Tho My Pressure Tank Should Rupture, and My Basement Flood, Yet I Will Praise Thee!

This morning Gracie came into my room and said, "Dad needs you in the basement." "Why?" I asked. This was a strange request. "The basement is flooded," came the reply.

I went downstairs and Chad was preparing to walk out the door to take the kids to school. "The Pressure Tank ruptured. I am gonna take them to school, go to work and go to my 8 a.m. meeting, approve time, and come home and take care of the leak."

I walked down into the basement and was relived to see that the water had NOT reached the big bags/boxes of hand-me-downs at the bottom of the stairs. That would have been such a mess! There was a ring of water around the outside of the basement. The "higher" ground in the middle of the basement had stayed dry. I again felt blessed and relived when I realized that last week I had taken about an hour of my time to clean up the basement. There had been clothes, trash, books, and other odds-n-ends all over the floor that was now flooded. But God had laid it on my heart to scratch out some time and clean up a bit. Mind you it was still not clean but it was so much better than it could have been.

I went upstairs and threw on some clothes worthy of cleaning the basement full of water. Next I went into the garage and chose 2 empty bins, one to put things to wash & keep and the other to toss. I went downstairs and got to work on the bins. As I started to fill the bins, I realized that the water had stopped just about 12 inches from the mattress we had propped up in the middle of the room. Thank You God! Then I realized that on Friday the 2 BIG bags of snow clothes had been sitting right where the water now was, but because of the cold morning on Saturday I had brought them upstairs for everyone to wear to the Cross Country meet. I had not gotten these bags back down stairs, so that was one load of wash I would not have to do! Thank You God! Yes, things were wet, but it really was so mild compared to what it could have been! Even my bag of gift bags that had been left on the floor... The outside bag was wet, but the ones inside were still dry! Thank You God!

I called Chad and he talked me through getting the Shop-vac ready to suck up the water. Thank God we have a Shop Vac! I got most of the basement done before it was time to take the kiddos to school.

I was also thankful that the "littles" are at the point that I could tell them to make their own lunch and they were able to do so. I came up and they had their lunches all packed and were munching on their breakfast.

I decided not to change, but to drop the kids off to school in my yucky clothes. After all, if anyone commented on my slovenly attire, I would simply explain my morning, and all would be understood.

I got the "littles" delivered without too many disdainful looks over my dress, and headed for home to complete the sucking of the water. Then Chad called, He had taken the rest of the day off and was heading into Lansing to get a replacement tank. (Thank God Chad was able to take the day off!) He wanted to know if I wanted to come along. Of course I did, but could I go home and change first? I am not sure exactly what he said, but I got the impression that he wanted to get on the road a.s.a.p. So I bypassed going home and headed straight for town.

So now Chad & I had the opportunity for a date...a very expensive, tank replacement date, mind you... but a date none the less! We had a very nice time to talk on the way up and back. While we were in Lansing he got the tank and then wanted to go to Marshall Music to pick up some stuff for the church sound board. There was a Michael's right next door, so I swallowed my pride and went inside in my vagabond clothes to get the face paint I needed to purchase for the church.

Chad had arranged to meet a friend at Sam's so he could help them move some large purchases to their house. So he asked me to come along. Annoyed at my clothing, but moved, to spend as much time with my husband as possible, I went to Sam's. He rewarded me by driving through Culver's for lunch.

Finally, I arrived home. I got the rest of the water cleaned up as best I could and started the de-humidifier. Thank God for our de-humidifier!

Chad got home and we removed the tank. I don't understand much about the tank, but I guess that there is only a small portion of the tank that is supposed to have water in it. There was water in the whole tank. In other words, it was failing anyway so it is good we are replacing it. ALSO we found the hole, and it is about the size of a pen tip. I can not imagine how bad the basement could have flooded if we had a bigger hole! Thank You God!

Chad is now back in town picking up a few more things to install the tank. I am SOOOO thankful for my handy husband who can install pressure tanks, so we do not have to pay a plumber to do such things!

I sit here still in my sloppy clothes, wishing I could take a shower, but thankful that Grace refilled the hair spray bottle yesterday, so that I could at least wash my hands with that water! :)

So the moral of the story is... Always throw on the pair of jeans before you drop off your kids at school, and God is ALWAYS Good! :)