THINGS AREN’T ALWAYS AS THEY APPEAR

Last Sunday I walked outside and noticed that our flower bed had more water in it than normal - it looked more puddled.  I mentioned it to Rick and he said let’s keep an eye on it, maybe the sprinklers ran a little longer or something.  On Monday / Tuesday it didn’t look too bad so we didn’t worry about it.  On Thursday morning we noticed it was puddled again and there was water coming out the base of a gutter by our sidewalk.

At that point Rick went and checked the basement to see if there was water downstairs and there was.  That meant we needed to shift all of our attention to figuring out what was going on.  Gratefully Brayden was able to come home from the Bishop Storehouse and help Rick start digging and Rick turned off the water to our home so we wouldn’t have any more water going into our basement.

Within a few hours they felt it was a sprinkler break and we thought, yea, this will be a fairly easy fix.  Not so.  There was still more water deeper so they kept digging.  They got to about 5 ½ feet down, but it was dark and late so it was time to go to bed without any water to our home.  On Friday morning Rick turned the water on for a short time so everyone could quickly take showers and he rigged things in the basement so the water would go into towels and buckets.  Then off went the water for the rest of the day.

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My brother offered to come over and help Rick Friday morning to keep digging so he got down in the hole and kept digging - we hadn’t found the leak yet.  After a couple of hours they got to the water main going into our home, 8 ½ feet down and widening the hole due to where the pipe was they found the leak.

At this point dishes piled, mud tracked through the house that we couldn’t clean up, laundry starting to pile up from regular daily stuff and from all of the mud and working outside.  My house being a mess raises my anxiety much higher, but I was trying to relax and recognize this was out of everyone’s control.  Everyone was doing their best. 

Around 5:30 p.m. a very dear friend of ours came over with his son and his wife to help us.  He climbed down into the hole and started working on things.  He had parts, tools and we were all thinking this would go smoothly.  Between sprinklers kicking on, some glitches, ways things were done in our home and needing things from different places it was around 9:30 p.m. that we finally had running water into our home.  We were all very excited!

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None of us had dinner at that point so we came in and all sat around eating dinner enjoying the thought that there was water and things were fixed.  Around 10 p.m. one of the boys commented that there was no water coming out of the tap.  They all got up and hurried outside and found that the 8 ½ foot hole was full of water, water was flooding into our basement and something had happened - we didn’t know the details quite yet.  Off went the water to our home again.  

Brayden threw on his swimsuit and literally was swimming in this hole with buckets trying to quickly get water out of the hole so it wouldn’t all flood into our home.  The boys all jumped in and helped.  Rick went to the basement and started filling buckets of water and trying to salvage what he could from the basement.

Around 10:30 p.m. we are all tired, many working hard to deal with the water and laughing outside as they work together trying to keep things in perspective.  Out comes a neighbor from their home and yells, “SHUT UP!!!!”

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Honestly I think for me you could take all of 2020 and pile it into this week to sum it up.

​He looked at the guys working and walked back in his house.  Everyone covered in mud, huge pile of mud on the lawn, some of my nicer bowls and things out of my kitchen being used to bucket the water out as fast as they could and mud throughout my house - it was a real mess.  There was no way to clean up anything and no way to fix things at 10:30 p.m. due to everywhere being closed.

As I laid in bed I felt soooo much anger!  Anger over the entire week.  This was a week from hell.  Honestly I think for me you could take all of 2020 and pile it into this week to sum it up.  I couldn’t sleep.  I didn’t have any answers.  I didn’t know when my water would be turned back on - there was hope for the next day, but really how things had gone during the week I was losing hope.  I didn’t know when my house would be clean.  At 1:00 a.m. I felt like the world was caving in all around me and I didn’t know if I had anymore to give for anything.

Then I thought about my neighbor who yelled “Shut Up” and could he not see we were in crisis and of course I wasn’t surprised he didn’t offer to come and help.  My thoughts were pretty negative.  I found myself thinking besides seeing our crisis, I sure wish he could have understood how awful of a week had been overall. 

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THEN, I had some other thoughts come flooding in.  Friends that came over and helped and were going to continue to help us on Saturday.  My brother who had come over and helped.  When my brother came over on Friday he and I had an AMAZING conversation that was an answer to my prayers.  Brayden had court for a ticket that he got back in February this week and the judge was truly AMAZING and so kind.  The process went really well.  I’ve had some amazing conversations with my boys this week and my relationships with them is growing stronger.  I found myself feeling very grateful for my progress.  There were many other miracles that happened this week - great miracles. 
Then my thoughts went to my neighbor.  I thought to myself, I have no idea what they are going through, what their week has been like, what time they have to be to work, etc.  The other thought I had was he was inside his home when he heard the noise, hadn’t seen the mess, maybe didn’t know who was making the noise, opened the door, it was dark and may not have even had time to see what was going on when he yelled “Shut up.”  Maybe he had other things to say, but once he saw what was going on he just went inside and didn’t say anymore.

As I thought about all of this I thought about the quote of, “Always be kind to others.  You never know what they might be going through.”

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I would dare guess that everyone you cross paths with, people we interact with, work with, serve with, even our own family are going through things that we can’t see that are difficult.

​In my experience, and I would dare guess that everyone you cross paths with, people we interact with, work with, serve with, even our own family are going through things that we can’t see that are difficult.  Our life challenges or things that are weighing heavy on us are often not like the big mud pile or the water that was seeping into my basement.  And in reality, we don’t know how long the water had been leaking into my basement.  We didn’t see the little by little damage that was happening in our basement.  And then there was the moment that the water burst into our home and filled the hole quickly.  Our challenges can be just like that - sometimes little by little and sometimes comes gushing in, but the big thing is most often we can’t see the damage or struggles in others.  Something we do might be the straw that breaks the camels back.  

I wished that my neighbor had understood what my week had been like and I’m sure he was thinking why didn’t we understand why they wanted it quiet.  

Most of the time things are not as they appear.  A smile or laughter doesn’t mean there isn’t a great challenge going on inside.  Count your blessings and recognize the good in your life - there’s always something.  Look around you and bless someone else’s life.  Be the kind words.  Make a positive difference.  Be the friend that comes and hops in the hole and helps dig out the dirt and is willing to get muddy in making a difference and stopping the leak of pain and damage that comes in life. 

The BEST WORDS I’ve heard today from my boys is, “I’m grateful we have running water.”  With that comes much gratitude and miracles.

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