upswing.

Often, it gets worse before it gets better. But we’re on the upswing.

On Sunday, I spent the afternoon at the hospital. One of the little boys woke up with a fever and quick breathing, so we took him to the hospital. The poor little kiddo had pneumonia, but he did get to experience an elevator, x-ray, and breathing machine out of the ordeal.

Yesterday afternoon, our water turned back on. Unfortunately, with everyone re-filling their tanks, the water pressure was too low to get into our tank. It could only manage a slow drip into the smaller pool. Thus, Stephen began to take buckets from the smaller tank and refill our bigger tank.

As you can tell, he was thrilled at the opportunity 🙂

And it was about halfway through this process that we realized the inside of our tank had molded over the past few days of being empty and damp. Gorgeous. Now we had half a tank of very, very brown water.

Out came the mop, and Stephen proceeded to mop the inside of our water tank and drain out all the water he had just put in.

I was too short to help too much, and photos didn’t seem worth it.  By this point, both of us were too frustrated and exhausted to appreciate whatever lesson we were learning.

To be honest, it wasn’t when there were thirty people in my home on Friday that I wanted to flee. I was thankful to be here for that, however stressful it may have been. It was last night–with a sink full of dishes, a washer full of mildewing wet clothes, no water to flush the toilet, and unshowered–that a one-way ticket really began to tempt me…

Stephen re-filled the tank again with the bucket method, but was oh-so-thankful to have the water gain pressure last night about 8pm. It was a small dribble that made it into the tank, but it was enough to convince ourselves it would fill up overnight.

And this morning, when I turned on the faucet to brush my teeth? I was more thankful than I could say. There is something very beautiful about water coming out of your faucet right into your home. There is something very freeing about finishing that load of laundry that you started on Saturday evening.

We are telling ourselves we’re on the upswing. It has to get easier, right?  We can shower in our own home, do our dishes, and eventually do all six loads of laundry that await us!

Maybe that lesson was gratitude for the things we are tempted to take for granted!