Happily, it was clean water, not sewage! Sometime after 1:30, when our oldest son had finished his homework and retired, an old hose broke on the basement washing machine. It would have been a cheap and easy fix, but it caused a big mess. It also brought obvious blessings and helped us to recognize many more, enhancing our gratitude this Thanksgiving. We expect to see additional blessings from this experience as time goes on.

Over the past seven years we have remodeled most of the house, but the only basement room to get much attention was the boys' bedroom, completed nine months ago. We had intended to paint, re-carpet, and upgrade the kitchen and bathroom down there, but there were literally tons of storage and books in the basement that we would have to haul up and find places for. I have lamented my procrastination many times, but now I am thankful that much has been rapidly hauled out -- including the ruined, ugly carpeting that we will likely replace with tile. And, at least in this case, the procrastination saved us from doing the remodel twice!

We have seen miracles, as a few notable items were spared. There was a three-square-foot high-spot in the bedroom, next to the exterior wall -- which happened to be where my son's violin and guitar were stored. The limited-edition print that was still in its cardboard roll had several inches of packing material in the end that touched the floor -- and the painting was completely dry. On Saturday night (when they should have been in bed) the younger brother decided to assemble the foosball table, which had lain useless on the kitchen floor for months. The boys played a game or two, leaving the floor cleared; the six-inch metal foot posts held the rest of the table well out of the way of the coming water. On Monday evening, while in the basement doing a little straightening of furniture, I noticed that the beautiful, inlaid chess board/drawered table base which the younger son had recently crafted was on the floor; I happened to put the chess board in the cabinet under the television, about five inches off the floor -- and it remained undamaged.
There have been other blessings -- less tangible, perhaps, but no less evident. As my husband and our younger boys hauled literally tons of food from our basement (the plastic buckets had the weight labeled right on them) and stacked them in the carport, they recognized that they work well together -- and they saw that we have made strides to be prepared for other crises: it gave my husband confidence, he said, to actually see what we have gathered. Not being afraid is a blessing! So is the understanding that stuff is, after all, just stuff.

Are the hundreds of holes which were punched in the walls a blessing? I believe so. I need real work for my younger sons, and filling those holes is something they can do to contribute to the economy of our household.
Was the timing a blessing? Probably so. We had already made arrangements to attend the wedding and we had the Thanksgiving holiday to be here working or away to escape the noise. And the Christmas break will allow time to do the work, if we choose. What other time would we have selected for the inconvenience? Like most things, if we could we would choose to procrastinate the trial indefinitely! Statistically, people experience a water loss about every five years, so it appears we have put this problem off for quite a while. Yes, even the timing was a blessing.
Gratitude is real, not hypothetical. Like our lives.
This Thanksgiving, I thank God for a real life, with real problems -- and for real opportunities to see His blessings in my life.
All photos courtesy of sxc.hu, with credit to JoofyTheJi.
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