The honeymoon lasted a week
Six nights after closing, our new home was tested.
The honeymoon lasted a week.
Six nights after closing on our new home, it rained again. This time, the rain sounded different. I knew what was coming.
Just after 2 a.m., I woke to the steady drip of water falling from our living room ceiling.
I grabbed a mop bucket and a few old towels, slid them underneath the leak and convinced myself it was a small problem.
I was wrong.
By sunrise, I had done all I could do. Parker left at 9 a.m. to spend the Fourth of July with family, and I hoped the worst was behind us.
Not even close.
By afternoon, the National Weather Service was sending flash flood alerts to our phones. I canceled dinner plans just after 4:30. Dinner could wait. Home Depot couldn’t.
The rain kept coming. A second leak appeared in the living room.
Then I heard dripping in Parker’s bedroom.
My lone mop bucket suddenly felt useless.
I made a frantic trip to Home Depot for buckets, tarps, towels and anything else that looked remotely helpful. By the time I left, nearby parking lots were underwater. I hurried home, spread everything out and started catching water.
Then another leak appeared.
I turned around and went right back.
Somewhere between 8 and 10 p.m., my attention shifted.
The leaks would still be there, but Parker was coming home.
For the first time all weekend, I stopped thinking about the house and started thinking about what she would feel like when she walked through the door.
Her bedroom looked nothing like it had the day before.
Her bed had been moved. Her pink rug and lamp had been replaced by blue tarps and orange buckets. She had just spent the past few days arranging everything exactly how she wanted it. Now it was barely recognizable.
I kept running through scenarios: Book a hotel. Tell Parker she could stay with family. Or welcome her home and let her see that life doesn’t always go according to plan.
I chose home.
When I picked Parker up, I told her about my Fourth before she could tell me about hers.
I explained that the house looked different. That we’d taken on more water. That her room wouldn’t look the way she left it — but that we’d figure it out together.
She listened. She asked questions.
She took the news the same way she takes most things — with a quiet strength that continues to amaze me.
In that moment, I realized she’d been listening all along.
She slept in my room that night.
As India Arie played softly in the background, I cried.
It wasn’t the first full weekend in our new home that I had imagined. It wasn’t the Fourth of July I had pictured, either.
Every time it’s rained since, I’ve listened a little more closely.
The buckets are gone.
The tarps have been folded away.
The repairs are still ahead.
But when I look around, I still feel what I felt when we first walked through the door.
Home.
The frustration of financial strain
The day my column on Round 2 of my financial fight was published, I received yet another attorney bill.