Just saying God is so very good is an understatement.  As you know, Tuesday night my computer crashed.  That dreadful black screen that tells you that Windows is not there haunted me.  I was able to get Windows back up and running but all my files were gone.  I had not backed up since Christmas and everything since then was gone.  I had restored Windows in repair mode, but that does not save your picture and data files, only your program files, which are useless until you reload the programs.  I slept restlessly, praying continuously for help. 

I was up at 4:30am, and was able to get on the Internet and try to hunt down help, but to no avail. I even found a trial program that searches for deleted files but all it could find was exactly that; deleted files.  It found things from as far back as last year, but nothing that I wanted. 

At 10:30 I called a small computer repair shop that we have dealt with in the past, explained my situation but they could not guarantee anything.  They said I could bring it in and they would do what they could.  I made a list from what I could remember of the files that I really wanted and dropped the computer off at 11:30.  This whole time I was in continuous prayer. I so wanted my picture files, the things that I had written and the kids’ work.  Also my Homeschool Tracker files were lost, which really throws a kink into my lesson planning.  I always keep a paper copy of my lessons plans and the work the kids have done but what a pain it would be to have to put it back into the program.  After dropping the computer off, we went to the library and then back home to finish school. 

About 4:30pm I received a phone call.  They had been able to find my files. Alleluia! Praise my heavenly Father!  I was ecstatic.  We rushed right over to the shop and it was more than I could have hoped for.  Not only did he get my picture files, my documents and my Homeschool tracker files, but he also got all my e-mail files, Internet bookmarks (all 300 of them), all the files that were on the desktop, my music files, all my PDF files, and more.  I can’t tell you how overjoyed I was.  He said it wasn’t easy but he was able to find them.  I asked him how he did it.  He removed my hard drive and put it into a special computer that only has file retrieval programs on it.  They were scattered all over the drive, but he was able to move them into one file and save them. 

God is so awesome in the ways that He answers prayer.  I was so happy, as you can imagine, that I wanted to hug the guy, but told him I didn’t want to scare him.  He could tell how happy I was and I had them all smiling and laughing when I left.  My kids thought I was nuts, so I gave them a reason to think that. I did the ‘happy’ dance praising God in the parking lot.  They very loudly announced that they didn’t know me, but I didn’t care. God answers our prayers and I have learned my lesson. 

In the 20 years that I have been using computers, I had never had a full crash and I pray it never happens again.  But if it does, next time I will be prepared.  We’re going to get an external hard drive to keep only my files on so that I will never feel that sorrow again.  What lessons He teaches us. 

Matthew 18:20 –For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Psalm 9:1-2 –I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.