled. I was tempted to pull this post off my blog today, since I wrote it yesterday. But, then I thought, "No, yesterday was a blessed day. I will post this in faith that God will help us take care of the crisis today." If you believe in prayer, please pray for us, that God will grant us wisdom in solving this problem.