I ♥ the Dishman Family | Yucaipa Family Photographer

Up until March of this year, I was a preschool teacher assistant working in a preschool for the last 4 years.

For the past year, I worked tirelessly on opening my own in home preschool, spending many hours of careful planning with the layout of the classroom, preparing curriculum, working on a website, making sure everything was just perfect. I know it would have been successful.  I love working with children and was a very good teacher.  I was one month away from opening that school to my first family.

And I walked away it.

I walked away because all the while I was planning the perfect preschool, my heart was whispering to me, tugging at me, nudging me, and finally, full on screaming at me “Follow your heart! Your heart belongs to photography!”

I wanted to ignore my heart, because my brain kept telling me, “Take the safe and sure path. You know you’ll succeed with your preschool.”

I had two paths in front of me and I needed to make a choice – the first path was clearly laid out for me, safe, secure and a sure thing, even fulfilling, providing a great sense of accomplishment. The other path was not so clear, took a lot of faith to follow, but somehow I knew in my heart it would  fill my core with the most amazing bliss I’ve ever known.

I walked away from a sure thing to a path of pure bliss.  And I have the pictures to prove it!

Thank you, Melanie and Jacob, for trusting me and Sam with your family portraits.  Your family, especially those adorable children of yours, will always have a special place in my heart, which, by the way, was so right.  Glad I finally started listening….

See more of the fun pictures from their mini-session here.