welcome to the blog.

Hey hey! Since I finally have my little corner of the internet I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to make a proper introduction.

My name is Jennifer a photographer located in Northern Virginia and I hail from sunny California. If you were to ask me to describe myself briefly I would say my favorite color is pink, I’m a night owl, self proclaimed foodie and explorer.

I spent part of my childhood in Guayaquil, Ecuador (which I remember faintly) and returned to L.A. around the time that I was 8. I grew up going to the beach almost every weekend and when we weren’t at the beach we were attending some sort of cookout. I grew up surrounded by family (almost all my aunts and uncles lived within a blocks distance) which meant that I saw my cousins almost everyday. We would spend our days outside playing or fighting with neighbor kids but we always stuck together. This is why family is everything to me.

Growing up I was excruciatingly shy to the point that most my teachers always told my mom I needed to speak up more. So when we moved over to the other side of the country to Virginia it’s no surprise I had a hard time adjusting. Most of the friends I had up until that point (mid high school) I knew since I first came back to California. We had gone from elementary to high school together. I had my people and I had to start all over again. I’m not going to lie, it was tough. New girl in the middle of high school and extremely introverted = bad combination! Not only that but up until that point I had lived in a primarily Hispanic area so I was completely culture shocked.

You know that scene in the movie Mean Girls where the girl ends up going to the bathroom for lunch…I did that 🤦🏽‍♀️ I was so overwhelmed I honestly didn’t know what to do. I still remember the first friend I made the second day of school her name was Erika and she was amazing. She took me under her wing and introduced me to all her friends and slowly I found more people to call “my people” again. I can’t imagine high school without her.

It was that same year we had some strangers knock on our door and invited us to church. So my mom in need of friendships as well dragged us to church. This is where I end up meeting my husband and many of my good friends whom I still have contact with now. We ended up becoming involved in this church and through that I started joining in to youth activities. Sometimes these activities took place when my parents were working so I was often in need of rides in order to attend. This is how I met my husband, Chris, the only teenager with a car at that time. He already had his eye on me but I had no idea. We got to know each other by the conversations we would have on our way to and from activities. Eventually our friendship became something more and I am eternally grateful for having met him. Life would not be the same without him in my life.

We ended up dating 5 years before he eventually proposed and got married 6.5 years into our relationship. By then we had gone through so much there was no question he was always going to fight for me, for us. We got married August 9, 2008 and everything On our wedding day was perfect.  It was just four months later I started with some serious health issues and no doctor around me would take the issues I was dealing with seriously. I ended up having to go back to Ecuador and finally started getting answers. The found precancerous cells in my uterus and test after test confirmed it would be nearly impossible for me to ever have children. I was also deathly anemic and barely hanging on. It was devastating and such a hard time because I felt all alone. This was also the time God became real to me in a way I can’t describe. It was by faith that I made it through that time. I continued to see doctors but I could still not find any concrete answers or solutions. It was a random conversation that led my moms best friend to take me to a natural doctor. So I went very reluctantly but at that point I had nothing to lose. I finally had the answers I needed and not only that her treatment gave me solutions that I could see and feel for myself. She helped me regain my health. This was when I became a believer of natural medicine. I believe it saved my life and because of it I have my children.

God walked me through it all and I can’t help but see my children and think of his goodness. When man said you can’t, God said you can. I still went through treatments with both of them which were hard on many different levels but worth every bit of it.

Fast forward to my life now. Chris and I will be married 12 years this summer. We have known each other almost 17 years. He’s my best friend and greatest cheerleader. When I feel like giving up he pushes me forward. We have two boys 3 and 8. We love going on adventures and living life through experiences. Im so excited To see what the future holds for us.

Adventure awaits!