Miracle of the Broken Laptop

God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.

Mormon 9:15

I did everything you’re not supposed to do in sheer panic when water got into my laptop. It was encased in a plastic protector where the water soaked and stayed trapped and sloshing while I struggled to get it free, the laptop power cycling on over and over while it should have stayed off. I had many desperate attempts to dry it off and recover.

Of course I had not backed up any of the data. My mind kept thinking more and more, making a checklist of which files I would have copied and in which order if I had a chance. All of my designs, business and financial documents, so much regret marinating within.

Almost a week after I tried the space bar several times in different scenarios and it didn’t work, I gave up on the idea of bringing the dead laptop back to life and tried to focus my energy on moving on. Temporarily I did business on my old laptop, switched between all sorts of devices because the only way to move files was to email them to myself and upload them on the iPad and reset all my passwords from my phone—it was a special kind of crazy and inefficient.

Accepting that I needed to face this issue, I looked up new computers, repair guys, and data recovery to figure out the next step. I had been praying so much for a solution to these problems, and I was beating myself up because spilled water is a completely avoidable problem. I went to my broken laptop just to see how long the Apple logo would go on so I can tell the repair guy when I call him for a quote.

I was expecting a flash of the logo and the sound of broken hope like always— but this time it kept going. The login screen pulled up. And I started crying like a baby and praying thanks to God because this is a miracle! It wasn’t supposed to be possible, all the online articles and tech support said so.

I threw my backup stuff together and plugged it in, and am transferring files right now that I had wished I had. It stayed on for just enough time to back up my data, and I could never get it to turn back on again.