ANYWAY, while on the phone with her after we both had calmed down and dried our eyes, I noticed there was water all over the little kitchen!!!!!! It was spewing forth from the top of the HUGE hot water heater!!! I turned all of the water off to and from it and it continued. I dumped water, and dumped water from it while finishing up the conversation with her and I really do not know what was said in the last five minutes of that conversation except that we would each continue to pray for the other! :) :) :) I had 7 towels on the floor that did not even faze the "puddle." Mark was unreachable and while on the phone with his mom she informed me I could hook the hose up to it and send the water out the back door. Oh, did I mention this all started at about 12:15? And did I mention that Christmas Party at school was at 1:30? LOL Yep you got it! Did I mention also that all 3 kiddos got dressed in footy pj's before their naps? So once I got the spewing to slow, by hooking the water hose up, I ran to the other end of the house to get the 3 kiddos ready to head to the school for the Party! By that time I had finally gotten hold of mark and he was on his way home. By the time we got back from school all of the appliances and cabinets had been pulled away from the wall and all of the water was sucked into the wet dry vac! He is so smart!!!!!!!! :) :) :) That night we talked to the plumber who said he would be here first thing in the morning, and we dug out the water shut off valve outside which had broken in the midst of everything. Thankfully, in the off position!!! Give you a new appreciation for water though! :) Then next morning they showed up, fixed the outside valve, snapped the pipe further back and fixed that. All with such calmness and about 5 ciggy's! :) There was not an obscenity or exasperated breath puffed once! :) :) LOL While they were testing the heater to see if it was just the pipe or the heater, I mentioned to Mark that Big Bikes were on sale for our oldest who has requested such since she is now riding without training wheels! :) He kind of gave me that "It's not gonna happen look." And sure enough, out goes the old hot water heater and in comes the new one. And a whopping big check later, we had water and HOT water!!!!! :) :) :)
Here is where the blessings start coming into play. My dad works for a homeless mission in downtown Dallas. (And many of you know how hard this year has been for them with mom being so sick and all!) Anyway, in the midst of the plumber being here he called and said we are going to get to go "shopping" in the gift room because there have been so many gifts given this year that we have some left over. What would the kiddos like from us? I named off about 3 things for Brayden, 2 for Skylar and 1 very specific for Hailey. He said, well, I will go at 1 and see what I can find. :) :) :) My heart leapt with happy heart for him being able to give them something at all! :) So we write that whopping big check and SERIOUSLY, not 3 minutes later, my dad calls and says "We have these bikes here that we cannot give the kids here because there is no place for them to ride them. Does Hailey need a bike?" I admit it, I cried right there!!!!!!!! God took care of my little girl at the very moment I was going to throw in the towel and convince her that her bike was perfect for her until her birthday!!!! WOW!!!!! Ok, so it gets even better! Later that afternoon, I get another call from my dad, HE GOT EVERYTHING ON THE LIST!!!!!!!!!!!! Not just one thing for each child but everything I had mentioned!!!!!!! He got it ALL! Can you believe it?!??!?! I can!! So, we sail through the rest of the day and go to the forgotten about basketball practice, and while we are there Skylar says "I'm Hungry!" "What are we going to have for dinner?" Mark says "What does mommy have at home" I respond with, at 7 pm, Mommy has sandwiches!!!!" And we all chuckle! SERIOUSLY, 45 seconds later my phone rings. It is my neighbor, who was suppose to leave town yesterday, whose son got sick 20 minutes outside of town and they turned around, saying there must be some reason we are not to be on the road today, and when they got home found the cat locked in a closet!!!!!!!!!!!! She had made a ton of Totilla soup and was asking if we would like some. NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!! A warm dinner too? On a cold night?!?!??! How can that be?!?!??! I stand in awe of my God, but as I have said on more than one occasion "I LOVE WATCHING GOD WORK!" But more than that, I hate that He has to prove Himself over and over and over to me! All of these were little things, nothing lifechanging in the midst at all! But at the end of a very long week at work for Mark and a stressful sequence of events, it is wonderful to feel His pressence and see Him work through others.
If I had not taken care of that little girl Thursday, I probably would not have run the diswasher. That being the case, the hot water would not have been run until showers at bedtime. The water would have flowed all night long rather than just a couple of hours!!!!! If I had not gotten the phone call during naps from my dear friend, I would not have gone to that end of the house until I had 3, 4 year olds in sock feet walking through the water trying to get out the door quickly to school. If, it had happened a week earlier when I had so many shipments going out I would have just been nuts and crazy!!! If it had happened a week later, when we had 15 people in this house or the day we left and it flowed for 4 days straight?!?!? All I can say is WOW!!!!! God's timing is perfect! Who can question it?!?!?!? If the bike conversation had never happened and she just got offered a bike. That sweet blessing would not have meant nearly as much. The fact that I have not been able to shop for the kids because now they see everything I put in the buggy and I was going today to get the stuff I had yet to get, while daddy took care of them! And my dad got EVERYTHING ON THE LIST yesterday afternoon!!! And even dinner?!?!?!? All I can say is, I love to watch God work!
Blessings abound! Now then, save this file to your desktop and take a moment to write someone a note who has been a blessing to you this past year! You need to share, and they need to hear!!!! :)
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