HATCHED

"Hatched is an online lifestyle boutique that offers fashionable, modern clothing for babies and kids. Some History: The story began when a love of fashion met a love of motherhood. From her years at Anthropologie, Jen was inspired by quality merchandise and artful design. Life changed when she and husband Dave welcomed their baby girl into the world. Like most parents, they quickly became overwhelmed by the endless search for trusted products with a creative style. They were eager to find a retailer that met their lifestyle standards but was convenient enough to shop online. The plan was hatched."

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STORIES

This week I'm in Jackson Hole, WY. Missing my family back in Texas. But today, I got a glimpse of them in the majestic beauty that surrounds me here. Reminders of them and their love is all around me.

The sun gleaming over the horizon. It moves me in such a big way. The same way an ocean reaches out and touches my soul, these gorgeous mountains takes my breath away. The same way a good cry can feel so good or in a moment when you decide to just let it all go and the freedom floods you. 

I keep feeling it over and over again, your story. Your story is all you need. That goes for anyone. There is purpose and redemption in our stories and in our lives. 

I have walked roads that I didn't want to walk.  Roads I thought I never would. But it makes it better when you know that your story might move someone. Parts of life have truly broken me. They busted me right in half and when I stood up and began letting the pieces come back together I was able to see that it's better to be on the other side of pain. Because if you let it, it makes a better you.

I have shared with you my experience with divorce, an ex leaving me with a negative bank account, no savings and how God made himself real to me when He provided what the kids and I needed to the dollar. I get the honor of sharing how He met me at my darkest pain, with the loss of my mother, my grandmother, difficulties during my adolescence, developing skin cancer, and how He covered me in those moments. I get to share about 4 amazing, healthy babies/children and 2 babies that went to Heaven early. How compassion and tenderness comes from walking through loss. How He led us through big leaps like moving across town, away from friends and family, starting a photography business, a custom table business, and through nearly every living decision we make. How He comforted me and convinced me that not all marriages are doom and gloom. I get to share how Real our God is, and how real He makes Himself known to me. How three different times in the last 6 months different women in my life have given me a message... all saying God put it on their hearts to share with me. I get to share how God has humbled me and changed me, and continues to work in me.

I get to share my life.

And when we know our purpose and start running full speed towards it, it changes everything. It gives you a confidence that can't be shaken. The God I know is big and real and powerful and I believe He can take little me with my small story and He can make Himself known in a mighty way.

We have a responsibility to use the gifts we have been given. I believe that as we use them and put them on display for His glory, it's a beautiful picture of us returning them to Him. 

My life isn't mine to begin with, so I will gladly share it. 

Know this, God loves you. He wants you, He adores you and I promise you He is faithful. 

"Jesus wants you to know that when you are broken, shivering, alone or afraid, with nothing left and nowhere to go, then you can turn in His direction and lay yourself at the foot of His love. Lay your broken offering on His alter. He will come and carry you into His presence. He will hold you with the warmth of His embrace and cover you with the blanket of His kingdom inheritance. God wants you to know that when everything else is gone, that makes more room for Him, and everytime there is more room for Him, you are blessed." - A Beautiful Offering

LAST TIMES

Someone recently shared this writing with me for parents about how there is always a last time and it made my heart just ache. Like really ache. I mean, I sooo love watching them grow and soar and change but the reality of the last times really is hard in some ways. In reading the list I realized how many had already passed. Like there was a moment I had Reef on my hip, I set him down and without even realizing it, it had been the very last time I would ever hold him that way. The big moments are easier to recognize as they pass but some of those little moments are sneaky, they slowly slip away and it isn't until time has passed that you realize that they are gone forever.

Of course you gain new moments that are worth everything, but those sweet little moments with tiny hands and eager hearts are slipping. And it makes me ache sometimes when I face it.

Sometimes I feel like I can't hold them tight enough or long enough....even when I feel like I am soaking in every last drop of their smallness, sometimes it feels like that isn't enough.

I am okay with the ache though. I love them so much and know that the world needs people like them in it. Watching them grow into those people will be life's greatest blessing to me.

RETREAT

Sometimes in life, I have found that one needs to honor the need to retreat and take a break. The past two months have been this with blogging for me. Life has been full and I needed to cut somewhere, so technology was it. I love staying connected and giving readers a little heads up on what we have been up to. I am back now and am hoping to stay connected. Please stop and comment below; let me know you're still here! XOXO

AGAINST THE GRIND

I didn't have coffee until after ten o’clock this morning. This is unheard of, really. I am one of those people that pours my first cup of joe with my eyes half open, on the way to the shower. And then I wonder, every time, why I didn't just wait until after the shower because it gets a little cold on the bathroom counter, waiting for me.

The best mornings are when I can pour that first cup with my eyes half open and then sit in my pajamas on the couch. Lately I need slippers. Texas is showing us her master plan for winter early. The cooler weather comes and goes, but I think the hint of winter is showing her face earlier than usual. This is good. Though we are a little nervous about what she has up her sleeve. Nevertheless, we love the crisp reminder to snuggle in, wrap up, slip on soft things.

Lately there is so much to do, more than ever. My body is different because of it. More hunched, tight, sore. I feel my age more than ever before, maybe even older. This is what it is to keep going, plod on, move onward, soft or not.

I should’ve started my own photography business when I was fifteen years younger. Now I go from a full-time corporate job and raising children and being a wife, to shooting portraiture of sweet darling babies, families, and pregnancy belles. With a wedding intertwined here and there. I’m always rushing home, to fight the laundry, chauffeur the kids, attend parent meetings, play with babies.

This is not complaining. This is just a story about life as it is right now. All my plates spinning in the air. It’s a balancing act. And without God’s grace, and the help of my husband, they would all come crashing down, I’m certain of it.

There is no longer a fight in me, against the work. Against the grind. I don’t know exactly why. Maybe I’m just too tired. Maybe I’m doing things I love to do. Maybe it’s just time.

Life is work and work is life and then we get to have love and the smallest and biggest of beautiful things.

I am sometimes straining my neck to see ahead, to plan, to dream. 

Nothing is bad about that. 

{life in pictures} HOMECOMING 2014