{Our Unplanned Family Adventure}

In my previous post, I referred to something we have been going through lately. This is the post that documents it all!

Here we go...

Our beautiful home turned into a disaster a couple of months ago.

I woke up around 3:30AM to the sound of my daughter crying. You have to understand, I NEVER wake up. Jay always wakes up and tells me about it all the next day. This time was different. I woke up and thought to myself "oh if she needs me, she'll come get me." I also thought "man! it sure is pouring down rain outside!" Then I heard Kelsey's cries again so I got up out of bed to check it out. I walked out of our bedrooms and stepped into water.

I walk across the house through the kitchen to see water spewing out underneath my kitchen sink but I kept walking to Kelsey's room. She was sound asleep. I firmly believe she never cried, it was God waking me up.

I ran back to our bedroom and woke up Jay. We have very hard water where we live so we had a water filter attached under our sink (and another on our fridge). The water filter burst. Jay turned off the water and we started cleaning up.

We grabbed every towel in our house to soak up the water (hoping to minimize the damage). We used every single towel in our house and it was *just enough* to soak up the water.

Our entire downstairs is hardwood and my floors began buckling. We called our insurance company to report the damage and the mitigation company came out the same day to set up dehumidifiers everywhere. Next step was to cut out the drywall in the breakfast room, dining room and living room.

What a mess, right?

More dehumidifiers everywhere...at this point, we were trying to save the sub floor and obviously, prevent mold.

The dragon worked to dry out underneath the house.

Once the sub floor was dry, our new flooring was delivered. The hardwood was laid down and then had to acclimate for over a week. Then, they sanded and refinished all the flooring and stained it all. The water never reached our bedrooms but because their isn't a transition in the flooring, they had to sand and stain the entire house which meant we had to move everything out of our home!

Since they had to tear out the drywall and some of it was above our baseboards, we needed to paint. YAY for new paint colors!

During this challenge, my parents kept our sweet poodle, Lucy, for us. It wasn't much later, we got the dreaded phone call that Lucy's brother, Odie, passed away.

It is always devastating to lose a pet but Odie was much more than just a pet. He was the sweetest, most gentle, ball loving, playful dog. The kids loved playing with him and I loved looking at that sweet face of his.

Lucy and Odie would fight just like brother and sister. I'll never forget the day I got Lucy, 11 years ago. I made my parents go with me in case she was sick and I wouldn't have the heart to walk away. We go pick up Lucy and her brother was the last one there. My parents couldn't bare to leave him so they took him (without the papers).

We brought them to my parents house to see them together and watch them interact. They TORE into each other. We were so scared they would hurt each other and thought we'd have to keep them separated forever. Looking back, it's funny because they would always tear into each other but rarely ever get hurt.

Lucy lost her brother and my parents lost a best friend. We love you, Odie. Tell Waffles and Rosie that we love them and miss them, too!
(back to the house)

We couldn't live at home during all of this so we stayed at the nicest hotel in Murfreesboro, Embassy Suites. The staff at this hotel is just as amazing as the hotel itself. Everyone was so nice to us and made us feel welcome at our 'home away from home.'

The kids loved the pool and hot tub (Jay and I did, too). It was fun to have a new, exciting place for play dates with friends.

We also loved the delicious breakfast every morning. Made to order omelets were a favorite. I believe I was the only one that grew tired of the breakfast though!

The omelet ladies were so nice and loved talking to the kids every morning. One of them even told us that Brady's face popped into her head during her prayer time and so she prayed for him.

The valet guys were all known as "Brady's buddies" --so funny! I think he thought they were our own personal greeters as we entered and exited the hotel. He loved showing them his various superhero shirts, toys, new shoes and just loved chatting with them. High fives all around! These guys were so kind to our kids and we'll never forget them!

We had to eat out every meal and one night in particular, we tried a new place for dinner. Our "buddies" asked us where we went and what we thought when we returned. We told them our meal was terrible and overpriced. Next thing we know, they delivered two gift certificates to our room for their restaurant. How nice is that?

Kelsey spent her 6th birthday at the hotel and they gave the kids toys and giant cookies to celebrate. Jay and I celebrated our anniversary (the day after Kelsey's birthday) and they delivered a beautiful fruit and cheese plate with wine to our room.

It was pretty difficult living in a hotel for five weeks because it just isn't home but it's also hard to complain when we stayed somewhere that was so great. The staff really made it enjoyable.

We really tried hard to make this like a big family adventure and the kids really did enjoy it. It was challenging but we had wonderful family and friends that helped us out in different ways. I really do think it taught our kids a valuable lesson about how to deal with life's obstacles and make the best of it.

My friend, Jennifer, said "how neat is it that years from now your kids will look back on this time and say 'remember that time we lived in a hotel.'" I never thought of it like that but I think we'll all look back on it and smile because we really made some wonderful memories and new buddies.

All of that being said, it has never felt SO good to be home! We definitely don't take anything for granted and have a renewed appreciation for all of our blessings. Everything could have been so much worse and we are so thankful that the Lord took care of us better than we could have ever imagined.