Should Have

Yes, I should have backed them up.

I remember thinking several times before we packed the computer: "I need to back them up."

But the action of backing them up never actually happened.

Which is why I'm sitting here, going on ten days of being back in the United States, not sure if I'll ever see any of the manuscripts I've been working on for the last several years again.

It's been almost a week since Aaron told me the computer guy couldn't switch our computer over to American voltage. Now we're waiting for a converter to arrive. We're still hoping for the best. There's no reason to despair... yet.

But as June fades into July, I wonder why I didn't just back them up. Or email them to myself, at least. Would that have been so hard? It would've taken ten minutes. Ten. Minutes.

All that pales in comparison when I think about all my children's pictures that we won't have if our computer simply won't work. Not to mention that all of Aaron's lesson plans and power points from the last eight years in China are also on that computer.

I'm preparing myself for the worst. I grieved over my fledgling books, for my children's photographs, and for all the hours my husband has poured into his work. I sat at the kitchen table and cried when I first heard our computer wouldn't turn on.

Maybe rewriting them won't be so bad. Some writers do that on purpose: start completely from scratch again and again and again until they get it exactly right. I wasn't planning to do things that way, but I may not have a choice.

Maybe I'll look back on this someday and say it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Maybe.

Or maybe our converter will arrive and I'll be back in Queryland tomorrow. Maybe.

I'll keep you posted.