When Dreams Get To Become Reality…
If you know me, you know I have a thing for travel & kiddos. I love that I come from a place like Idaho. It truly makes seeing the world much more magical. Idaho is so unexposed. If you get brave and venture outside, however, it goes from black and white to vibrant blazing colors that you can even smell. Seeing the world is like putting on corrective lenses and finally being able to “see”. You can’t understand it until you do it.
From a very young age, my dream was to join the Peace Corps and “help people”. Back then I really didn’t even know what the PC truly was. I just knew that they did things I wanted to do. I think I was born with the desire to be a humanitarian, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to vibe on the level of Mother Theresa (trust me, I’m not remotely close to her level truly, but I try to walk a similar path).
Then at 16, I became a teen mom… The timeline of my desired future changed with no definitive time on when, or if, I would ever get back on track to see my dreams come to fruition.
Fast forward 18 years 2021, my daughter was finally grown and an amazing human and getting ready to test the waters of adulthood. There I was, a 35-year-old “empty nester” trying to figure out who I was and what it was that I wanted. One day I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and found a job posting that couldn’t have been further from something I ever thought I would do. Caregiving. I ended up getting the job and by doing so I became friends with my client and his family and they began including me in their Non-Profit trips for their Non-Profit Chair The Hope. They travel the world delivering wheelchairs to people who can’t get them. In less than 2 years I’ve been able to travel to Mexico 3 times and Peru.
On the last trip I joined them on, I decided to stay an extra week and offer family photos to the people in the village of Seye in the Yucatan. That experience definitely felt like a level up in my plight to travel the world and help as many people as I can along the way.
I can feel that this is just getting started. Professional family photos can and WILL benefit so many people. Most people in those places have very few or no photos in their homes. These images can be used for so many things but most importantly for the memories they will preserve.
The hope is to find a few businesses who want to sponsor Aubs Family Photos for future trips and we can begin to expand this opportunity to more places and to more families.
To finish this up, back when I was a kid I didn’t know the details of this urge I had, I just knew it was there. Even though it took the back seat for more than half of my life, it came back so strong it actually began to happen. My dreams and passions have collided in the most incredible way. There is nothing I can’t do if I truly want it. Sometimes it is more about timing than it is about possibility. Don’t forget your dreams while you have to take time to survive. Subconsciously it might be the thing that actually kept you going!
Lastly, thank you to everyone who donated. Whether it was cash donations or items. We were able to give so much because of that help. We couldn’t have ever done this without your selflessness. Thank you.
Much love friends!
Aubs
