Our 5th time moving in 3.5 years of marriage

You think you have bad luck? Read the rest of this blog post to realize how lucky you are! 2 weeks ago water started dripping out of our ceiling on the 1st floor of our apartment. In our bedroom there was a damp spot on the carpet that kept getting worse and worse. We emailed the landlady immediately with pictures and descriptions of what was going on. The next day some guy came out to inspect the leak (this was about 2 weeks ago!!) He said he found nothing but will report to his superiors and get back to us shortly. One week later we hadn't heard ANYTHING from anyone...and the dripping got worse making the ceiling drape heavy with saturation. Friday afternoon we noticed the dripping had gotten A lOT worse. Mind you this was a sudden turn of dripping events. We took video and stressed the concern to our land lady as well as the HOA that this was a very serious problem and something had to be done SOON! This is what we saw Friday:

Saturday came around and the bottom floor looked like the ceiling was going to explode. I felt like I had woken up to a swamp. the wet patch on our floor in our room had gotten considerably worse and I was getting a little bit livid with the inaction of others not doing anything to fix this problem. But I'm not plumber or contractor so I was powerless. We had planned to go on a hike that morning so we set off to do just that.

Around 10:20am we got back from our hike. I ate some food, made some phone calls, rested on the couch and started to look up recipes for fried rice when I heard an alarm sound.

"Sounds like one of our neighbors alarms is going off again," I had remarked to Tristin. About a minute after than Tristin and I heard something like buckets of water falling in the next room over. We went to see what it was.

Gallons and gallons of water was pouring from the ceiling all over the living room! We ran up stairs to where the source of the now-loud alarm was sounding. The sight we saw was something I'll never forget. Niagra Falls was being spewed from out our bedroom wall and across the room! Everything was getting ruined with the never ending flood of water. Confused and in shock I asked myself, "What is the most expensive thing in this room and is partially salvagable?", grabbed our TV and ran to the next room over. I then went back to try and comprehend what I was watching. Still the water was spewing from our wall like CRAZY and pouring out of the window like a waterfall. I grabbed our already drenched laptops, realizing they were probably done for and left everything else behind to flood.

Tristin and I exited the building to see dozens of people outside of our apartment. The neighbors hurridly asked if we were ok and told us they had already called 911. We then joined the crowd and watched as our apartment overflowed. Uselessly we stared, with the rest of the neighborhood, and watched our entire 3.5 years worth of possesions get utterly destroyed.

The fire department came in about 10 minutes and switched off all the water. HOA people kept talking to me and telling me who they were and what to do. Endless people kept asking me who I was and what happened. I felt as though my brain was swimming in a tidalwave of emotions and questions.

Thank heaven for Sona! She was our saving grace. I called her and asked if we could stay with her family for a while. After 5 minutes of talking to her she called me back to tell me she had called several people that were coming to our aid to help.

About an hour later we had probably 15 people with 4-6 cars (I don't remember specifics at that point. I was still in shock) help carry all our stuff into cars and lug it all to our now-place-of-refuge. It was the miracle of the day for me. We had moved out 90% of all our possessions in a matter of 3 hours!

this is the apartment after the fire department had left.

By the time we had gotten to Sona's house (we were the last people to leave the apartment), almost everything was unpacked and put in a temporary storage spot. I wanted to cry but was mentally in a state of numbness. I was so grateful for what everyone had done! There were neatly folded clothes and shoes in a closet, a bed and some of our salvaged pictures in our room that we are now staying in. It felt like a minature refuge from the storm we had just experienced.

The rest of the evening was a little bit hazy but we lived through it. I'll probably go more in detail but at some other time.

So that's the news of our apartment. thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers. Throughout this aweful experience we have seen the tender mercies of Heavenly Father. We are truly blessed. Things could have been a lot worse. Next to the computer I'm using is a sign that says, "If it doesn't matter ETERNALLY, does it really matter?" what an appropriate question for the past 24 hours. One day we will look back on this and say, "Hey, remember the time our apartment and belonging got completely destroyed?".

God is good, He is loving and I know that without his help things could have been a lot worse for us! I'm grateful to have seen his hand in all of this. From the angels that were there to help us move, to the angels that are supporting us morally and emotionally. We are thankful for all our friends who helped us through this experience. Words cannot express our gratitude for you!

Thank you a thousand times! My heart is overflowing in gratitude!