Pioneer Girl Rescued by Modern Man!

How's that for a headline? My sweet dad took pity on me and my project and brought over his tiller and finished off The Pioneer Project for me. Thank goodness. After a bout with the nasty stomach bug on Friday night, I wasn't sure I would live to see the end of this project.

And here it is. Weeds gone. Healthy topsoil and composted manure added and just awaiting the plants, which I will plant as soon as I don't feel  like I will topple over in a faint.

Earlier this week I transplanted the last of my straggling, stuggling, floundering sick sick sick gerber daisies to their new home.

You can take one look at it and see that it is not well. The blooms are small, limp, forlorn, the leaves are dead and drying in some spots, and not the rich green color one would find on a healthy plant. If we were to dig deeper, I'm sure we would find the root of the problem in the..well...roots. Without the proper conditions the heart of this little plant will die.

BUT if I remove this sick plant from it's environment, strip it of it's diseased growth, provide it with the proper nutrition, give it lots of sunlight- if I nurture it, it's heart can heal, it can thrive, it can LIVE.

I can leave the plant in it's present condition and it will die, or I can move it, work with it, help it to get healthy and it can live. It won't be easy, it might be painful, but it can live.

And look, just a few days of the right conditions...if you look closely, you can see new growth!

Sometimes the hardest things in life are the most rewarding, but it takes painful experience, hard decisions, stripping away the ugly parts and transplanting to new soil. It takes heartbreak, sickness, loneliness, sorrow. It takes effort, time, patience, love, forgiveness. It takes God.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified Bible)

¹⁷Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!

A few of the other plants I moved a week or so ago...Thriving in their new life!