I was expecting a peaceful day cleaning up our Christmas decorations and organizing Garrett’s room. As I was in the kitchen putting things away I heard Garrett yelling.  He was playing downstairs and then started to yell out, ‘Oh no, Daddy! Oh no’.

I didn’t think it was anything except maybe he couldn’t get a toy, so I continued to clean.

Then he sounded more anxious.

I moved swiftly to the basement, a little annoyed by this interruption, since I was on a roll! He was standing in a little pool by the stairs and I thought where is this water from?!

Then as eyes lifted to the rest of the room my heart skipped a beat.  There was water everywhere and it was gushing in, rushing toward our belongings.

Earlier {Maybe 10 minutes} I heard water running but concluded it was our neighbor’s shower.

I yelled for Darren as I reached for Garrett to pull him out of the water.

My husband kicked into action the minute he saw the water.  While he moved around collecting things I stood stunned and shocked. He told me I could either stand there or help him. I brought my phone upstairs and he congratulated my efforts! It was a start. Together we worked and smiled and laughed and that felt kind of weird with the circumstances but I sure do love that guy!

I remember wanting to be an adult when I was younger.  These situations are a hard slap on the back that say, ‘Welcome to adulthood! Even more responsibility then you’d ever dreamed of!’

The maintenance crew arrived quickly and as he punched a hole in the wall he assured me this was not our fault and it was an external pipe but that again, it was not our fault.

Our housing office has really stressed keeping homes warm this winter and I’ve been diligent!

As I stood bare foot in cold water the man said, ‘whoa! where are your shoes!?’ I looked down not realizing that my bare feet were submerged in chilly water. I went up and dried them off and then found some shoes and headed back down to move important items to higher ground. Getting sick would be horrible after all this!

Garrett was down there for a little while and at one point was jumping and kicking the water around. He must have thought we had the coolest basement ever!

Another crew came out later to extract the water and they were wonderful! They washed up the floor with cleaner and removed all the water. We’ll still have another day where they need to tear down drywall but that will come later.

This kind of stuff doesn’t always make sense to me and it’s overwhelming but I joked about how our floors are clean and fresh now! 

Through prayer God is extracting the stress I’ve felt all day.  I hate that tight feeling in my chest but this was an overwhelming day!

The damage could have been worse but as my dad said, it’s only stuff.

I still have to put everything back in place but i’m a little more cautious while we arrange our things back into place. This Winter has been harsh and as the snow fell softly today I thought how much I love that clean white snow even after all of this. But the bitter cold, icy roads, dead car battery are not welcome by me!

To everyone that will be in the bitter cold blast this week, stay warm!

*An update on my friends husband was that he moved to another hospital and is receiving a treatment that has helped! Praise the Lord! Thanks for all that have prayed. I love to see how people have gathered around them to support their family.

Laura