Thanks Bob Vila
The Joys Of A Finished Project
I grew up watching Bob Vila and This Old House. He became a role model for me and an introduction into the world of construction. Being the only son my dad naturally included me in house repairs around the house. Then when I was 12 he bought me a torch, solder, some copper pipes and a Bob Vila book on how to do plumbing. Together we converted our house to copper lines then we tackled the drain lines converting them to ABS and PVC.
After getting married we bought a 100 year old house. I cut my teeth on tiling, wiring, and carpentry as we remodeled every square inch of that house. It was somewhere in that timeframe that I told my friend, "I want to build my own house someday."
That someday came in 2020 when my wife and I bought eight acres in Colorado, moved into a trailer with our daughter and our dog, and built a house from the ground up.
We hired the architect. We hired someone for the excavation and the concrete. Then we took over and built the rest ourselves with the help of a few friends here and there.
I remember the day after the first floor was completely framed. Standing back and seeing the outline of the house taking shape for the first time was unreal. I knew there was still a mountain of work ahead. But I could see it. I could measure it. Progress was visible and it was moving fast.
Then we got dried in. Roof on. Windows in. Standing inside four walls that a few months earlier were just a line on a blueprint. I was tired in a way I had not been in years. Most days I was working at The Hope Effect during the early mornings and late evening then accomplishing as much as I could on the house in-between. The weekends were sun up to bedtime on the house. It was a lot, but I was also as proud as I have ever been.
Ten months and a few days from the first shovel in the ground to a certificate of occupancy. I still can't believe we did it!
Reality Sets Back In
Over the next few months I sat in my new office in the house working on The Hope Effect as we came out of COVID restriction. It was then that I felt something I had not expected.
Grief is not the right word. But something close to it.
Because the work I do at The Hope Effect is not a ten month project with instant visible results. It is not a ten year project. We are working to change the way an entire country cares for its most vulnerable children. The systems we are fighting were entrenched long before I was born. The fruit of what we are planting may not be fully visible in my lifetime.
I was in a room recently with a group of leaders in the orphan care space. Good people. Weary people. Embattled people. People doing hard work in places where progress is slow and invisible and the finish line keeps moving.
I told them what I have had to tell myself and our team more than once.
Planting Trees Not Vegetable Gardens
In Mexico we often talk about how we are planting trees not vegetable gardens. Vegetable gardens give us fruit quickly. They grow in one season and then your work with them is over. Instead we are planting a tree. It grows slowly, takes generations to mature, but someday it will be strong and tall enough for all the orphaned and vulnerable children of this country to enjoy its shade and eat its fruit.
Because most of our work is generational and systemic, the reality is that we may never see it completely finished. We may never see the end of it. However, the work is worth doing even if we will not be the ones to see it done.
Thankfully, we will see moments of progress. A family reunited. A government official who changes their mind. A child who grows up knowing what it means to belong to someone. Those moments are the framing going up. They are the windows going in.
Notice them. Celebrate them. Let them encourage you to get out of bed tomorrow and keep after it. Those who come after you need you to show up!
Sir Isaac Newton said it this way. "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
You are building something for people who are not born yet to stand on. That is not discouraging. That is one of the most significant things a human being can do with a life.
I am cheering for you.