Okay God! I See What You Were Doing There.

I have a lot on my mind right now—a lot of things changing, a lot of questions, a lot of confusion.

I’m a problem solver at heart and a people pleaser to a fault. And when those two things don’t align, I tend to go a little haywire.

So here we are.

My first blog post.

At the start of a new adventure and, at the same time, the ending of one I’m not quite sure how I feel about saying goodbye to.

In 2020, my life changed completely. I had hit rock bottom. My testimony will be another post, I’m sure, because that story deserves its own space.

But when I look back at 2019 and 2020 compared to where I am now, so much of it makes sense.

The hiccups. The speed bumps. The sharp left turns I never saw coming.

All of it led me here.

There are still things I don’t understand. Questions that haven’t been answered yet. Pieces that haven’t quite fallen into place.

But there are also so many people, problems, opportunities, adventures, and doors that I can look back on now and say:

“Okay God! I see what You were doing there.”

And maybe that’s one of the strangest parts of life.

Sometimes you don’t realize you’re being redirected while it’s happening. It just feels like everything is going wrong.

Then one day, you look back and realize the road wasn’t nearly as random as you thought.

Someone Took a Chance on Me

In 2019, I was given a job I wasn’t qualified for.

At least, I wasn’t qualified for it on paper.

I had no idea what I was doing, but someone took a chance on me. And that chance put me in the path of one of the most amazing men who taught me so much! (Mr. Bill)

What Mr. Bill didn’t know—and what I certainly didn’t know at the time—was that he was preparing me to take care of my Papa a few years later.

During that season of my life, I had also rededicated my life to the Lord. My job with Mr. Bill gave me a lot of quiet time. A lot of time with just me, my thoughts, and God.

And somewhere in all of that quiet, I learned how to trust Him again.

Really trust Him.

I started learning how to follow the path He was creating for me without needing to understand every single step first.

That doesn’t mean I always liked the path.

Some things didn’t make sense. Some things were frustrating. Some things felt like inconveniences, setbacks, or doors closing at exactly the wrong time.

But over and over again, I would get a little farther down the road, look back, and realize:

Okay God! I see what You were doing there.

Then Came Hospice

Fast-forward a little.

Once again, I was given a job I wasn’t technically qualified for.

On paper, I probably wasn’t the obvious choice.

But what I didn’t realize was that the Lord had already been preparing me for it.

That job led me into hospice.

And hospice changed me.

I had already experienced hospice from the other side. My family had needed the service. I knew what it felt like to be the family receiving the help.

Then suddenly, I was on the other side of it—working in hospice and having the privilege of helping other families walk through one of the hardest seasons of their lives.

I met incredible people. Incredible families.

I watched people love their family members through the end of life. I spent days with families who were trying to process the fact that someone they loved was dying while, at the exact same time, life was still demanding answers from them.

What are we going to do with the house?

What are we going to do with all of their things?

Who do we call?

What needs to be done first?

How are we supposed to make all of these decisions while we’re grieving?

Where do we even start?

Then that door eventually closed, too.

And another one opened.

Property management.

Want to guess whether I was qualified for that one?

NOPE!

I knew absolutely nothing about property management when I started.

But apparently, God had other plans.

And here we are, two years later.

Looking back, I can see something that I couldn’t see while I was living through each individual chapter.

I love taking care of people.

I love helping.

I love fixing problems.

I love being the person someone can call when they don’t know what to do next.

I love protecting a home and making sure things are taken care of.

I don’t mind getting dirty. I don’t mind hard work. And I definitely don’t mind figuring things out.

For a while, I had been praying about what was next.

Then, a few months ago, the answer started hitting me pretty hard:

It’s time.

It’s time to take the things I’ve learned.

It’s time to combine the things I’m passionate about.

It’s time to build something of my own.

And out of that, Southern Magnolia Home Watch & Estate Sales was born.

And maybe one of the scariest parts of starting something of your own is realizing that once again, you’re asking someone to take a chance on you.

I’ve been given that chance more than once in my life.

Someone took a chance on me when I didn’t have the experience on paper. Someone else opened a door when I didn’t know everything yet. And each time, I worked hard, learned everything I could, and eventually understood why I had been placed there in the first place.

Now I’m standing on the other side of that.

This time, there isn’t an employer taking the chance.

It’s a homeowner trusting me with a property they’ve worked hard for.

It’s a family trusting me with a home filled with someone they love’s belongings and memories.

It’s a referral partner trusting my name enough to give it to someone else.

And I don’t take any of that lightly.

I know that in the beginning, people who choose Southern Magnolia are taking a chance on a new business.

But they’re not taking a chance on someone who woke up one morning and decided this sounded like a good idea.

They’re taking a chance on every lesson, every family, every home, every hard season, every problem I’ve had to figure out, and every door that brought me here.

And maybe someday I’ll look back at those first people who trusted me and think the same thing I’ve thought so many times before:

Okay God! I see what You were doing there.

So How Do Home Watch and Estate Services Fit Together?

At first glance, home watch and estate services might seem like two completely different things.

But to me, they make perfect sense together.

On one side, there is the home.

Maybe it’s your second home. Your vacation home. An investment property. A vacant house. A home you inherited. Maybe you simply travel often and need someone local to put eyes on your property when you can’t.

That’s where my property management side kicks in.

I want to be the person making sure things are okay while you’re away.

Is the HVAC still working?

Did that storm cause any damage?

Is there a leak under the sink that nobody would have noticed for three weeks?

Did the power go out?

Is something happening at the property that needs attention before a small problem becomes a very expensive one?

I understand the importance of protecting a property and protecting an investment.

But then there’s the other side of Southern Magnolia.

And that one comes straight from my hospice heart.

Because I’ve seen what happens when a family learns that someone they love is going on hospice.

Suddenly, they’re trying to process anticipatory grief, caregiving, medications, visitors, sleepless nights, and the reality that their entire world is changing. While still trying to maintain their own lives.

And somewhere in the back of their minds, there are other questions waiting.

What are we going to do with the house?

What about everything inside of it?

Who is going to clean all of this out?

Do we sell it?

Do we keep it?

What is all of this stuff worth?

Who can we trust?

Where in the world do we start?

Then their loved one passes away.

And now they’re grieving—but the questions didn’t go away.

In fact, there are usually more of them.

That is where I want to step in.

Not because I can take away someone’s grief.

I can’t.

Not because I have every answer.

I don’t.

But because I understand what it feels like when life is already heavy and somebody hands you an entire house full of decisions on top of it.

Sometimes people don’t need another person telling them everything they have to do.

Sometimes they just need somebody standing beside them saying:

“Okay. We’ll start here.”

And maybe that’s what all of these seemingly unrelated chapters of my life have been leading me toward.

Hospice taught me how to care for the people.

Property management taught me how to care for the property.

Life taught me how to solve problems.

And God has been teaching me all along that I don’t always have to understand where the road is going to trust the One leading me down it.

So here I am.

Closing one chapter.

Starting another.

Scared? Absolutely.

Excited? Definitely.

Do I know exactly what Southern Magnolia will look like five years from now?

Not even a little bit.

But for once, I’m okay with that.

Because sometimes you have to get far enough down the road before you can turn around and see that the detours, the closed doors, the jobs you weren’t “qualified” for, the people you met, and even some of the hardest seasons weren’t random at all.

And I’ve walked enough of this road now to know that one day I’ll probably look back at this moment, too, smile, and say:

“Okay God! I see what You were doing there.”