The Great Flood of '08

I have realized that God enjoys teaching me lessons in dramatic ways. I suppose that's because that's the way I learn the best. But I sure wish I would learn some things a little faster. Life is definitely different now that we have James. I knew it would be, but I didn't really understand how until he got here. I guess in my mind I thought we would just go from being Mandy and Brandon to being Mandy and Brandon and James. Things would be pretty much the same, only we'd have a beautiful, happy baby along for the ride. It's a little different from that picture. Our life now pretty much revolves around our new son. Which is the way it should be, and of course we love him to pieces. It's just that now we always have to take into account when he needs to eat, if we have enough diapers, if he'll be happy playing in his crib long enough for his mommy to take a bathroom break. Things like that.

Which brings me to the learning of my lesson. When we came home from the hospital I thought things would go pretty much back to normal. I would still have energy and time to keep up with email, things like that. But, our computer is in the basement, and since I had a C-section I couldn't do stairs for the first week or so. So I couldn't even get to the computer even if I had the time. When my in-laws came to visit they gave me the time and I was starting to feel more normal, like I could conquer the stairs and get back into some sort of routine. Well, the day after they left to go home, the day I thought we'd start getting back to living like before we had James, our basement flooded. Not a huge, multi-feet of water flood, but a sewer back-up that soaked through much of our fairly newly laid carpet, through our storage closet and into our guest bedroom. All of which required calling our insurance company at 10:00 at night, and then calling a plumber who arrived around midnight, ringing the doorbell and waking the baby who had finally gone to sleep. The next day was filled with workers who cut out huge sections of carpet and filled our basement with dehumidifiers and huge fans. In the days that followed contractors had to come to make bids on the cost of fixing the basement. And in a few short weeks I knew my sister-in-law was coming to visit and at the moment there were several drawers on the guest bed and no sink in the guest bathroom. Needless to say the whole experience threw our already chaotic world upside down. And would you like to know what I think God was teaching me? That I am not in control, but He is. He's taken care of us before and He'll take care of us through the Great Flood of '08. Although it's taken a while, the insurance company has finally put a "check in the mail," and things should be getting back to "normal" in the basement soon. But even when they do, I'll still remember that things are basically out of my hands, but that's ok, because I'd much rather they be in God's hands anyway :)

Mandy <><