More Blessings Than Raindrops

The past 24 hours have been some of the most exhausting, blessing-filled hours of my life. I haven’t blogged in a long time and didn’t plan to come back to blogging this way but there was entirely too much to put in a social media post so here we are.

As I drove home last night from my Mom’s house God blessed me with a clear head and a solid knowledge of North Baton Rouge streets (basically the only part of town where I can confidently drive in a flash flood). As I kept hitting one flooded street after another I thanked God over and over again for the off chance that I was driving The Hubs’s 4 wheel drive vehicle. What are the odds that my van being in the shop for a busted transmission would be such a blessing?

God also put amazing family on my path home. My Aunt and Uncle gave safe haven to the Twins and I last night after I decided that two hours on the road that just kept getting more full of water was too much. Only this morning did I find out how great that decision was. There is no way we would have made it home safely. I passed abandoned cars the entire way home on the route that I would have taken. There was even one in the entrance to my neighborhood.

My in laws tried their best to keep water out of our house by coming over while I was gone to pump water out of the yard since our in ground pump burned up the other day. I truly believe that things would have been worse without their forethought. They knew how bad it was getting before I even had a clue. I even told them that it would be fine and not to worry about it.

This morning when I came home I prayed that I wouldn’t come home to a house full of water. My prayers were answered but there was still damage. Water had seeped in through the expansion joints in the bricks of our house and entered our master bedroom and our office. Without hesitation, my Bonus Dad and my Dad dropped everything, got their shop vacs loaded up, and headed my way. My Mom kept me calm and told me where to start and reminded me to take pictures of everything. I praised God for the 100,000th time for my Disney Plus subscription and got the girls distracted by TV so I could start cleaning up the mess. Together we were able to clean up as much water as we could and get all of the wet clothes/fabrics in both rooms washed and get all the soggy trash out. The floors are definitely toast so as soon as insurance gives the okay they’re coming out.

Through it all The Hubs was trying to make his way home from North Louisiana. He had to fight exhaustion from driving all night to try and help a friend and on top of it ended up having to stop on the side of the road with car trouble. We were both extremely grateful that he was able to get help and for once actually had a phone charger handy so we could stay in touch. He ended up getting the truck fixed but staying in a hotel to get some sleep before he tried to finish the journey home.

My Brother checked on us all day all the way from Seattle where he was fighting with his own crazy day. My sweet friend Hillary brought us enough food for dinner, breakfast, lunch, and dessert. She even offered to watch The Twins so I could take a bath without interruption. The Twins had a blast between sleeping over at my Aunt’s, getting to see two grandparents, and getting to show Mrs. Hillary all of their toys. My work family made sure I was okay and let me know that they were there to help and support us as we move forward.

So many things could have gone so much worse at so many points in this journey. I was in the right car, took the right routes, made the right choices, had a safe place to go, had family supporting us, and even have flood insurance that we thought we’d never use but might as well get. I am going to bed dog tired but with a heart filled with gratitude for God and for the life that he has given us. A lot has happened lately that’s made our family life a roller coaster but at every turn we’ve been able to see God’s hand in the matter. I wouldn’t say I’m “too blessed to be stressed” because the stress is 100% there, but I’m not too stressed to see the blessings in front of me and for that I’m grateful. The Hun just rolled over for some snuggles so I’ll take that as a sign that it’s time for me to get some shut eye too. Just one more blessing to add to the list.