Tonight I couldn't sleep. I was restless. I got up to have a drink of water. Then I got up to have a snack. I looked at the clock and it was getting later and later. Finally at 1:40 I went to turn on the furnace, I thought that maybe the reason I was still awake was because I was freezing.
I opened the furnace vent in my room and immediately I smelled the smell of natural gas.
I went downstairs to investigate and was welcomed by a wall of heavy air. It was so bad that my eyes started watering. I woke Kaylee up to ask her if she smelled it too, and once she was actually awake, she agreed with me.
So I did what every good daughter would do, I woke my father up at 2:00am and asked for his superpowers. He came over and checked things out. Of course it didn't smell as strong by the time he arrived, but lucky for me he is a smart cookie and brought over a Carbon Monoxide detector. I felt really bad about dragging him out of bed, but he assured me that it's better to be safe than sorry.
He left and Kaylee and I went back to attempt at slumber. At about 2:40, the detector started yelling at us. I called my dad and he turned around to come back. It actually went off again while he was on his way over.
Here's a crazy thing.
My dad texted me at 2:42am to remind me not to hesitate to call if anything happened.
At that exact moment, at 2:42am, I was calling my dad to tell him the alarm was going off.
It was like he knew.
We called in a guy who came in to check out the furnace and he informed us that there was indeed a leak, and it had nothing to do with the furnace being on or not. He said there was definitely Carbon monoxide in the house, and that the wall I spoke about was probably the monoxide working it's way upstairs. (He promptly turned off the natural gas, if you are wondering)
Here is how this night is a night to be thankful to God for.
I was not supposed to be here tonight. Technically, I was supposed to be out of the house. Kaylee would've been here by herself and wouldn't have been woken up by the smell.
I have been exhausted by my recent trip to Africa, and have been falling asleep at a very early hour (for me) every night since I returned.. about 11:30 at the latest. Tonight for some reason, I just couldn't sleep, no matter what I tried.
If I hadn't been as awake as I was, I wouldn't have tried turning the heat on, and thus I wouldn't have noticed the smell, and potentially the C0 would've just gradually leaked upstairs.
Kaylee and I had just closed all of the windows and doors, so if I had fallen asleep tonight, we both probably wouldn't have ever woken up again.
And how in the world at exactly 2:42am did my dad just seem to know to text me? At the same moment that I was calling to tell him something actually was wrong.
There are just too many things about tonight that remind me that there is a good God who loves me and is watching over me. I know that some of you reading this might question that and think that I'm compiling coincidences and making a big deal out of nothing. All I can tell you is that I firmly believe that there was a very good chance that I could've died tonight, and what kept me and Kaylee alive was completely out of our control.
Some of you might just think this is a crazy story... but all I know is that I'm even more sure that God is real, He is Good, and He is powerful.
