This photo was taken in July of 2007 while out on a summer's date with my sweet husband.

It's so interesting to go back and look at this photo for so many reasons.

This is the first purposeful photograph I ever took. Ever. It's 35mm film and it's from a nikon camera. I had no idea what I was doing. I just wanted a picture of Jord because he was taking so many of me. When I look at this photo and try to put myself in that moment I can't seem to grasp that I was behind the camera but I can put myself right in this setting. I was smiling. I was creating. It was wonderful.

Jordan wasn't my sweet husband yet in this photo. He was my sweet boyfriend. We had been dating for about four months and in just a few short weeks we would get engaged. He was, and still is, the most handsome man I had ever met eyes with and I was/am completely smitten by everything he did/does.

It boggles my mind to think that this was the start of so many new things in my life. I was newly in love with Jordan when this picture was taken but that wasn't the only thing I was falling in love with. There was no way for me to know the direction my life would go in just by picking up that camera for the first time and for falling for the man in front of it.

Life is such a unique opportunity given to us. At this time we didn't have a Roy, or live in Charleston, or have a lost pregnancy. We didn't go to graduate programs, or even have bachelor's degrees, or have any idea where we were headed.

I can't thank my husband enough for talking me into taking this photo with his "fancy film camera" even though I was so nervous to do so, because it sparked a creative passion in me that is like nothing else I have ever felt and it will impact my life forever.

Love you husband. You are still as wonderful as ever.