“If you want to bring happiness to the whole world,
go home and love your family.”

— Mother Teresa

I didn’t realize it could be so overpowering, that it could knock me off my feet or steal my breath away…but the first time my little boy called me “mama” (after a long, sleepless night of teething, no less) my cranky, tired heart grew three sizes. This motherhood gig is wild, often thankless, and simply the very best thing that has ever happened to me.

I’m mama to two tremendous little boys— my oldest, Alexander, and our forever baby in Heaven, our second son James Brian. James was stillborn after a terminal diagnosis of anencephaly. I carried him for 37 weeks and loved him through every moment we shared with him. Now he is with his Savior, Jesus Christ and I long earnestly for the day when the Lord reunites me with my darling boy again. There will always be a piece of our family missing, but I am eternally grateful for the unconditional love I experienced by choosing our sweet Jamie boy.

I believe with every fiber of my being that the most important job in the world is done in the smallest moments at home. As a mom, it’s the little things I cherish because I know how quickly they slip by: quiet mornings at home, a toothy-smile from my little guy, or rocking back and forth in the small hours of the night as his head grows heavy against my chest.

Life is beautiful and messy and hard, yet I feel incredibly blessed by the path God is walking with me on. My husband is my very best friend, and our marriage works because we agreed that whoever cooks, the other person has to do the dishes. (Out of necessity, I had to become a really good cook.) I’m a pastor’s daughter with a lifelong love of Jesus and liturgy, and I inherited my devotion to language and music (and a rogue stubborn streak) from my mother. I can cry at sappy commercials or sweeping orchestral movements alike, and will never own enough books. I majored in English and Music at the University of Virginia, where I also sang in an a cappella group and never managed to return a library book on time.

I love people who love people, and desire deeply to tell others' stories with care and craft. We talk a lot about mindfulness today, probably because digital life moves at an impossible pace, and sometimes auto-pilot is a method of survival. But photography makes me stop…focus… and seek the people and relationships that matter most. Photography is my prayer of gratitude for getting to live in the middle of these extraordinary, ordinary days, and I can’t wait to share it with you.