When it rains, it pours, right? The last few weeks have been hard for our family. We've experienced what feels like one trial after another. For this post today, I wanted to share one of those trials (our AC not working) and the blessings we saw from that small trial.
Our furnace blow motor went out.
It went out when the temperatures were still in this high 90's. It was a long, drawn out thing. It went out, and Ben's dad took a piece to test. That night was hot, and no one got a lot of sleep. It was still 74 when we woke up (we usually sleep with it at 68).
We were going to buy a general motor that we hoped would work, and also called the people it is under warranty with. They couldn't come until the next afternoon, so we decided to try to the motor. I was really hopeful that that would just fix it, and we were pretty sure we could get a refund from the warranty for it. I showed up at the store for it at 4:38 (I was picking up dinner at the same time), only to find out the place closes at 4:30. It was a bitter disappointment to me.
That night, we actually managed to get the AC to turn on, so our house actually got down to 66. I didn't dare turn on the furnace though, in case we couldn't get the AC to turn on, so it was pretty chilly in the morning. The guy came that day to look at the motor, but they had to order it, so he changed a different part and left.
That was Friday afternoon. He said to call on Monday if it went out again (since they aren't open on weekends). We hoped it would last us through the weekend, and it did! The AC made a strained noise, but it continued to turn on. We didn't hear back from the guy, but the AC continued to work, and the weather outside was warm but not hot.
Then on Friday night, the hottest day that week, it stopped working again. It was also a long weekend. It was literally the worst day it could have gone out, which was really frustrating.
Friday night, we managed to get it to turn on. Once we got it to turn on, usually it would run until it turned off, so we turned it down cold and let it run. Saturday night, we managed that as well. Both those was a big blessing, as we were all able to sleep well and the girls were able to sleep in their rooms (we were worried about them being upstairs if the house got too hot).
Sunday, we couldn't get it when we were putting the girls down. We ended up opening the windows and leaving the doors open to let the air pull through, until we went to bed (we didn't want the kids climbing up on the sill and falling out the window in the morning). We got the AC to turn on after we put them down, so I closed the windows and their doors. Unfortunately, it was the first night that the AC turned off before it reached the temperature. The motor was just going out all the way, so it turned off at like 72 degrees instead of 68. We opened the windows downstairs, but it was a rough night. It didn't really get any cooler until about one in the morning, and then it was pretty cold in the house in the morning.
We kept it cool, because we knew it was going to be a hot day again (the high was over 90) and the cooler it started, the better. We never got the AC to work for more than a couple minutes on Monday. We called the guy first thing Monday morning and he answered despite it being a holiday, but he couldn't come until Tuesday.
Monday night, we just endured the heat. We didn't want to open the window because it was really smoky outside and the air quality was terrible, and it was also a big storm that night. The next morning, it had reached 68 without us opening the windows because it was so cold outside. By the time I got the girls their breakfast, it was already 67, with the temperature outside being the low 40s. I was worried about how cold it would get, so I baked some muffins in the oven and made some chicken soup (you boil the chicken for 3 hours, so it heats up the house). It was cozy feeling and around 10 that morning, a guy came and replaced the motor for us. Now our AC finally works again!
It was hard for a few reasons. It lasted a long time, took time as we tried to get the AC to turn on (sometimes Ben would try 20 times before we could get it), we lost sleep due to the heat, worried about the girls, and I hate cold mornings. It also had an emotional toll that made it hard to be responsible.
There were many blessings we saw throughout though. No matter what our trials, there are always blessings!
Ben's dad was willing to come look at at, test the part for us, and if we had gotten the original motor, he would have been willing to help Ben change out the engine. His willingness to help when we need it is a huge blessing in our lives.
We were able to get the AC to turn on many times when it was still technically broken. That weekend could have been a lot worse if we hadn't been able to cool off the house those few nights it worked.
Our parts were still under warranty. While we paid for the labor, what would have been an almost $500 job only cost us under $200.
The morning that it was cold and stormy gave us a couple blessings. First, it gave us a special feeling as we left our normal routine to make the muffins and soup. The second thing is I had a different plan for dinner and wouldn't have made the muffins, but because I did those things, we were able to invite some family members over who have specific dietary restrictions right now, and the timing of that was wonderful. Our trials actually allowed us to serve others in a way I might not have thought of otherwise.
Count your blessings. The blessings are always there, if you just remember to look for them.
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