Well, here I am.  I have finally done it!  I am finally starting my own blog.  I am quite a bit nervous, but at the same time very excited to be starting this new adventure that I have thought about doing for quite a while now!  In this blog, my goal is to use it to help expand my photography world as I am getting into shooting more and more. I am doing a 365 day challenge this year, so there will be many pictures that I post from this challenge on here.  I would love any feedback or thoughts, but overall, I am just excited to have a place to express myself via the world wide web! :) 

   Time to back track a little bit here though...Some of you who know me well may be wondering why the blog is titled Olivia's Grace, when my name is Laura.  :)  Well, Olivia Grace is the name that Josh (my husband) and I gave to our child that we miscarried last year.  It was certainly the toughest thing that I have ever experienced in my life and shed a whole new light on the struggle of infertility for me.  It was more than just the loss of our precious little girl to me, it was the loss of a piece of my heart that I will never get back here on this earth.  A piece of you is gone when you lose a child, and I believe this to be true whether they have delivered or not.  So, with this being said, I also consider Olivia Grace to be our miracle baby that I was never able to see here on this earth, but that I cannot wait to see one day in heaven.  I know that Jesus is taking great care of her up there!  During my darkest moments of mourning our lost child, I was given the inspiration to start shooting photography.  It is something that I have always loved, I have just never given myself the time to properly learn and invest into it.  So, over the course of a few months, as this thought grew and grew in me, I kept thinking about how I wanted to document all of the beautiful things still in this life as a dedication to her.  I wanted her to know that though I miss her so much, I also can find new beauty through the ashes.  So, this is also the symbolism of the image below.  Although I am still somewhat recently coming out of a very dark time in my life, God has blessed me incredibly with another child who is my light and joy in this moment in my life.  I believe that from all bad in life comes good, and there is always a reason and a purpose for everything.  And though I will not always completely understand why our first child was taken from us, I also am starting to see that through that process God opened my eyes to the opportunity of photography and the beauty that it can capture in life, and I feel very blessed for that!!  So this blog is dedicated to you sweet Olivia!  I know you are looking down and smiling from heaven!  

    I hope you guys enjoy the blog and enjoy the journey that it will take us, wherever that is over the course of time! 

~Laura