What? Your family doesn't go crazy and run in and out of their house yelling? For the whole world to hear? On Christmas eve?
You probably don't have the kind of "luck" we do either. This past week, hubby…..hammered THE VERY LAST NAIL into the trim of our downstairs flooring. We've lived under floor construction for months because of a mystery water leak that still goes unsolved to this day. Our house? Looked amazing! It was finally finished and with all the twinkling Christmas love, it was so beautiful!
So, if you can just imagine…..my reaction to the strange noise that I had been hearing for A LOOOOOONG TIME – when I walked into the living room and saw deep flowing water, everywhere! It was pouring like Niagara Falls! All over the foyer, bathroom…..and racing its way to the living room with mach speed!
The truth is…I couldn't even form real words. I ran for hubby and whatever I said didn't make a bit of sense. But he came running. When he saw what was happening I think even he was at a loss for words. Needless to say, emotions…they got cranked up super fast!
If you are counting, this is the 3rd problem with water and replacing floors in our 1 year of living in our new house. Hence, all the crazy with our emotions on Christmas eve! We couldn't take any more! Like the water pouring through our walls…our stress was raging like someone opened the floodgates!
So, how was your Christmas eve?
After using every towel in our possession to try to sop up the pool of water and moving furniture all over our house to save it from water damage….hubby started popping up boards to begin the drying process underneath it all. The water was no joke, dudes. It was deep and it had spread everywhere!
More crying. More yelling. More trying to figure out what to do? ON CHRISTMAS EVE! It was one of the worst days of my life! Hands down! Awful! Because, yea my house flooded and on top of that my body decided to betray me with the highest ranking powerful PMS I've ever struggled with!
Guess what DOES NOT go together? A hot case of PMS & a 3rd time floor damaging flood in your beautifully decorated house (right before you celebrate with your college kids who hadn't even all arrived yet!)
MONUMENTAL!!!!
Looking back, I see just how far sin will take you if you're not vigilant. Especially when under the kind of pressure that many families experience during the Christmas season. Christmas is special and it's only natural to want it to be perfect! Emotions are a little on edge, naturally.
The drama settled and instead of turning on each other (which we had done with gusto)…we turned to God and prayed for direction and help in our troubles. It's amazing what seeking out His help can do. Suddenly, our destroyed house became a blessing. In the grand scheme of things, a big stinking wet damaged floor was totally manageable when measured against other tragedies (loss of a loved one/child/spouse).
We felt ashamed for feeling so sorry for ourselves.
Thankfully, God doesn't leave us in our broken miserable crying on the front lawn state. And sometimes, He even redeems us through something as strange as an encouraging insurance claim adjuster. After meeting with Steve from our insurance company at 4:30 on Christmas eve….our family felt hope, again. We breathed out a sigh of relief and cleaned up as best as we could under the circumstances. Then laughed about how we would only pose our Christmas photos from a certain angle (so, no one would ever know that behind the camera all heck was scattered about)!
You know, a make lemonade kind of thing.
Two days later, with siding off of our house, walls sawed open..and the frozen burst pipe that caused all the pain identified – we now begin to patch up our hearts. The clean-up and repairs will be challenging but the forgiveness from God and each other reminds me what matters most –> The people I love …. not the home that holds us!
Lord,
My flooded house didn't catch you off guard. You saw it coming. Forgive me for reacting with such anguish and little hope. I know there's nothing YOU can't solve and I praise YOU for rescuing us through a person named Steve.
Amen
