WOW. What a bizarre season of life! The irony is that when I was flying to Hawaii for this shoot, back in mid-January, was the first time I heard of the novel coronavirus. My mom texted me, saying that we might have health screenings in California and to expect delays. I saw and heard nothing, except maybe for a few people wearing face masks in the airport. After this shoot, when I travelled from Kauai to Oahu, things really began to become more obvious. The following weekend was Chinese New Year, and I celebrated with Dim Sum at a restaurant with friends in Ala Moana mall. One of the girls, with a family background in Asia, said facemasks were sold out online and we wondered at the spread in China. Little did we know that less than 8 weeks later, us mainlanders would be self-quarantining and suddenly in solidarity with our Asian + European brothers and sisters!!!!

I’m so thankful that I do have the ability to work from home, as I know that many do not or will have extremely limited options in the upcoming weeks. Since I do get to share beautiful parts of life (like photos of weddings and engagements and newborn babies!) I’ll be intentionally creating some fun content while practicing social distancing. (To be fair, I’m not going to be just sitting around blogging or netflix-ing. I did order Dixit today and can’t wait to play that with my roommates soon!) Follow me on Instagram to see some of my “quarantine” activities and new daily routines, and hopefully some yummy meals + baked goods! I plan to make the best of this time and have as positive of an attitude as I can. My hope is in Jesus— I’m so thankful that He promises peace, even though we know life will be a struggle. Nothing surprises Him, and I’m choosing to love my neighbors by staying home but am willing to do what I can to snag groceries or even watch friends’ kiddos during this wild season. I’m not panicking, and I pray you aren’t, either. As someone I respect said, “Faith and wisdom are not in competition with each other. The former ought to inform the latter.”

That all said, join me here and on Instagram to see both reality and fun things! iIll be posting often and would LOVE to hear any ideas you have for living in isolation. Let’s do our best to see silver linings, share food/money/necessities generously, and pray for those who are most susceptible and health care workers.

Now… put on some Hawaiian music on Spotify, switch your white noise machine to “waves” and scroll this post to pretend you’re in Hawaii… great idea, right!? Emily and Jared are two of the CUUUUUTEST humans alive! We had such a fun time frocking and rolling (literally!) on the beach. They’re both followers of Jesus (holla!) and serving + caring for the people of Kauai, Hawaii! I’m so thankful we got to spend the perfect, most lovely, sunny evening together on the beach shooting these adventurous engagement photos!