Beginning to See the Light.

Well, it’s been a minute or two since I’ve posted. In my last post, Signs of Life, I shared how some of our most challenging moments can actually be catalysts for the change we’ve been waiting for. Not even a week later, we had a flood in our attic.

I was away with the kids visiting grandparents when I picked up a phone call from Tyler—he was shouting on the other end. “What do I do?! Water is pouring through the skylights!” It was terrifying. We were preparing to receive an award for the preservation work we had done on the house, and I was thinking we’d be collecting an award for a home that no longer had a roof.

Thank God Tyler wasn’t with us on vacation and was home to hear the water pouring through the ceilings. He managed to get up on our flat townhouse roof, slosh through five inches of rainwater, and unclog a few pinecones from the gutter drain.

That day, it didn’t escape me that I had just written about having faith through these moments—and that by staying in faith, we can let the miraculous happen. We did, in fact, have to deal with a lot of water damage, but it wasn’t catastrophic. Initial predictions suggested we might have to rebuild ceilings, undergo asbestos remediation, and face all sorts of invasive procedures that would have forced us out of our home.

But we found out that plaster ceilings are the best thing to have when you’re dealing with water. We had a week of fans, heaters, and industrial humidifiers. Our only loss was some old, gross attic carpet—nothing like what we thought we’d be dealing with after the initial flood.

The silver lining? Because we had to dry out the attic, we had to lift the cover off a stained glass skylight embedded in the attic floor directly beneath the exterior skylight in the roof. This stained glass had been boxed in with a fluorescent light meant to illuminate the skylight—but frankly, it wasn’t attractive.

As soon as the cover was removed and true sunlight poured through, it completely transformed the floors below. Our hallway, with its grand staircase, had always felt dark and gloomy—but suddenly, it was radiant! Our home was lit just as the original Victorians intended.

This was the true rainbow at the end of our flood. So, if you’re going through hell, hang on… go through it with faith. There is always a way through! Furthermore, if you’ve faced a lesson once and think you’re now an expert, your theories might get tested all over again. Mine certainly were!”