Beyond a diagnosis

I wrote and published a book! This book is all about children with physical and mental disabilities, and the diagnoses that they live with. Beyond a Diagnosis is a person first narrative that educates the reader about each diagnosis and how the disability affects the child. The book is filled with pictures of joyful and loving children just trying to live their best lives, and it’s truly a testament of how these children go through life. I have grown deeply passionate for people with disabilities because I myself have a few. Working through life with a disability has shown me how hard life can be and how little support and education there is in the community outside of the affected peoples. Without support and education harmful stigmas can often develop, and people with mental and physical disabilities don’t need harmful stigmas. I wanted to make a small contribution towards shifting stigmas and the lack of education in the world so thats my heart behind this book! I worked with Harrison Pathways, and Ability Tree to make this book possible, and I appreciate the teachers, parents and volunteers for being on board with my idea! Below are a few images from the book that give you an idea on how its laid out, and the contents in it!

Doreen and Noah Engagement

Doreen and Noah are the sweetest couple you’ll ever come across. They care for each other and complete each other in ways only true love can. They laugh with each other so much and Noah definitely knows how to make Doreen laugh!

They met in college during orientation and quickly became friends, after that the rest is history and now they are getting married!! I’m so excited for their big day!

White Sands National Park

I braved the ice, snow and a 4 hour drive for this adventure. But boy oh boy it was so worth it! I’m obsessed with the results I got in these pictures!

We drove 35 on the highway for 4-5 hours all to see white sand cascading down the mountains. My friends were such good sports because this was the one thing that I really wanted to do in New Mexico, So they allowed it and we packed up the car and went! The mountains were so pretty and the sand was phenomenal! We got some great images!

Snow Portraits

So here I am, snowed in on a beautiful sunny day- and the thought occurs to me “Lets go take pictures!” So what did I do you ask? I rounded up my beautiful housemate Tara and came up with the theme of a green photoshoot in the snow. Now the snow was deep and it pretty much swallowed the chair we brought outside, but boyyyy was it cute. So we ran with it. I love poses with arms in the air so we did a bit of that, we played with the blanket a little bit, and last but not least we had my stuffed friend Terry the Triceratops in a few of the images because he was green. Overall I got some images I’m obsessed with, and we’ll Tara got to freeze a little bit for a few good instagram photos. Click through them to see if being out in the freezing cold was worth it!

Jasmine & Toby

This is probably the sweetest couple you’ll ever find. Jasmine is your classic sweetheart who cares so genuinely for others and Toby is so attentive and cares just as much for the people around him- a true power couple. This wedding day was so sweet filled with lots of love, hugs, and tears of joy. One of the sweetest parts of the day was watching Jasmine interact with her dad. He had been in the hospital for a very long period of time and she wasn’t sure if he would be able to attend, but by God’s sweet blessings he was there to give her away on the happiest day of her life. I was definitely crying throughout the day because of how sweet it was to be apart of their time together.

This sweet couple met in high school through mutual friends and the rest is history. They complement each other perfectly and are so sweet together. I was so blessed to become a friend on their special day and to make their big day become a visual love story for them to look back on for many years to come.

Tara & Ty

My sweet college friends are going to get married! I was holding onto this secret for many months, what honestly felt like forever. Tara is someone I tell everything to and to not be able to tell her this huge secret was very hard but so rewarding! The day started out by me mentioning I wanted to take group photos of our girl gang at Crystal Bridges in Bentonville Arkansas, and to my surprise she didn’t suspect a thing.

We all drove to the location to where Ty was already waiting inside the art museum and the girls and I found the spot Ty had wanted and we started taking group photos. I think the reason Tara didn’t suspect anything is because I was so set on taking pictures of everyone’s hands- which was really a ploy to get her to do her nails- and if you know me you know I love to take pictures of peoples hands, so she didn’t ask any questions. Everyone was posing having a great time then I asked if I could have one picture of just Tara. This was the opportunity for Ty to come up from the back and propose, and once everyone cleared out he dropped to one knee. Tara was so surprised! She giggled and laughed as the girls and I just took in the moment and I was snapping away on my camera. She said yes after she calmed down and stopped giggling so much, which was ADORABLE.

After she said yes we went and took engagement photos around and in the museum, and they turned out so cute! Im forever thankful for Ty for trusting me to capture this special moment and for Tara being so gung-ho about taking group photos which she had no idea would be her proposal. I love capturing special moments like this, and taking pictures that will last a lifetime.

Sarah & Jarett

It all begins with a crush in middle school, then bam you’re getting married! That’s the story for Sarah and Jarrett at least. Two high school sweethearts that make love look so sweet and joyous! Their wedding was full of laughter and happy tears as Sarah walked down the aisle to meet with Jarrett. So much smiling came of that day for everyone who witnessed this love, the joy was infectious!

For dinner they catered breakfast food and when I say this was the best wedding food Ive ever had, im not kidding. They have great taste in food and coffee. Coffee was catered in by Darkstone Coffee in Springfield Missouri and boy oh boy was that coffee delicious! They even had thrifted mugs for each guest to take as a favor and I got the cutest blue mug that I will happily sip tea out of while editing all my upcoming galleries!

Overall this wedding was precious, from the boys trowing a football and yelling joyfully into my camera to the sweet prayers that were prayed over this blessed marriage. Its rare to find people that complete each other as well as Sarah and Jarret and I was blessed to be apart of their special day.