Let it rain...

Last week when I was feeding Willow, I was standing in the kitchen with my bare feet. As I was standing in a place I had stood hundreds of times before, I thought, what is that? I ran my foot back and forth over the raised mound with this insain look on my face, asking myself, has it been here the whole time and I'm just now noticing it? No. I thought. I have washed this floor on my hands and knees for 2 1/2 years- I know every dent, cut and imperfection, this was definatly NOT there before. I went on feeding Willow and then onto my other 100 chores that comes with having 4 kids, until I noticed another mound in front of the dishwasher. I stopped and said, "what is going on? It can't be the dishwasher. It just can't. So the next night when Trav commented on the crazy floor, I said, " I know. I was going to tell you. I'm glad I'm not going crazy!" (because apart of me questioned my sanity, imagine that!)So, with a parent/teacher confrence meeting to be to in 20 minutes, Trav moved the dishwasher to discover what no home owner wants to find: water damage! So, to make a long story longer, I went into panic mode calling everyone and anyone who I thought could help us. I went out on the porch and almost started crying. I can't take anything else right now, I thought. After drowning in self pity for 3 minutes, I got up, dusted myself off and went back inside to be a Mom and wife. I told myself, Em, there are people dying. There are families waiting for military members to come home, there are missing children every where and familes losing their minds over it, there are people starving right here in the US and other countries, there are people without homes, food, clothing, cars, family, friends or help of any kind. There are Mother's losing babies, fathers losing jobs and a world that is falling apart- and you are really whining over a ruined kitchen? So with life in perspective, I cleaned up dinner, hand washed a billion dishes, put Pj's on kids, brushed teeth, said prayes and kissed my beautiful babies goodnight. As I got ready for the night, I just shook my head and thought, but I can't change what is happening around the world. I can't make it stop. I can't make it any better, and darn it, this isn't what I wanted. I just wanted everything to be ok and now it isn't. And now there is water everywhere, and who knows if there is mold. Are we safe? Will the kids be affected? How much will this cost? We don't have the money. Do I really have to hand wash all these dishes? And boil water to do it in? (Those poor, amazing pioneer women!) So the next day, my friend Lisa said, "Em, call your insurance company!" Which I did and then by Friday, things started to get rolling. Chris came out to look at the damage. Our adjuster came out yesterday and then the guys were here until 8:30 last night removing a part of the floor, cabinets & counter tops. We have a fan on it for 3-5 days and then we will go from there. It just boils down to being HUGE-LY inconvient. So, while people are dying around the world, I am complaining that they tore up our cute red cabnits that Trav and I worked SOOO hard on, I don't have running water, my cute floor is going away, there's a huge hole in my floor and wall, we don't have a dishwasher,I have to wash our dishes in the bath tub now, our kitchen contents are now covering my couch, and who knows how long this entire process will take! I'm just frustrated!!! (But yes, eventually we will get a new floor that isn't soaked in water, I'll hopefully get my black & white checkerd vinyl back, I'll get new cabinets and counter tops and life will be perfect again!) Thanks for letting me vent, I'm just struggling with everything out of order!!!!