Girls' Night Out...Washed Away...

I had just taken a shower and gotten all dolled up for our Girls' Night Out with other women from my Hints for Living in Belgium class when the downpour had started. K arrived home a little early to watch the kids and my dear friend Amy was stopping by to drop off her daughter as her husband was out of town. It was raining so hard I knew my hair was going to be a complete mess before we even got downtown for the Chez Leon dinner highly recommended by the "1,000 Places to See Before You Die" book. R quietly played upstairs while I busied myself with making a pizza for K and the kids until we heard some toys fall over...or so we thought. After yelling upstairs to make sure he was okay, K walked by the door to the basement and realized the sound he had heard had not come from upstairs. Water gushed through a pipe into our basement. It was as if the fire department had taken their high power hose only to have it spill out into our basement.

Now you can imagine the horror of it all...fast paced...it's still completely pouring outside...K's in his work clothes...I run to get his rain boots...he ventures down to the cellar to retrieve anything he can...this isn't stopping anytime soon...he retrieves some suitcases...a few other boxes...the water's rising...we're helpless...he tells us to go on as there's nothing we can do (Seriously? You really think we're going to leave you with 3 children and a rapidly flooding basement to go have a great time chatting over dinner with some friends? Isn't he sweet?)...the water's too high and now coming past his boots...he's outside trying to stop the drainpipe or whatever it's called that's allowing all the water to pour in...he's completely drenched...it's worthless...the water and mud are being pulled into the drain...he tries to start digging trenches for water to drain away from the house...rain is still pouring...the electricity goes out...the kids are starving, so they start eating pizza...we're praying for the rain to stop...he thinks it's going to flood the first floor of our house...Amy and I take off like rapidfire getting all the family photos to the guest bedroom upstairs in our high heeled boots...we're carrying up our camera, laptop, K's work bag, my purse, the movies, the Wii...flashbacks of the Greenwood, IN flood occur in my head...trying to get anything we can off the floor...I'm sweating bullets...the rugs are up...our first floor is completely upturned...what a nightmare...cords are placed anywhere off the floor...the rain finally slows down and we don't hear the gush in the basement anymore...the water rises higher than the top of K's head and only a few inches below our first floor...so close to ruining everything...Girls' Night Out washed away in just about an hour and a half.

We sigh and take in what has just happened. What to do? Where to start cleaning? Amy takes the kids to her house so they can spend the night and hopefully have a normal day tomorrow. K and I are completely drained, but we're trying to clean up and dry some of our belongings he was able to save. K reflects on the truth of it being so difficult to handle when you have no control of the status of your house slipping away right before your eyes. We remember the people in Greenwood and Franklin who lost homes and belongings only a little over a year ago and praise God that the rain stopped before our house completely flooded.

And I thought not having internet for a few weeks was a pain in the booty (I can't even call my mom and dad to just cry!). Little did I know what was coming! I didn't realize how much work went into cleaning up a basement that has flooded, and our work has only begun. Now the pump (very slow might I add) is working and at this rate will have the water completely out by tomorrow evening.

Right now this is my prayer: Thank you, Lord that the basement just held "stuff" (even though I'm really going to miss the kids' hand made Christmas ornaments from preschool) and that we're all safe!