…it pours. And then that water seeps into your basement and makes for a really, really bad day. I always want this blog to be a place that is uplifting and encouraging and hopeful…even in the midst of difficult circumstances. But I also want it to be a place that is honest…and sometimes honesty is not so pretty.
I put off writing this post for a few days for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, on Mother’s Day I wanted to focus on the happy things in my life…because there are a lot. I also thought it would be good to let my emotions kind of level out a bit…you know, the “hide your crazy” Miranda Lambert sings about.
During the last four weeks (and really the last six months) Kade and I have had some incredible highs and overwhelming lows on the emotional spectrum. And I can honestly say we have both really taken things in stride and kept ourselves, for the most part, pulled together. Until Saturday night...
Right before bed we got a call from home…our basement had flooded. Almost instantly, the resolve we'd worked so hard to maintain crumbled. As much as I wanted to, I could not stop the tears streaming down my cheeks as I though to myself… Why now?! Why does this have to happen in the middle of all the other stuff we are facing?? And the question I think many of us ask in difficult circumstances... God, why us?? This news was certainly not the worst we’ve received, and our basement is definitely not the biggest of our concerns right now. It just so happened that with everything else on our hearts, this was our breaking point.
So to back up a minute for a little context…in first few months of the year, we moved pretty much our entire living quarters to the basement. We live in an old, three-level farmhouse with an extremely steep staircase up to what used to be our master bedroom on the top level. Not all that practical for a growing mama-to-be or for two newborn babies who quickly grow into mobile toddlers. So we moved our bedroom all the way to the basement, as well as the girls’ nursery and my office. We had the walls all painted, the carpet cleaned and everything was perfectly in place for us to come home with our new little adventures. You know...
SO, our basement was flooded. We were in Chicago with no possibility of getting home to take care of it. Not a good situation. Insert dedicated, loyal, unbelievable friends and family who spent the entire night with shop-vacs trying to get out all of the remaining water to salvage our carpet. They sacrificed their sleep to save our sanity.
The next day we called in the pros, who said the carpet pad was unsalvageable, but the effort put into getting moisture out the night before quite possibly saved our dry wall. So the next step was moving everything out of the basement so the carpet could come up to remove the pad and start the drying process. Those of you who know anything about me know that the thought of all this happening while I am stuck in a hospital room nearly 100 miles away almost stopped my control-freak heart. Like, needed a phone call from dad to get my head on straight kind of freak-out.
Here are a few of the things he reminded me of... 1) Stuff is just that…stuff. Even if something gets broken or dinged or scratched, and even if it's not done exactly how I would do it…life will go on. 2) There is literally nothing I can do about the situation. My only job right now is growing these little girls and keeping them and myself healthy…meaning no stressing. 3) How lucky are we that we have friends and family clamoring to help us…calling and texting to say, “Don’t worry about anything here, we’ve got it under control.” Seriously lucky.
The honesty part is this… We (and by we I mostly mean I) don’t always handle things with grace. Sometimes situations I don’t have control over make me ill-tempered and irrational and, occasionally, those things lead me to do that “ugly cry” thing girls do. My husband bears the brunt of those emotions, which is why God blessed me with a strong, forgiving man.
So a few from-the-bottom-of-my-heart “thanks yous”… To my husband who let me work through the not-so-pretty emotions I needed to feel and express in my moments of weakness. To my mama who just hugged me when I needed to cry and reminded me of what an incredible man I married. To my dad who continues to provide a steadfast example of humility and voice of reason. And, from Kade and I, THANK YOU to everyone who has pitched in not only with the basement, but with everything at the Hummel homestead the past four weeks. Taking care of the pigs/cats/chickens/dogs, mowing the yard, watering the plants, getting the mail, etc., etc. You have lifted such a weight off our shoulders knowing things are taken care of back home. We will never be able to repay you, but we love you and appreciate you more than you will ever know!
With Grace (or always trying),
Jen