Plungers...Plumbers....and Prayers

This was our theme one lovely Thursdsay in February, when our toilet got clogged (a bad combination of switching to the really thick toilet paper, and independant but small children!), then malfunctioned in two different ways which resulted in the water NOT turning off and overflowing/flooding the upstairs bathroom, and leaking through the ceiling of the downstairs bathroom which in turn flooded, and leaked through to a small portion of the carpet! Not Good!

Well I wouldn't normally care to remember this day when I spent WAY too much time in unsanitary conditions and mopped my floors too many times to count, but admidst all the "fun" I had one of those rare moments where you feel like when it comes to your kids..."They Get it...they're catching on!"

I had water Spraying out the toilet in all directions and was not able to turn it off, it was continuting to rise really fast and I had already baracaded the entrance with towels to prevent it from leaking out of the bathroom, and was calling the management company to see about getting a plumber sent out and to see where the water turn off was (really terrible that I don't know this....but THEY didn't either) these old houses have things in really funny spots, and I had just run back upstairs to see if I could somehow catch the water in a bowl and start pouring it down the bathtub and as soon as I ran into the bathroom, I lifted the lid off the toilet and pulled on something (I still don't know what it was or why it worked...neither did the plumber) and the water just shut off.

I could finally catch my breath and Mia who had disappeared after I told her that she needed to stay far away from the bathroom, peeked her head around the corner to ask me if the water had stopped and I said, "Oh yes I pulled on something and I got it to stop" and she said, "Well when you told me to go to the living room I went by myself to a corner and I said a prayer to help you" Thankfully I was coherent enough to hear what she said and realize what a big deal this was. I thanked her for saying a prayer and told her that she had had more faith then Mommy because I hadn't even thought to pray and that her prayer must have worked because I had no idea what I was doing and right after her prayer the water just stopped!

Even though you hate when things like this happen it's always nice to look back and see how you were blessed amidst the crazy. A few other blessings I realized after this incident: 1. I THANKFULLY only had 1 child awake during the entire 3 hour ordeal. I didn't think about it at the time but the younger two took really awesome naps that day. 2. We have a great management company and thank heavens we don't own our house, because they were able to send a plumber out that day, as well as carpet people to suck out all the water from the carpet, santize everything under the carpet and clean not just the spot it had leaked on but the whole downstairs. 3. The weather was uncharacteristically nice the 2 days following this incident which allowed me to open every window in the house and air things out without running up our heating bill.