Dish Pan Hands

In 16 years of marriage, I have always had a dishwasher - even in the tiny studio apartment that we lived in the first months of our marriage, even in our place in Germany.

Growing up, we had a dishwasher, but my mom refused to use it very often, which I never quite understood. I swore to myself that if I ever grew up, got married, and had to do dishes, I'd use my dishwasher. I was kind of like Scarlett O'Hara when the war was over & she was back at her beloved Tara, screaming, "I'll never go hungry again!"....my cry was, "I'll never do dishes by hand again!"

Even when it was just me & Dan (which it was for almost the first 6 years of our marriage!), I always used the dishwasher. Dan was more inclined to do dishes by hand (and yes, he does dishes!!) - but not me. No way!! Some hate to iron, some hate laundry; I hate to do dishes by hand.

When we moved into our new house here, the dishwasher was original to the house, so it was 18 years old - but I still used it - even though sometimes I had to run the cycle thru twice to get the dishes really clean. Then, my father sent us some money as a gift about 2 years ago - and so we bought a BRAND NEW dishwasher! What a JOY it was to have such sparkling, clean, sanitized dishes (compared to the old dishwasher anyway!!). I seriously appreciated the new appliance more than I would have some frivilous purchase.

And suddenly, just last week, now that the warranty is expired, the dishwasher quit draining properly...
Being the ignorant homeowners that we are (honestly, we are NOT the do-it-yourselfers that one should be to own a now-20 year old house!), we thought we'd just pour some DRAIN-O into the dishwasher (which is our solution to all plumbing related issues: showers, sinks, and yes, even clogged toilets! It's our "duct tape of drainage problems", if you will). Well, the drain-o just produced some nasty, toxic-smelling suds that wouldn't drain either.....
So, I got out the dishwasher's manual, & I googled "dishwasher not draining" - and I found that I needed check the hoses for clogs. Dan got under the sink & did that - unhooked the hoses too, & they looked clear.
I took apart the stuff that is at the bottom of the dishwasher (filter, spinny-thing, etc) - and nothing there either.....
Which leaves us to conclude we might have a motor problem - or if we didn't have one before, we have probably created one now :( The dishwasher now will not pump water INTO itself along with not draining.........I think we killed it :(
YIKES!! Now what ??! I can't go on doing dishes by hand! I've done it 3 times now (putting it off in between each time, hoping the dishwasher would heal itself, meanwhile the dishes pile up and up) - and I am just so MAD that my dishwasher is broken.
Lastly, I've prayed over my dishwasher (I'm serious)! I just don't even know who to ask to help or what to do. Dan has no ideas either. Like I say, we are not really worthy to be homeowners - where's the landlord when you need one!!? So, I really am hoping that the Lord will send someone or an idea to me that won't cost us as much as the original price of the dishwasher itself to fix it.
One of my pet peeves is to have something that doesn't work right. I've been thru this over and over with computer programs, my garage door (don't even get me started here - it's still not fixed either!!), craft projects, lawn mowers, putting together furniture, electronic equipment, and so much more. Nothing frustrates me more than not being able to use something that I own, that is supposed to be working!! So, I'm serious when I say I am praying for help on this one. I know in the light of eternity it won't matter that I have dish pan hands or that I am a spoiled brat who needs a dish washer - but I am asking for a little mercy to be able to get my dishwasher working again. Stay tuned - and I am hopeful I will be able to report how God helps me - either by directing me to some help OR by having me learn to live with yet another disappointment, frustration, and unmet expectation. I so do not mean this to be sarcastic - I honestly want God's help on this one!! I believe and have been taught that God cares about even the little things in our lives - so I'm hopeful He'll have some mercy on me and on my dishwasher.