January Letter

January 3, 2013

Dear Children,

This past month has been a little busy. Not only did we make it through Christmas, New Year’s, and the Mayan Apocalypse, we also had our apartment flood. The first day of Christmas break, we were sitting at home when water started dripping down from the ceiling. We hurried to get buckets and towels and plastic bags underneath everything. We ended up catching about fifteen gallons of water, but quite a bit more came down through the walls and seeped out into the carpet.

As it turns out, our neighbors upstairs forgot to turn off their swamp cooler and it froze and then started leaking when it warmed up. Not only did the owners end up having to pay for repairs for their own apartment, but they also had to foot the bill for flood repairs to our apartment as well. I’m sure they probably aren’t too happy about the whole situation. Luckily we didn’t have any personal property damage.

The one thing we were very grateful for was the timing of the flood. The apartment above us is actually empty right now. If it had happened one day sooner, the water would have continued running until we got home from work and the damage would have been much worse. If it had happened just two days later, we would have already left to visit our parents for Christmas and the water may have continued running for a full week before we came home and found it. I know it may seem strange to say that a flood is a blessing, but we were really blessed by the timing of the flood. Heavenly Father was really looking out for us.

The past year has been filled with many blessings. Your mom found her first teaching job at a school she really likes. I graduated from Brigham Young University. I found my first post-college job. We found an apartment within our price range that was much bigger than our previous apartment. Our apartment didn’t suffer any lasting damage from flooding. And the trains stopped honking during the night while we were trying to sleep. I am grateful for the blessings Heavenly Father has granted us this year.

Your mother and I love you.

Love,

Dad