Middle of the Night Pipe Burst

Last week I wrote a letter to my family.

Dear family,

About 2:00 last night Jonathan and I were roused awake by Crystal rushing to our bedroom door gasping that a pipe had burst or something and water was pouring into the storm cellar and storage room. Jonathan (who had already gotten to bed late after attending a wake 80 minutes away) swayed groggily out of bed, grabbed his glorious striped bathrobe, and rushed downstairs to see what was the matter. There he discovered that a plumbing joint had suddenly come apart. 

Jonathan turned off the appropriate valve and got the water stopped, but many gallons had already gushed into the back room, all over the floor where two extra mattresses were on their sides, and into the closet and even out into the basement kitchen area. Crystal threw down a big towel to stop the water flooding past the refrigerator and Jonathan found a shop vac and spent the next 45 minutes vacuuming up water. Now we have to find and set up fans, fix the pipe, meanwhile toting 5-gallon buckets of water to the barn for the thirsty chickens and goats. 

This morning everyone was tired and grouchy. But we reminded ourselves of how much worse it would have been had the pipe burst the night before when Crystal and Hannah were gone. They got caught in the snowstorm while delivering a puppy all the way to Spearfish to the northwest of Rapid City to a Montana customer. The girls ended up staying overnight with our friends the Woodards in Rapid City. coming home yesterday morning. 

 

But just imagine if the pipe had burst while Crystal was gone and wouldn't have heard the gusher and come running up to tell Jonathan. Our whole basement would probably be flooded all night while we slept blissfully on.

So our grumps were replaced with gratitude.

To overcome the grumps, it is always good to look for and find special mercies, and to thank God for them--even in the middle of a flooded basement.