A few weekends ago I photographed one of my dear friends engagement sessions. My friend Missy and I met at church. She was pregnant with her second child and I had just had my second child so we kind of instantly bonded. We were both stay at home moms and got to know each other pretty quickly. Missy is super awesome, loves Jesus, real crafty, bakes her own bread, her and her husband were both missionaries for a bit, has her teaching certificate but wanted to be a doula when she grows up :) Anyway, fast forward a little over a year and her husband decides that he wants out of their marriage and leaves her. Here she was with two VERY young children (both under the age of 3) she had not worked since her children were born (4 years) and thought she was going to be a stay at home mom for the rest of her life.

I have never hurt SO much for another human being than I have with my friend, Missy. Her and I sorted thru all of their things in their home together and cried all day long. We kept coming up with things like their wedding album, a note he had written her, old mission t-shirts etc and we just did not know what to do with them. So we cried…. and cried some more. My heart hurt for her so much and in SO many ways. I helped her pack up her entire house, her kids, her life in Norman so she could move in with her parents in Tulsa, get a full time job and put her kiddos in daycare. The last part was the absolute hardest for her. Her babies were her entire life. I truly thought that Missy would break, die (in a sense, not actually) never smile again. What she went thru was so traumatic on so many levels…. heartbreakingly tragic.

Anyway…. fast forward three years and Missy has met a wonderful man. Seriously wonderful. They are getting married this weekend and I am not sure how I will actually photograph their wedding thru the tears. Even as I write this, TEARS. She is walking down the aisle (again) and I could not be more excited for her. Seriously…. I WILL be the second happiest person in the place other than her, I think. Her fiancee loves her SO much. He loves her kids SO MUCH. He is DELIGHTED in her to the fullest extent. As I was going thru my friends images I just kept noticing how intoxicatingly in love they look. What a gift! I am so grateful to the Lord for her new love, her smile and her future.