So, this last week started off with a flood of water in our basement. Apparantly there was a mechanical pencil that had made it’s way into our main pipe, and we were getting some nasty sewer water back flooding into our utility closet. My husband had left for scout camp literally 3 hours before this happened, and I was at a total loss to know how to handle the situation.
I sloshed down there, and took off the drain cover to the main pipe, and managed to pull out a ton of toilet paper from the backside of the drain. Within 15 minutes, the waters started to recede back down the drain, but the damage had been done, and our carpet was ruined.
It wasn’t fair. Why do these things always seem to hit the second my husband leaves? Knowing this is how it usually goes, I had actually put my home teacher on alert, just in case something happened. Did I call it or what?!
My church ward is amazing. The Relief Society president, and close friend and neighbor, organized a rescue party. She personally came over and ripped out all the wet carpet in the hallways! When the men came to help, there wasn’t much more for them to do! I felt so loved though….
This morning we had the insurance inspector come out and look at it. He could see that we had been looking at carpet samples to replace the part that the water had damaged. I was having a really hard time deciding what to do, since I didn’t like the carpet that was down there, but we needed it to match it to what was already there…. Well, this morning he told us that they would replace ALL the carpet in our basement! I am so excited! This will mean new carpet for our entire house! (We recently replaced our upstairs carpet…. check older blogs for details….) What a blessing!
I still wonder what I’m supposed to be learning from this experience. Will we be moving, and now our house will look more beautiful to sell? Am I just supposed to learn how to deal with insurance people, repair men, and taking out carpet?
The thing I’ve learned so far is what an awesome ward family I have. Yesterday, I was going to take the kids all to a park, and as we were pulling out of the driveway, 3 women (from my church ward) pulled up beside me and asked, “Did you know you have a flat tire?” “No!” I said as I got out of the car. I just laughed. I mean how many “guy” things was I supposed to deal with in one week! But, immediately I realized what a blessing it was to find out right then. We were home. My oldest was able to watch the kids in our air conditioned house- (think about how it could have been!). One of the women who stopped, called her husband who came over and tried to get the spare tire out from under the van. (I hadn’t even seen it there before!) It was too rusted to get off. My neighbor from across the street came over, and had a portable pressurized air filler pump thingy. He filled up the tire for me, and gave me directions to the nearest “Discount Tires” shop. Apparantly they fix and rotate tires for free! They were amazing too- I would highly recommend their shop.
Anyway, it’s been a neat week of trials, and opportunities to see love and kindness shown to our little Kerby family. What a blessing. I’m happy. I just hope I can get through the next trial to see what blessing is in store for us next!
