Test

June 10, 2008- For those of you that have not been following my blog since the beginning, this was the day that we experienced the great storm of 2008. We were out with friends when suddenly the skies opened up and dropped 6 inches of rain on our town. We came home to water in our basement. We spent the next few weeks tearing up the carpet, getting rid of damaged items, rearranging all of the saved items to the nursery upstairs, cleaning the mess and attempting to fix it. Our house was a mess. I felt very disorganized and was extremely distraught over losing half of our house, including the nursery that I was so excited to start decorating. And then at 23 weeks, my water broke and everything we knew had changed. We came home from the hospital to a house that was still in disarray. The nursery that should have had beautiful girls sleeping in their cribs was still full of furniture from the basement. We then spent the next couple weeks and months fixing the basement so it hopefully would not do this again. I always commented that the flooding was what started our summer from hell and I associated everything bad that happened to that stupid flood.

June 19, 2009- We heard that a pretty bad storm was coming. We thought it might be good to roll up our carpets in the basement, put the furniture up and make sure everything was off the floor --just in case. I am so glad that we did! The great storm rolled in and dumped somewhere between 7-9 inches of rain on our little town. Our basement held out for a while, but then suddenly, it gave up its fight and it was covered in water. So, here we are again- heading into the dreaded 23rd week of pregnancy and reliving this horrible moment from last summer that started everything. I was a mess. It was like I had stepped back in time- even the air felt like it did last year. J did a fabulous job of keeping me calm and reminding me that the only important thing in this situation was the baby boy that was kicking in my belly. By the end of the night, I was angry. I couldn't believe that we were going through all of this again and I was mad. It was then that I wondered if this was a test from God. He knows I have trust issues. Was this a test to see if I could make it through this flood and trust that He was taking care of this baby? That just because our basement flooded again, it did not mean that life was going to repeat itself?

We had plans to go shopping for our crib early the next day because I had a really good coupon (yes, I am dutch!). I debated whether or not we should go with the recent flooding. I finally looked at J and told him to get ready to get up early because we were going, I was not going to let this take me down and ruin my exciting day of picking out a crib for my baby boy. And, that is exactly what we did, we let the water come in, we went to bed, got up early and bought our son a crib. I didn't like this test at all and I hoping that this was the only one we will endure, but I know better, this will be one of many. I just hope I pass those ones like I did this one!

This picture gives you a glimpse into how much water we got- this truck is driving in front of our house and the water was so high, it was over the sidewalk and was coming into our driveway....

And, this is the crib that we bought! We ordered it in white so it will take 6-10 weeks for it to come in, which is perfect because I wasn't sure if I was quite ready to have a crib in that room yet!

Mighty God help me understand that I have been called by You to walk by FAITH and not by sight. 2 Cor. 5:7