Just One More Thing

A couple nights ago, I noticed a huge decrease in our water pressure as I was doing the evening's dishes. The next morning, Nate complained about the shower...drip...that he had to take. An hour to fill the horses water and a minute to fill a cup of water led us to believe that we had {another} little problem on our hands. We assumed that the problem was coming from the fact that they had just put a meter in, as they are putting us on city water soon. Well, after two days of trickle showers, Nate had had enough and found the number for the project manager putting in the water lines. He stopped by this afternoon and said that they were going to look at the meter and see what they could figure out. When they finally got to it around 3:00 today, he pointed out that we had consumed over 35,000 gallons of water in the last week since they put the meter in. I was a little baffled. Sure, I do plenty of laundry and dishes, but for sure not 35,000 gallons worth. The next question I had was, where is this water going? We're just recovering from floods, and finished intalling the last of the carpet today...the thoughts of that much water being dumped into my house was scaring me. The guy told me that he thought there was a break in the line somewhere between the house and the meter. GREAT! So, we walked into the house where the water comes in, and heard water running through the softener. The guy thought that the system was just running the water through and then dumping it into the sewer. So, I left to get my boys with that thought in my head. And a million other thoughts...{ Where is that water going? Is our house going to flood again? We're going to have to figure this out TODAY. Do we really have to replace our water softener system? The guy that repaired it last year said it would cost in the thousands of dollars. We don't have an extra thousands of dollars. This is just getting too funny and a little absurd...laugh out loud...how much more stress can I handle? I need to call Nate}.
So I left a message for Nate to call me between patients. He called before too long and I told him what I found out. We hung up and I did my afterschool pick-ups and drop-offs. When I got home I was a little stunned still that there was that much water running through our house, so I went to check it. The meter was still and there was no sound of running water through the pipes. AND my water pressure was back!!!! Miracle of Miracles, I thought. What a blessing!!

Then I learned the rest of the story.
After I hung up with Nate, he was angry and discouraged {very reasonable reactions} before he recalled a conversation with our Stake President he had had earlier in the week. President Matthews often tells Nate that he is being refined. This time, he told Nate that he is having the opportunity to be defined...that these experiences, and how he reacts to them will define him. So, with that thought, after his assistant and office manager asked what he was going to do about it, he responded to them...PRAY! And he did. As he did the thought came very clear into his mind that he needed to check a valve that he had put in as part of the sprinkler system. The valve was attached to a pipe that ran under the ground and emptied into the ditch behind the barn, beside the road. He "hung up" and immediately called Darren and told him to walk out of the house, down the stairs of the deck and straight through the corrals , over the fence to the ditch, and that there he would see water spewing through a pipe. Darren was stunned...because that is exactly what he saw. Somehow, in the two days previous, someone had been back there and caused the pipe to be broken off. Darren returned to the backflow valve and turned the water off there. Problem Solved.
Chance? No
Luck? No
Pure Inspiration and Guidance from a Heavenly Father who gives us experiences to define us. I am Grateful for Prayer!!!! And Incredibly grateful that we don't have to dump a couple thousand into a new water softener system right now.