You remember the saying “you don’t know what you’ve got until its gone”? I can attest that the saying is true.

On Friday Joe noticed that our toilet in our master bath was leaking. After messing with it for a little while, he decided to turn the water off to the toilet so it would quit leaking and said he would try to fix it after work on Saturday.

First, let me tell you how hard it is to remember NOT to use THAT toilet and run to the guest bathroom when the “urge” hits you. Needless to say, we had to flush the leaky toilet a few times before he started fixing it.

Fixing it did not go as planned. In fact, after four trips (yes, that is four separate trips) to Home Depot not only was the toilet not fixed, but Joe turned off the water to our house because he had to cut a pipe to the toilet. By then, not even a trip to Home Depot (which was closed by then) could have saved us!

Sunday morning, after calling to make sure our shift at the church nursery was covered, we broke down and called a plumber. But after realizing that emergency (or weekend) rates were almost double, we decided we could wait one more day. But what couldn’t wait was a shower and cleaning our son’s baby bottles.

I cannot tell you what a wonderful set of friends we have. Joe called a couple of friends and even though they were out of town, they allowed us to go to their house and shower. That is one favor I don’t even know how to begin to repay!

Throughout this whole ordeal I can say that I am not good at living without water. It is amazing how much we depend on water. Washing our hands (BTW, the hand sanitizer in a bottle is working quite nicely). Brushing our teeth. Wetting a rag to clean the kitchen counter. Rinsing off the dishes. I actually feel like I am back in Honduras or Guatemala on a mission trip.

In a month, this will be a dull memory. I will forget how precious water is because it will have again become a part of my everyday routine.