Photo Credit: lovelifeandbegentle.blogspot.com

There are books, moments, stories and lives that can capture your heart, pull it apart, put it back together and make you a generally better person. Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected is that book for me. This woman, her families story and her ability to share with her words, she changes me for the better. She is inspiring, motivating and a woman I want to know. A woman I want to be friends with. She lives a life that I can generally say I envy. There is magic in all she does, from a walk with her daughters, a visit to the woods, the birth stories of her babies to celebrating the little details of life. Her life is filled with intention and passion. Her relationships are honest and seemingly understood to her core. Her husband is her light house. Her daughters are her light. 

I appreciate the way she lives with intention. The way any moment and every moment matters. The way small things become big and big things are made simple. I adore the adventures she takes her daughters on, the celebrations she concocts to carve pumpkins and to create Christmas magic with elves, cookies, milk and reindeer food. I love the attention to details she pays in every moment; from creating favors for the birth of her daughter Nella, to the candles lit in the hospital room, to the clothes she wore, the blankets she brought and the soap and lotion she used. I value her focus on her passions and making them a priority. I wish I had her fashion sense, her personal style, her ability to buy just the right clothes for her babies and just the right toys for them too. Intention in that which matters most is such an honorable trait. Making moments special and unique, creating memories and adventures and celebrating the life she has, it all inspires me. 

One may question why I envy her life when there are hurdles and challenges that not many, if most face in their lives. And I answer that with, I envy her life because she turned a life flipping event into a miracle. She turned what I can only imagine as the most heart wrenching moment of her life into the most beautiful journey. Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected is a book, a journey rather, of Nella‘s birth and the time that followed. I have not entirely completed the book, though I am hooked and imagine completion over this upcoming holiday weekend. This is the most beautiful account of life, anger, pain, sadness, truths and love, extraordinary love.  It is an honest recount of the moment she new her daughter had Down Syndrome, to the way her family and friends created a net, a net to catch her emotionally and with love, the first days home and the routine that was built. That is where I have left off and I cannot wait to dig back in. I cannot wait to read through the remainder of the journey accounted for in the book. 

Photo Credit: Glittershewrote.com

As it pertains to Kelle Hampton and her book, I was motivated to read it based on her blog. A blog that tells beautiful stories similarly to the book, of daily accounts of life, love and raising children. Enjoying the Small Things is a fabulous account of magic in the day to day. I am inspired and motivated to organize my life, determine my passions, goals and start living my life with intention. It is my motivation to live my life with intention. Bloom. Enjoy the small things. Find beauty in the unexpected.

Photo Credit: barnesandnoble.com