*Condado Vanderbilt | San Juan, Puerto Rico | February 2020 | Contax 645 , Fujifilm Pro 400h 120*

A year ago on my 40th bday I was arriving home from a impromptu bday trip with my best friend to Puerto Rico, recovering from a miscarriage less than a month before and getting ready to start packing for a whirlwind Italy tour we were set to jet off for in a just over a week. Little did I know how much life was about to change. Needless to say my 41st trip around the sun was quite unexpected (as 2020 was for us all). And while the change is so surreal and at times heartbreaking this past year holds some of my very fondest memories. When the world shut down, trips were canceled, fertility treatments postponed and our lives became framed within the walls of our home.

But we were the lucky ones.
We found peace there.

Home was cozy and the slower pace meant more room to breathe. The halting of work meant the release of the pressure to hustle. We didn't set a morning alarm for months on end. We slept, like really caught up on possibly decades of lost sleep. And after 3 years of unexplained delayed fertility. We got pregnant. Naturally. We marveled in wonder at the thought of it all. I walked through nine quite lovely months of glowy pregnancy in a pandemic. We said "Happy New Year" from the comfort of our cozy couch and really meant it. And then 8 days into 2021 we met our Norah, our now 6 week old doll of a baby girl... And that's just the start of it.

40 was unexpectedly so good to me.

Today I say goodbye to that 40th year of life and welcome 41. Here's to all that it may hold, in the joyfully anticipated and unexpected too.

xoxo, Caroline

P.S. You can check out that 40th Bday Puerto Rico trip on my blog by {clicking here}.