Hi! It has been a while since I’ve posted here. I can’t pretend I’m not a little rusty. However, here I am putting down words again, despite how hard it’s been to get back to it. I realize my previous blog posts were mostly “word spill,” where I’d just put down my feelings in the hopes someone would relate or be touched. While I still want to be candid through this amazing platform, I want to also be more intentional. I’d like this blog to be a space where I can provide lifestyle content, photography and fashion content, life updates, and still the occasional “word spill.” As I jump into this new endeavor, I’d like to properly re-introduce myself. My name is Marifer Schaeper and I’m married to Aaron Schaeper, who will occasionally take over the blog posts as he’s passionate about a lot of different things. We own two cats and are about to welcome a baby boy to our little family in a few weeks.
How did it all start, you ask? Aaron and I were both based in Austin and had been following each other on Instagram for over a year. I was a full time college student doing fashion modeling while he was a pretty well known local photographer. He had just graduated from Army AIT in Maryland and was on leave in Austin and open to working with models. I took my chance and reached out requesting we’d do a collaborative photoshoot together. He had a fully booked day and still made room in his schedule for me. We did a 90s grunge inspired shoot at Waterloo Records (featured in a previous blog post). As expected, we started crushing on each other upon meeting even though we were somewhat awkward, but since he was stationed in Florida I knew not to get attached and kept a friendly distance. However, pretty soon we were DMing each other almost every other day and constantly hyping each other up on social media. It was obvious soon enough we were simping for each other! Once we both knew our friendship had potential for more, it didn’t take long for Aaron to be in Austin again. About a week after our first facetime call, he took leave and was on his way to me. As he pulled into the driveway to take me to my class (the morning after driving 12 hours), I jumped in his arms and couldn’t help but kiss him. We knew what we discovered in each other was worth the long distance – even though we never considered it for anyone else before. For the next 2 years, Aaron drove 12 hours every month (sometimes twice) to come visit me, and on days he was far away we’d facetime every night. It was hard and most facetime calls consisted of me sobbing about the distance, followed by me being madly hyper after he’d cheer me up. Through photography and creating, I found and fell in love with my best friend. But to keep the story reasonably short, 2 years later we got married and made a home of our own and I get to wake up next to my soulmate every day!
As this new season of motherhood is fast approaching, I feel a deeper urgency to follow my purpose, whatever that may be. I can’t say that I’m able to truly define my calling quite yet, and I realized that I may not be the only one. Just a few weeks ago I sat frozen on my living room couch experiencing what one could call an existential crisis; I felt lost. I mean I had married my best friend, I was going to be a mother; one of my biggest dreams. Yet as I did some self searching I realized I alone didn’t see a purpose for myself. The closer I got to achieving my career goals the sooner I’d find I wasn’t close enough. The further I lost grasp of my dream career the more I lost sense of what it even looked like. How many closed doors would it take for me to find another path? Or maybe I needed to be patient for the door to open? But what if that meant I’d be standing in the same place all my life holding on to false hope when my destiny was somewhere else? So here I am starting this blog up again. Maybe it’s my purpose, or maybe a way to take you on this journey of discovery with me. Regardless, as alone as I think I am feeling this way at 28 years old, I know I’m not. I am bringing back this blog and invite you to join us in our journey of stepping into parenthood, leaning into faith, finding myself, and us growing our beautiful family; all while enjoying the little things in life like hobbies, food, retail therapy, family time, and church.
| Check out our latest collective maternity shoot below taken by Aaron and modeled by me |
EL SOL Y LA FLOR 