Probably not the most common title for a blog post. Actually if you google it the main story is the of the 1980 American Olympic ice hockey team which I had never heard about as I was only born 4 days before it happened! America entered a team of amatures and college students and not only beat the Soviet team who had won almost everything since 1954 but actually won the gold medal.
Anyone who knows me or who regularly reads my blog may have picked up that I have a faith which is very important to me. I see that more today than ever people are all to keen to preach about their atheistic believes but dear help anyone who declares a faith in God or belief in creation. My faith is very real to me. Its not something I can easily describe or prove to people. Its something I experience and have no doubt about. Now I'm not saying that I hear God talking to me everyday or experience miraculous things on a regular basis but it does happen occasionally. I do believe in miracles. Recently my wife and I experienced what we can only describe as a miracle.
We are blessed with 3 fantastic children but as everyone will know there are times when children really test you. Our middle child Lucie seems to like to test us more than average. I think Kathryn and I have probably forgotten half of the mischief she has got up to and she is only 3 and half. A few weeks ago we sat down to have 1/57th of a particular brand. This 1/57th happened to be tomato soup. Kathryn and I were in the front room with our baby Arwen as the Finlay and Lucie were sitting at the table eating. I don't know exactly what happened but suddenly there was a loud crash and then a cry from Lucie. I went in to see what had happened as Lucie can often be a bit of a drama queen. I walked in to find Lucie picking herself up off the floor. She was feeling particularly sorry for herself even though there really was nothing wrong with her. I quickly noticed her bowl on the floor and as I reached down to pick it up I started to discover soup. Soup on the floor. Soup on the chair. Soup on the wall behind Lucie. Soup opposite her on the sofa. Soup up the window. Soup up the door. But the worst of all, soup on the curtains!
Obviously Kathryn and I remained very calm and didnt raise our voices at all! I quickly removed the curtains as Kathryn googled "how to remove tomato soup stains". Following the resulting advice we took the curtains to the bath and rinsed them. This did reduce the effect of the stain but only mildly. We then added some Oxi granules and soaked them for several hours. Again I think this did reduce the stains slightly but they were still very visable. It think it was about 3am that we were going to bed (busy as usual with cakey stuff) that we remembered about the curtains. I rather quickly ran down stairs and out the front door leaving a trail of drips everywhere. I fought with the rather heavy wet curtains to hang them on the line and then proceded to hose them to try and wash out the slimy soapy resedue that the Oxi solution leaves. I often wonder what our neighbours actually think about us and the mad things we do in the middle of the night but then I guess most of them are asleep when we do the most of them.
Now the big thing about these curtains is that it was actually 2 sets as they cover the french doors and window beside and of course typically one from each set was sprinkled liberaly with the offending soup. They actually cost us quite a bit of money and I had to ask my mum to take them up for us as we couldnt afford to pay someone to do it at the time. We knew that there was no way we would be able to replace the curtains for a good few months. They havent even been up for 9 months. We couldn't believe it. I think it actually took us around 4 years to eventually decide to get curtains and find something that we or to be honest that Kathryn was happy with.
During the next day it rained a bit but once they were almost dry Kathryn brought the curtains in and hung them over the chairs in the house. They were both still very clearly stained and the only thing we could think to do would be take them to the dry cleaners and see if that worked. I think it was the next day or maybe 2 days later that we went to look at them and at first glance I couldnt see any stains. I lifted the first curtain to hand and brought it to the light. I couldnt find any stains at all. I quickly shouted for Kathryn and we closely inspected both curtains. There wasn't a single stain. Not even a hint of a stain. I asked Kathyrn again about how they looked when she brought them in from the line and she repeated that they had been very clearly stained just like when I had hung them on the line the other night. A day or two later I decided to iron the curtains to rehang them. I was almost afraid to look at them encase I discovered a stain but even after ironing every inch of them there is not one hint of a stain to be seen.
The only thing we can put it down to is a miracle. What other explination is there? How can two heavy fabric curtains be stained one day and totally clean the next? I know plenty of people will try and try and come up with some explination other than a miracle but we know what happened and for us its easy to accept that it is plainly and simply an answer to prayer. As I mentioned I believe in God and creation. If He can make the world in 6 days then cleaning a couple of curtains isn't exactly a challenge!
"..but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26
Thanks
Simon
