03/19/2026
I have an album on my phone labeled “PROGRESS” it is where I put the pictures I typically wouldn’t share with the public, mainly just for me to look at to compare where we were to where we are now.
Today as I drink my coffee I find myself scrolling back through looking at photos from a year ago, reflecting on life and change as the seasons begin to change, it’s a reminder progress looks different for everyone and it can be both beautiful and messy at the same time. The two things are not mutually exclusive.
I’ve always been a share the finished product Kind of person, because the middle of projects is often times unsightly, chaotic, and it’s oftentimes hard to understand the vision until it’s brought fully to fruition… I can’t tell you how many times I been halfway through a project when Derek comes home from work, for him to look at me like I have lost my mind amidst the chaos of lumber, tools, trash piles and messy hair… only to say a few days later once it’s finished… I didn’t see it then, but I get it now. Poor Derek always comes home from work to something crazy going on 😂🩷
It occurred to me this morning why waste the opportunity to share things going on in your life because you are waiting for perfection. Life is messy, progress is messy, people are MESSY. I think humans naturally want to hide the messy portions of life out of shame, or embarrassment but the truth is everyone has a mess in some area of their life and no one is perfect. Really, When are things ever perfect ??? We are all works in progress. Why wait until things are flawless to share because you may just miss the opportunity entirely. Most importantly, looking through my album it occurred to me How blessed we are that God sees through the mess, through the unsightly things, through the chaos, to see the potential in each of us. Transformations are Gods specialty, taking something broken and messy and turning it into something unimaginably beautiful. Thank God for that 🙌🏻
The day When we first came to look at the property seems surreal now. I remember how i felt in the moment.. derek and I were discouraged on the drive up expecting this to be yet another let down, just another house and property that wouldnt work out, just another in a line of place after place being just out of our grasp, all cash offers, extremely competitive market etc …. Both of us knowing that God had a plan, but being SO frustrated in the moment when it was failure after failure trying to find a place of our own to call home.
I wish I had taken more pictures that day when we pulled in the driveway to have something to compare it to now. In the fall of 2024 There was a house, lots of big BEAUTIFUL trees, lots of SHADE, overgrown pasture, LOTS of Chinese privet hedge, LOTS of poison ivy covering everything, LOTS of green briars. When I say LOTS I mean LOTS… I wish I could describe the feeling I had more accurately, the only way I know to accurately describe it is the peace that surpasses understanding. Derek and I didn’t talk about it that day, I think out of fear to jinx it, and honestly I am not sure how long after it took us to actually talk about it but we both had the feeling come over us, it was clear this is where we were meant to be. All the other heartbreaks were leading to this place in that moment. It has become undeniable to me that all the doors slammed, were leading us to something far better.
I knew from experience what time and hard work could do to alter the landscape, and take a piece of property from being land and a house, to being a HOME. I saw what it could be. I saw the true potential. The bones of what it would eventually be. The diamond in the ruff to make this place work for us. I saw where the things I wanted would fit right in easily with a lot of hard work and elbow grease. I wanted every square inch to be seeped in purpose, every inch to have meaning. I saw the end product clearly, even though it was buried under MESS.
I swear I have spent everyday since that day working towards where I am in this very moment. To be able to walk easily where there was once impenetrable brush, Every day of wading through greenbriers, pulling thorns from my skin, my shoes and my clothes in the evenings, wading through poison ivy, privet hedge, broken glass, trash… armed with a sawzall and pure determination. pouring literal blood, sweat, and tears into this ground has made this moment OH so sweet. To be able to stand in the same places a over year later and look at how far we have come, from a house and property to a home… but to still acknowledge we have a long way to go still. I still have piles of messy, I still have eye sores in some spots of the property, but we are one step closer each and every day making this place reach its potential🩷
If you have made it this far, I know this is a change from my normal animal centric posts, but I felt the need to share with yall 🩷 I hope something in this impacted you in some way, touched your heart, encouraged to keep going through reading this. Always remember Progress not perfection 🌼
Please enjoy my compilation of my progress album so far… I couldn’t add everything as it was too many pictures 🤦🏻♀️ going to add more and more as time goes on 🩷🌼
Sierra 🩷
