Meet Trailblazer Jackie Hempel

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jackie Hempel.

Jackie, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My hubby and I grew up in California. After graduating college in 2008 and newly married, we moved to Boston so I could complete a clinical internship and masters degree in nutrition from Boston University. I worked as a clinical dietitian for four years and after walking through infertility, we had our first son in 2014 through IVF. At 12 weeks pregnant he was diagnosed with Bilateral Fibular Hemimelia. A 1 in 40,000 diagnoses affecting one limb and a far rarer diagnosis with it affecting both lower limbs. Our orthopedic surgeon at Children’s Hospital in Boston called it “a lightening strike.” Although far from the journey I thought I’d have, it is perfect and good and has already been a blessing to so many. He has bilateral below the knee prosthetics and is unlimited in his potential. I initially started a blog for him because our friends and family were so far away in California and because I knew early on that it would be a gift for other families dealing with limb abnormality diagnosis in little ones.

In Spring of 2015, unknowingly pregnant with our surprise 2nd son, (funny how those things work!) we purchased a fixer-upper. Built-in 1879 in Wellesley, Massachusetts, she needed some love and we’re pouring that into her one crazy project at a time. It was in the early days of having the second baby boy that we realized he had terrible unexplained colic. Now, a stay-at-home momma, I decided (for my sanity) to pour my heart into the purposeful act of choosing to see lovely all around, seeing it in my home, seeing it in my babies, seeing it in others and the spaces they call home. Naming what is good can go a long way to pulling you through some hard days. Finding Lovely, the blog was born in those early days of baby colic and toddler woes as a creative outlet and really a hope — a hope of living with intention and inspiring creativity in myself and others. Finding Lovely is an authentic place of mommaheart moments, our story with Fibular Hemimelia and a place to share home DIYs and my love for food and crafts. A place of lovely in a hard world where people are welcomed just as they are and can hopefully find a little lovely.

Has it been a smooth road?
I think if we are honest, it is our journey through life that often gives us the most experience and ability to be a blessing to others coming behind. I never fathomed having a child with a birth defect. I never fathomed having to walk the long and isolating road of infertility. And as a self-proclaimed introvert, I never in a million years would have seen my love blossom for sharing life out loud with complete strangers. But having walked all these paths I’ve learned how to be compassionate and present in a way I could have never fostered apart from heartache and raw, unencumbered, out loud living.

We’re often trained by life and culture to think we know how to define “good” and “bad”. We think we know what is best and right for our lives. I can say with absolute certainty that is often the “bad” or not so good things that happen to us that really prepare us for who we need to be to love on a world that needs authenticity and hope. And maybe, just maybe, if you’re purposeful about it, there is lovely in the heartache, there is lovely in the diagnosis that we don’t want, in the untamed cries of a colicky baby in the “bad”. In every experience, we will ever have, it is lovely and we can see it as good. For all young women coming behind, train your eyes to see the lovely.

We’d love to hear more about Finding Lovely.
It was in the course of designing my own home and sharing that on Instagram and on the Finding Lovely blog that I realized a passion for design. Far from my work with patients in a clinical setting, design highlights the importance of home as a place to live well, to love on our dear ones and offers families and individuals a place to tangibly find the lovely. Life can be hard on us and home is a refuge of sorts. My style is firmly rooted in those laid-back California vibes of my childhood, with a love for texture, natural light, ocean hues and family-friendly spaces that instantly give you a sense of home.

Right now, the Finding Lovely blog is my place to share lovely — to share our own home design projects, client design projects, to share parties I’ve styled and momma heart moments that are opening my eyes and teaching me to love better. It’s a place where I can share products that are inspiring me, recipes I love but most of all, I hope it is a place people see authenticity and hope. Whether it’s Cade’s story with Fibular Hemimelia or a lovely designed room, there is lovely in the deep well of motherhood and in a beautiful design.

Which women have inspired you in your life?
I think it’s hard to not look straight at my momma and give her all the credit. She was lovely before I knew what it was. She was kind and hopeful before I had walked a step in my life. It is often the women that are closest to us that set an example of how we want to live. My mom is battling stage 4 metastatic breast cancer right now and yet, even in these hard days, she sees lovely. She seeks it and can name it through the tears. She came from a strong woman (my grandmother) who selflessly gave her family loveliness that my mom passed to me. As far back as I can remember, my mom was changing out couch pillows and handing new curtains, often ones she had made herself. So, finding a love of design myself was really just seeing it played out throughout my childhood as my mom nested and made lovely for us to live in.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.findinglovely.com
• Phone: 661-317-4775
• Email: jackie@findinglovely.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/finding__lovely/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/findinglovelyblog/

Image Credit:
Emily March Photography (http://emilymarchphotography.com/), Ruth Eileen Photography (http://rutheileenphotography.com/)

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