Battle With the Basement or You Are Loved

We've had an on going battle with our basement.  I think we finally have things fixed and in order. We have experienced months of frustration as we fix one issue only to have another one develop.  I guess that's to be expected in an older home, especially one that wasn't lived in for awhile.

One reason we chose this home was for the basement. We envisioned using half for storage, the other half would be used as a music room and work area. We spent time trying to neatly organize our abundance of stuff only to move it from one area to another as we dealt with various flooding issues. It has been a challenge correctly diagnosing issues since it took us several months to see the flooding actually occuring and since the water was coming from different sources.  The way the basement was designed the water would drain towards one end fairly quickly so we didn't realize our major issue was actually on the other end of the room.

When I returned from Florida last time I discovered that water had seeped up the back side of all my food storage boxes.  They looked fine from the front, but acted like sponges on the backside.  We thought they were out of the danger zone and had plans to raise them off the floor, but hadn't done so yet. I had to unbox and sanitize 38 boxes of #10 cans. (You think it would be easy replacing boxes that hold 6, #10 cans, not so easy, but that's a story of its own.)

We're beginning to win the battle with the basement (knock on wood.) A few weeks ago Matt had a few out of town meetings so I took the opportunity to paint the wall behind the workbench and after months of it sitting in the middle of the room, Hannah helped me put the workbench back in  place. During the process of cleaning, painting and organizing I found a fortune sitting on the shelf above the workbench.  I don't know how it got there.  Hannah says it is hers and I've since given it back and she keeps it safely tucked inside her cell phone case. Wherever it came from and however it got there it was a message that did my heart good.

I can't quite put into words how that tiny slip of paper made me feel.  I could sense the love of an ever watchful Heavenly Father.  He knows my struggles, challenges, frustrations and triumphs.  In that moment I felt like He was absolutely aware of me and wanted me to know. My battle with the basement compares in no way with the challenges so many people experience, but it does remind me He loves and watches over me always in whatever situation I may be in.