It’s been a while since I blogged and there sure is a lot going on in the world right now. The last engagement session I blogged was on March 12th and at that time, coronavirus wasn’t really a problem in Virginia. My birthday was on the 14th and even then, quarantine was just beginning to be a common word in our vocabulary. Since then, it’s been a little bit of a living nightmare. We’re all experiencing different types of grief and pain right now and while I won’t go into detail about everything, it’s definitely been a challenging time to say the least.

But one thing that really cheered me up was getting to photograph Grace and Mac last weekend at the Barn At Edgewood. Grace and Mac hired me after my sweet friend Emily recommended them to me and ever since my very first call with Grace and her mom, I couldn’t wait to meet them. Mac and Grace are long distance and he wasn’t on the call that day but I got to know Grace and her sweet mom a little better that day and from the start, I just felt like family. It’s always my goal to make my clients feel like friends but they truly made me feel like family, which has been an incredible gift to me!

Grace and Mac have one of the coolest and most beautiful love stories. But before their love story began, Grace was going through an incredibly challenging time where she had to learn to trust God in new ways. Back in 2016, Grace began experiencing some horrible symptoms of extreme thirst and nausea, which only progressed onto worse things, where she got to the point where she could barely eat or get out of bed. She got testing done and saw multiple doctors but there were no answers. She tried new diets and nothing worked. She had constant abdominal pain and debilitating migraines, yet no one knew why. The whole story is so beautiful and you can read it here on Grace’s blog if you’d like to but I’ll cut to the good news here! Eventually, Grace got miraculously diagnosed with Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome which is one of the rarest disorders known to medical science and that’s where her healing began but it was a long road that was far from easy.

During all of this, Mac heard that her family was going through a lot and because they were all over the place for treatments, their house was in need of some upkeep. Mac jumped at the opportunity to help them in any way he could and started coming over. As his time increased at their home, Grace and Mac began to form a bond. During this difficult time for her, he was a constant source of joy and they eventually realized there might be more than a friendship there. Grace loved Mac’s servant-heartedness and saw something in him that she knew was rare. And that’s where their love story began.

They have their wedding planned for mid July this year and I am praying with everything in my soul that this virus doesn’t ruin their original plans but I talked to Grace and her mom on the phone the other day about plan B, C, D, and on, and even through this chaos, they were asking me how I was doing. I truly have no words for how beautiful their family is and it is unbelievably inspiring seeing their faith through everything they’ve been through. I guess that’s what hardship does to you. It teaches you how to trust God more.

So sharing this engagement session today is extra special for me! It brought me so much joy in this time to capture their love and I am grateful we were able to be cautious and “socially distance” while still capturing these priceless memories during this gorgeous spring season. Mac and Grace, you two bring such a special light into this world! I am grateful to be working with you! I hope you love your photos!

Barn At Edgewood Engagement Session | Charlottesville Engagement Session