Arriving home... and other details.

Tonight Kyle and I stared relentlessly into the night spreading out in front of the van as we made our way home from Eastern Washington. We were only a handful of miles from home when the kids were losing it. Katie and William had to have their lights turned off so they couldn't recognize the ugly faces they were making at each other, Ben needed to be ignored as he sat in restlessness in his seat and I had to either stare into the abyss ahead, willing the street to move faster beneath us for fear that the van may spontaneously explode or play Word Warp on my iPhone in hopes of 'losing track of time'.

We pulled onto our street and all the kids quieted down. Katie started jumping excitedly in her seat yelling, 'we're home! we're home! we're home!' It was music to my ears and I do believe all of us were grinning in relief as we pulled into the dark, unlit drive. I knew it would be cold inside as the heat's been off for days but in a short time the kids would be asleep in THEIR beds and Kyle and I would be back to finding a rhythm of finding a rhythm (about all the consistency you can ask for with three ever-changing children.)

Kyle put the van in park and we quickly began our unraveling of kids and baggage... but only seconds into our 'process' Kyle stopped short. We ALWAYS unlock the door, turn on the outside lights and begin unloading children, sleep items and garbage. The kids run into the house and begin their decompression of being away from home and melting back into their respective roles. Its always a wonderful moment... no matter the time of day or night it happens.

But tonight was different. It was nearing the kids' bedtime and Kyle opened the door, flipped the switch for the outside lights and

NOTHING.

It took him a moment to realize the NOTICE on the door and see it was from the PUD. It was a notice explaining that they had shut off the power to the house and there would be, at the most, a $150 service call fee for an electrician to come out and reconnect it.

It was pitch dark outside, I stared at him across the driver's side seat from where I was sitting and I just felt my stomach drop. There was no power to the house. We had the heat OFF while we were away for 10 days and the WARNINGS we would have received came during our time away. I jumped out of the van and around the backside, baby in arms and looked at Kyle with whatever amount of hope I could, 'what's going on?' He laughed under his breath and said, 'they shut off our power. We have no electricity. The bill didn't get paid.' His laugh wasn't a laugh of comedy, it was a laugh of astonishment and disbelief. Had this not JUST HAPPENED with our water bill for the first time ever two weeks ago, it wouldn't be so unbelievable. I took a deep breath and walked around the back of the van again, jumped in the passenger's side door and began staring at the fence in front of me. I was perplexed - not as much angry as I knew that in God's grace I was able to find the ability to function without killing my husband and that would mean finding it in me to 'survive' without electricity for the night.

"Kids find the flashlights in the car, turn them on and let's get in the house." They jumped from their seats and began searching the piles of luggage for the mini-flashlights. "Katie, I need you to walk inside with me so I can locate Daddy's big flashlight. We'll begin unloading the bags and... "

"Ok Mom! This is actually really fun!" God bless her heart. The boys were getting giddy to be home and the idea of 'flashlights in the dark' will get most any boy skipping a little faster, no?! As Kyle paced to the end of the driveway and back while on the phone with the Emergency PUD number, I began pulling our 'schei-load of stuff' in from the car and setting it inside the front door.

It was 53 degrees. (yes I used my meat thermometer - which works well on pork, chicken, beef, human armpits, and as I discovered last night, still air.)

The kids sat at the counter and played whilst Kyle and I talked about the plan of action. The PUD could do nothing for us on Sundays and Holidays. Considering 'tonight' was the Saturday prior to Martin Luther King Day, we would be without power until 8am on Tuesday morning. At the moment I discovered we would have no power for 2.5 days I had nothing left in me -- I had no category for tears or anger or resentment or fear... I only had a surreal form of 'survival mode'. It was as though I was in slow motion. No, it was as though I had called a 'TIME OUT', not unlike Zack Morris, and began filing through all the options in my head. The Kalous home was a sure bet, the hotels in the area were cheap but not appealing (I'd rather sleep in a bed with my entire family keeping each other warm for 2 nights than pay money to be piled into a one room with no food other than the ice machine down the hall), the idea of going to a my in-laws on Bainbridge was a possibility but rather tedious considering the time of night and the idea of going to an expensive hotel just didn't make sense considering our power was shut off due to a bill not getting paid - which I would soon be getting to the bottom of, but for now, I was just wanting to... wanting to... I don't know. Wake up. Realize my house was warm and the PUD was simply a band of villains in another crazy dream?!

Than Kyle's phone rang. All I heard was Kyle speaking with overt humility as he described the 'dark house at the end of the street'. The PUD dispatcher had called and informed us that he had pleaded our case to the Owner. There would be a gentleman called 'into work' to reconnect our power if we were able to pay $150 above our current outstanding bill.

No problem. It wasn't a lack of money, it was a lack of time management. Prior to a long vacation, the home front needs to be in good working order and should be able to sustain itself until we arrive home! Kyle, admittedly, had not given enough care to those details due to working way too much and owning things that he wasn't being asked by God to own. And as a result, the people he loved dearly were suffering.

Our power was hooked back up and everything was as it should be.

But in the moments of the outage... God showed up.

I cannot wait to tell you about that.

Here's a hint: