I know, I know…

I know it has been awhile since I've entered a post here and I really am sorry. It seems like "life" got in the way again and took over. ;)

Hmmm, I don't even know where to begin or where I left off! I think it all began one day when my dear, sweet son accidentally spilled coffee on the laptop I was borrowing from my sister...

I suppose I should have never, ever put my cup of coffee near the laptop to begin with, but that is beside the point. It was a complete accident, and he didn't mean it, but one of my sons pulled a piece of paper that was under my coffee mug (he didn't know my coffee mug was on top of it) and it happened! My other son thought quickly, thank the Lord, and he lifted the laptop right up into the air.

Now, I don't know much about laptops since this was the first one I've ever used, but I removed the ethernet card? (the thing the internet cable jack plugged into) and there was a small amount of coffee on there and I opened the door on the bottom of the laptop (because I thought that is where the battery went) but it wasn't...I think it is the hard drive? and it looked like there was a medium-sized drop of coffee on there too. Oh my goodness, I was so scared!

When I walked over to it (immediately as it happened), I noticed the computer lights were still on, but nothing was on the screen. I called my husband and he immediately looked it up on Google (smart thinking!) and told me to lean it on the side that the coffee got on and I kept it on it's side all day with the fan blowing on it to help dry whatever moisture might have gotten inside.

I was really beside myself!!! It is an older laptop (about 5-7 years old) but it isn't mine...it is my sister's and I always take such good care of things I'm borrowing from others. I was in total shock for the rest of the day!

I was thinking "How will we replace it if it doesn't turn on and work again?", not to mention I have TONS of pictures of my children on it and these pictures are irreplaceable! :( I just began to pray and pray and pray!

I also have ALL of my homeschool reports on there, my website images and site pages, hundreds of links/bookmarks, emails from our business (a few years worth), etc.

Well, after waiting 24 hours, I tried to turn it on but was unsuccessful. :( My heart sank! I started to cry all over again.

To make a long (very long) story short, I called my sister to inform her of what happened and she was surprisingly ok with it. She works for a computer programming or engineering company (I'm really not sure which LOL) and she fixes computers for a living. She told me that when one of their clients (which are businesses not individuals) upgrades to new systems, they more or less just "throw out" their old systems and that is how she got the laptop. She also told me that when she acquired this one, she received not one, but two of the identical kind. So, she said she had another one just sitting there and her plan was to switch hard drives in them to see if we could recover all of my data.

Well, imagine my surprise and my delight to hear her say that! I immediately got a glimpse of hope that I might be able to get my pictures, reports, and data back. I then started to pray that my data would be able to get recovered.

Ok, fast forward...praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!! She was able to remove the hard drive and put it in this other laptop and voila...all my stuff was right there like nothing ever happened! I was (and still am) so incredibly grateful that the Lord allowed my stuff to be recovered! :)

She said she didn't see very much coffee residue in the keyboard of the laptop whatsoever and was very encouraged. She said she will begin cleaning it, when she is in the right mood LOL, and see what happens. She also said that sometimes these things just aren't worth the trouble to try to fix. Wow, that just amazes me but I don't come across the systems and parts that she must see come and go in her line of work.

All in all, I am very grateful to have my stuff back! Thank you Lord so very much! :)