My goodness, it has been one crazy week.  You may or may not know, therefore, I will share…our basement flooded.  And, because I make NO story short.  I will tell you how it happened.  (And I will spare no details.)

Last Friday, our sump pump started making this weird knocking noise.  Loud noise.  As in, I woke up Friday morning wondering who the heck was knocking on our door at such an early time as this? (7:20 a.m.  Don’t say a word.  That’s early around here.)

After sleuthing around like Nancy Drew, I realized it was our sump pump.  But it was still working so, I was happy.  Except for the loud noise.  (And this noise was right at the headboard of Nate’s bed because his bedroom is above the sump pump in our basement.)  (It didn’t bother him.  He slept through the knocking noise just fine.)

Anyway.  On Monday, I asked Hubby if I should get a plumber out here.  He said yes, so I called a plumbing company in Cedar Rapids.  The young kid plumber showed up and fixed the knocking sound by putting on an additional check valve.  We listened and watched and yes, he fixed the problem.  $232.73 later, he was gone and we were off to baseball games.  (And Hubby was irate that I paid that kind of money for such a simple job.)  (I did think it was kind of high, but what was I going to do?  I am not a well-rounded, knowledgeable plumber.)

Fast forward sixteen hours to Tuesday morning.  Nate and Maxim want to take their friend, Logan, downstairs to show him their train set.  And that’s when my week went bad. Nate yelled, “MOM!  There is water in our basement!!!!!”

I rush down and as I’m hurrying down the steps, I can see water standing all over the basement floor.  Other than two small corners of the basement, it’s flooded with an inch or so of water.  (Clean water, not sewer water.)  (An inch doesn’t sound like a lot, but water is water and it will get anything wet, soggy, and messy.)  And our sump pump was NOT working.  After a tearful and irritable call to the plumbing company, they assured me they’d send out the kid plumber again to fix the problem.  To which I replied, “And you’re sending out a crew to get this water out of the basement, too, right?  And you’ll be responsible for all of this stuff that is ruined, right?  Because this is NOT how I intended on spending my summer day!!”

Well, to make a long story longer…the service manager showed up around 11:45 (not the kid plumber who was here the day before) and he was a hard worker.  He fixed the error that the young plumber had made.  (On Monday, when the plumber put our sump pump lid back on, he moved the whole sump pump inside the well and that ball that goes up and down (like the one in your toilet) got shoved up against the wall of the well, causing it to not run.)  (That may have been one of the longest sentences. ever.)

The service manager, Brad, then found a squeegee and he worked all afternoon at getting the water out of our basement.  He went and bought fans at Menard’s.  And I called my insurance guy to get advice.  I was pleased with the fact that Brad accepted responsibility on behalf of the plumbing company and for starters, he was going to give a purchase order number to ServPro.  (I said I’d be making a list of what was ruined and the prices and get that to his company, as well.)

ServPro came out and they brought the big guns.  As in HUGE fans and dehumidifiers.  So, since Tuesday evening, we’ve had a constant hum of a fan many fans running in our basement.  It reminds me of growing up and having that big ol’ fan in your window that is close to your bed…to bring in some humid, summer night air that might cool you off as you try to sleep in your sweat.  Only this sound is coming from our basement and not the window by our bed.

And we’re all doing okay.  You see, I am that gal who buys a plastic tub about every month or so while making a Target run, so most of our stuff was saved due to being in plastic tubs.  The keepsake stuff was saved.  My prom shoes from 1991 were fine.  Patrick’s Central College letter jacket still looks amazing.  My banana comb was on the floor (I have no idea why?), but it’s plastic so it took on no water damage.  A lot of stuff was okay.  And the stuff that was ruined.  Well, I’m sad, but it’s replaceable.

Through it all, I tried to find the good.  (Well, after 9:20 Tuesday morning, I started looking for the good in this mess of a situation.  From about 9:00-9:20, it was just tears and weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Okay, maybe not the gnashing of teeth, but you get the picture.)

First of all, Nate and Maxim’s little neighbor friends were so willing to help haul stuff up out of the basement.  (I’m sure they were curious and wanted to see the damage, but after seeing the damage, they jumped right in and started working like little bees.  Bless their hearts.  They were just wanting to help and make things better.)  They continued to help for about 15 minutes, until Hubby said that NO ONE should be down in that water.  Because ELECTRICITY.  Risk of being SHOCKED.  (I’m so thankful Hubby has wisdom to impart on us because that could have been a wet situation that went dangerously wrong.)

I’m thankful that the plumbing company was honest and is willing to make it right.

I’m thankful for ServPro out of Iowa City because they’ve been great, knowledgeable, and so helpful.  And they are getting the water and moisture and all of that stuff dried up and getting our basement back to a healthy normal.

I’m thankful that my bestie showed up on that Tuesday morning to bring me a ‘pick-me-up’…my favorite iced white chocolate mocha coffee (and then decided to stay with her kids and help me for seven hours).

I’m thankful for another friend who took our boys so that I could focus on the overwhelming task at getting the water out and pitching the ruined stuff.

And I’m thankful that Hubby was so thoughtful and called or texted me every half hour to see how I was doing since he was in the Chicago area working for the day and couldn’t help.  Clearly, he was concerned for my sanity and emotional state.  Love him.  After those first twenty minutes of tears, shock, and frustration, and with God’s help, I pulled myself out of those depressing trenches and got to work.  With a calmer heart and attitude.

Sometimes it is hard to see the good, but I’m making myself look for it.  I love this verse…Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

All things work together for good.  As our pastor said, not everything is going to be good, but God will make everything work for good.  And that’s something to remember when basements flood, cars break down, and the not-so-great things happen.

Faith in God (which shows Him your love for Him) and knowing that He will take care of us and He will make things good for us…is what we need to remember.

Blessings and I hope this encourages you!