Today is a hard day. It marks a year since we miscarried our baby at 16 weeks along. Our full miscarriage story can be found here. I thought we would at least be a few weeks pregnant by now. Unfortunately, I don’t have that news. As much as I’m sad and even discouraged that we don’t have a rainbow baby announcement, I’m still just heartbroken about the loss of our child last February. But instead of making today a sad day, I started listing some of the amazing things that happened over the past year. Even though it has been a tough year, we still have been so blessed. Here’s just a few ways…
JayCee Photography was profitable and flourished in 2018. At the beginning of 2018, I turned down over a dozen weddings thinking I would be either too pregnant or needing time to adjust to being a new mom. So once I knew I was pregnant, I turned down weddings between June-October. Prime wedding season. Yet, after our miscarriage, I had a flood of inquiries in March and April completely booking up my schedule. It’s was a blessing for our family financially and for me mentally as a distraction.
I shot a wedding and vacationed in HAWAII! My good friend from high school Chris Shepard HIRED me to fly to Hawaii to document his and Amanda’s wedding. Their wedding was actually on our due date and I know I wouldn’t have taken any other wedding that date. But it was Chris and Hawaii. We had such a great vacation that week and Jake actually got time off for it which was a huge deal. We ate amazing food, snorkeled, laid on the beach, deep sea fishing, and got Henna tattoos. It was so good for the both of us since we really hadn’t gone on a REAL vacation just the two of us.
Jacob’s dream job! While we were in Hawaii Jacob got the call for a job offer to do what he’s always wanted - welding inspecting. He now works in Blackfoot working 4/10’s as a welding inspector and he loves it. He also really enjoys his 3 day weekends since he didn’t have many days off at his old job.
Close-knit group of friends. We’ve always had an awesome group of friends since we moved to Idaho. It was all of Jake’s buddies from high school. But I personally wasn’t “close” with any of the girls. I truly believe me going through our miscarriage brought me and Jake even closer to the group. I literally call them all my best friends.
Dream Car. Truthfully I would of never purchased a sports car if I had kids. But I needed something to make me a little cheerful on hard days, and my Mustang does that. Jake seems to appreciate my new love for sports cars too.
Time with family. I saw my parents 8 times throughout the year and my sister 4 times! It’s a pretty big deal getting to see my family since we’re all spread out now. But I love taking advantage of this freedom to see them whenever I can get the chance.
I’m grateful for the hardships and blessing we had over the past year. It really has shaped Jake and I into who we are today. And I’m grateful we can show empathy to those going through these struggles too.
