The 3.30 a.m. phone call woke us both up and we were ready. It wasn't the White House calling but the local Tug boat service needed my husband, Paul, to assist with pushing barges through Lock and Dam Number Ten on the Mississippi River. After torrential rains throughout the night, the waters were rising fast and they were calling all hands on deck, even the electrician!

Our farm is hundreds of feet above the river level, about a five-minute drive out of town. The small rivers feeding the Mississippi break their banks almost every spring, especially after a heavy spring-thaw, so we were expecting some flooding this year in our area. 

Here in the midwest, we are treated to many spectacular thunderstorms, and we went to bed that night with the "light-show" reflecting in our bedroom window from a near-continuous display of lightning to a backdrop of heavy rain. But my husband often jokes, "If our home ever floods all the way up here, we'll be in need of an ark."

Paul clambered out of bed, and headed down the stairs to the lower floor of our split-level home. He stepped off the bottom step into a pool of water. 

To our shock the entire lower floor, three bedrooms, our main bathroom, storeroom and laundry were underwater.

The rain had fallen so hard and fast onto the water-sodden ground, our twelve-year-old home's foundation could not hold it back and it poured in through the cement and vinyl siding.

Having spent the past two days trying to empty out half of the contents of our home, ripping up carpets and burning mattresses, I have a new appreciation for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I know our problem is tiny compared to what many of them faced. We have no flood insurance, but we still have the upper half of our home to live in. Our furniture will dry and the carpets may be salvageable.

I really wanted to spring-clean my house because my son, Joel, is returning from Australia in five days. Now, not only do I get to do so, I have lots of help from my husband and my son, Sam!

I was telling a local radio announcer over the phone about the flooding of our home.

"You really have a positive attitude," he said. "That's great." 

"Things can be replaced," I said.  "No one was hurt or killed. That is the important thing."

Later as I continued cleaning, I thought about his comment. Several years ago, I would have been 
stressed out going through this situation. The more time I spend living in a pond instead of a house, 
the more I see the rainbow through these storm clouds. Why am I different now? Because - 

                                                                           BACK      
                                                        came                            alive                                               
                                                and                                                     and 
                                      Iraq                                                                       well                                              
                               to   
                                                                                                                                   and 
                  went                                                                                                              what
        son                                                                                                                                        else 
 My                                                                                                                                                         matters?

                   

I am a very lucky woman. That's just one of my rainbows.