Corona, COVID-19, quarantine, virus, asymptomatic, stay-at-home, self-quarantine, immunity, antibody, pandemic, social distance, toilet paper, flatten the curve, disinfect, six feet…
These are words or phrases that we have either never heard of or never heard so much of before…
As the world turned upside down and the “norm” was no longer, we had no choice but to transition into a lifestyle that we never experienced before. We had to find a new “normal” suddenly. Even with a warning, even with the signs, we were shocked. Even with all the preparations, it was unbelievable. Overwhelming… stressful… incomprehensible…
Many didn’t know what to do. I guess I can’t speak for everyone, but that was the case for us. We prepared since January. Craig listens to the news A LOT (which I’m thankful for), and when he started hearing what was going on in China in December/January, he told me to order certain things, to go buy certain things and to slowly stock up on essential items. We had slight scares in the past like with H1N1 back in 2009, but this time, it felt different. As much as I wanted to question him or say, “nahhhhhh….”, I listened. When we were in Vegas mid-February for a photography conference and our anniversary (which became our last trip before all this), the tension in the news started getting more serious. It felt like a storm was coming, but we weren’t quite sure how to prepare for it. I mean, how would anyone know when this has NEVER happened before in our lifetime? That week at the end of February, I remember going to Costco, Target and Kroger to buy things as if the world was going to end. We grabbed everything we knew we needed to properly take care of our kids and my elderly mom. The last thing I ever wanted to happen is to make our kids go hungry… Because I grew up in utter poverty in South Korea as a child and experienced a true “third world” country situation, starvation has always been my biggest fear for our children. I’m ok with losing assets like our home, I’m ok with having financial stress, I’m ok with ‘struggling’ as long as our kids can eat. Something. Anything. And to prevent starvation as much as we could, we grabbed a lot of food that could last a long time and be filling like rice and beans.
Then, March came… people started to become frantic. The “storm” was really heading this way and there was no stopping it. News was actually right. It was coming. It was actually happening. As people who didn’t prepare started heading to the stores, I said to Craig, “Ha! Who’s laughing now, huh?!” (I was joking but not at the same time because I did have a friend who laughed when I told them that we stored up some things.) But, what he said humbled me quickly. He replied, “Yeah…. but, I wish they were still laughing.” Meaning, he wished that we were wrong. That our predictions were wrong. That there was no need for all these emergency supplies and that we could just return them. It was a humbling moment indeed and yes, I too wished that this wasn’t the case. Wow… the “what if” happened.
March 12, 2020 was our first official day of quarantine. As many Americans were feeling I’m sure, that first week was pretty shocking. When everything shut down, I just could not wrap my head around it. “Is this REALLY happening? Did they seriously close the schools? Are our weddings getting cancelled? For real? No…. this must be some kind of a joke. This can’t be real life.” But, it was…. It wasn’t a bad dream or a bad prank joke.
We somehow survived week 1. Week 2’s biggest challenge was the swarm of brides that called and emailed with concerns and questions and rightly so. It was crazy. I wanted to hide and just catch my breath… Coming into 2020, we already had 35 weddings booked. That’s 5 more than the 30 we wanted to book this year. We came into this year so strong and so excited about the new year; the new decade like the rest of the world. We booked weddings all over the country and few around the world. Gosh, we had so much to accomplish! But, the unexpected happened. These phone calls and emails made us feel like the business we have worked so hard for over the years was simply falling apart. What do we do now? What do we tell these devastated brides? How do we get paid? Are we going to be able to continue to feed our kids? What if we run out of money? What if? WHAT IF???
But, we somehow survived that week too. Craig and I kept saying to one another, “We will make it. We will take one wedding at a time. One phone call at a time. One bride at a time. One day at a time. We WILL make it.” And, we did. I can’t continue this post without recognizing how amazing our clients have been through all of this. Let me tell you… Every SINGLE wedding worked out. We have successfully rescheduled all the ones that needed to and the couples were incredible to work with and for that, THANK YOU, CO brides!
Third week came and for that week, the challenge was all emotional. You see, that Monday, we were supposed to fly out to Paris as a family. It was supposed to our kids’ first time ever on a plane, my mom’s first time ever in Europe and we were supposed to celebrate her 65th there. It was planned to be the trip of a lifetime. It was planned since last August, and we were all looking so forward to it. Out of all the times, “why now?”, was what I thought. “You have got to be kidding me!” is what I kept saying. The more I said it, the more I couldn’t believe it. The disappointment was indescribable… not just for me, but the kids, Craig and of course my mom too. That morning, Craig turned on some Paris music, cooked a typical Paris breakfast and had the kids dress up in Paris style. How sweet, right? In that moment, I realized that I wouldn’t trade my family for anything. Yes, the disappointment of all these wonderful planned events not happening was indeed disappointing, but it hit me that all this happening was more than just a pandemic. It was more than just a corona virus, COVID-19 issue. As my appreciation for my family grew in that moment, God began tugging at my heart for something much deeper and higher. Even though it felt long, in just the short time of two weeks, everyone’s appreciation for the world grew so much. I knew it wasn’t just me. We were all realizing and admitting to how much we’ve been taking things for granted. Things that REALLY matter in our lives. Oh, how quickly priorities changed…
Then, we began getting many ideas. Gosh, I was so excited! Ideas to influence on social media, ideas to affect positively around our community, ideas on how we could be the ‘light’ and to help, blah, blah, blah… but, something wasn’t right. Who am I kidding? As much as social media is a great tool and resource in our lives, something about it was not sitting right with me. I felt like everyone was on their soapbox… there were so many voices after voices after voices. Everyone and their grandma had something to say and the more I read and heard and saw it, the more confusion it aroused within me. Like the world shutting down, I had to shut that down in my life. At first I did it out of frustration, anger… bad attitude towards it was something I definitely had. After a few days, I kept thinking that I should post a few things to keep our business going, but this time, God stopped me. He said, “no… it’s not the right time. There’s a lot you need to work out within yourself before going back.” The more time we took off, the more God was working. The more God was revealing… He kept saying, “not yet… not yet…” God wanted HIS voice to be the only voice I was listening to and hearing. Yes, all the other voices do cause confusion. God is NOT a God of confusion. He is a God of order and grace and love. It was no wonder my mind was chaotic. I was trying to figure things out out of my own might and discernment instead of listening to THE one voice that could deliver the truth. It wasn’t social media that was the problem. It wasn’t others that was the problem. It was me. I was receiving these things the wrong way because my heart was in the wrong place. God wanted me all to Himself and He wanted to be the ONLY thing I desired too. He wanted me to come back to my first love.
We have not been on social media since April 6th and that’s THE longest time we’ve ever been off. Our business is heavily dependent on our postings because that is essentially the only advertisement we do for our business. But even still, God told me, “I’ve got this.” He continued to tell me to trust Him. That the success of our business or our lives never depended on how much we hustled and how much we “worked hard’. It was always by His grace and His grace alone. So, we continued to trust and God continued to reveal Himself. He proved so many things to us. Can you believe that even through all this craziness, we booked weddings? A few actually… inquiries continued to come. Out of nowhere. Every time an inquiry came, every time a contract was signed, I felt my spirit being comforted by God who is my ultimate comforter. I could see Him patting my head gently and saying, “Do not fret, my child… everything is under control. Just trust Me.”
But, it wasn’t just our trust in our business that we needed to work on. God wanted our relationship with him to be renewed. To get back to the basics. Busyness of life could not mask things anymore. He had enough! You see, His Word is the foundation of our hearts, our souls, our spirits, and I felt that He was determined to make that known. After that, it was our marriage. 14 years of marriage that Craig and I have lived through. As much as we seemed and looked like everything was great, God always knows more. He holds us to a higher standard and boy, did we have some work to do! We dug deep and this book that we studied in our small group gave us the most practical ways to use words the way they were meant to be used. The book is called, “I said this, you heard that.” The verse that this book is found upon is Ephesians 4:29 - “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” After many layers, we are communicating in ways we NEVER have. IT’S AMAZING! WOW! We are learning how to express things to each other, communicate, understand and love one another in a way I can’t describe. This has been so different from previous studies because it’s not something we just learned or one message that made us “feel good”, but it’s something we are putting into practice daily. It doesn’t mean our marriage has been perfected from this one book by any means, but I’ve never felt so understood and deeply loved by Craig. And, I’ve been able to see my husband in such a different light and connect with his soul in a way that I never even fathomed. Yes, I love him more today than on our wedding day. Just when I thought our marriage was fine and that it was as good as it was going to get, God had so much more in store for us. I’m so thankful that God didn’t allow us to ‘settle’. I feel so blessed he didn't give up on us and gave us the gift of forgiveness, repentance and endurance. I’m grateful that we both desired to grow, change and simply ‘be better’. Thank you, JESUS!
When we tell our kids, “DON’T GIVE UP!” or “Embrace the journey!”, I don’t think we really knew what we were saying until now. Those sayings have a whole other meaning.
Romans 5:3-5 says: “But we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
YES! Suffering is good for us! But, only if we persevere. One thing I love about the Korean culture is that they always say, “ENDURE! ENDURE IT! Fight through it…” Yes, that is what we must do in Christ Jesus. We no longer have an excuse. There’s no excuse for not having enough time. There’s no excuse for being too busy. Who we are right now is our true self. And yes, please take this with a grain of salt because I do realize that we all have different types of sufferings and in ways and levels that not all of us will understand. But, we are all going through something challenging and God wants to do so much in all of us individually, as couples, as families and as the world. But, as in anything, it’s our choice to allow Him to do what He does best. He wants to be invited into our hearts. He never wants to force Himself into our lives. He wants to be welcomed, and it is my prayer that our world will open up to Him with welcoming arms and hearts ready to receive His goodness.
Craig and I are movie fanatics…. TRUE story movies that is. If it’s based on a true story, I’ll watch it! I love stories because that’s what make us all so unique. Our stories are our testimonies… Each person and each family has such a unique story especially during this time. This season of life will never be forgotten. We all have endured so much as a family in ways we never imagined. With that said, we are so happy to be back on the INTERNET! WOOT WOOT! We feel so renewed and refreshed! Ah…!!!!!! We feel so clean and NEW! And with that, we want to do something different! Since our home has literally been the world around us, we want to capture your family and your home literally wrapped around you to remember this “Corona season” of your life. Hey, I understand… we have three kids of our own, and we get how not every moment during this time has been “pretty”. There have been arguments, there have been frustrations, there have been times when we were fully annoyed with one another. But, I also know that we have made some great memories as well. There has been much laughter, tons of baking, many spontaneous dance parties, endless video games, needed talks, countless movie nights, family snuggle time, and much, much more. Oh yeah, and the quarantine-15 from eating out of boredom is seriously a thing.
There’s a reason why this pic is here again…. read on.
The imperfections is what makes our lives beautiful and that’s something I think God is teaching us to embrace. We got a Insta360 camera earlier this year, and we had many other plans and ideas to use it for other special projects. But, just like so many other things, God had other plans and that’s fine by me because His plans are ALWAYS better. Craig got an idea to capture families with this camera that will create an image of their home literally wrapped around them… I love that God gives Him such creative ideas, and what I love even more is that this idea will be used to bless others and make families see how beautiful they are and be proud of the home they built together especially during this “Corona” season. Sometimes, we need reminders and I hope that families will frame this photo in their home to remember what God did for them during this time. That the photo will give them hope because they endured and overcame TOGETHER and that God is good ALL.THE.TIME.
Our friends… it’s good to be back and it’s good to reconnect with you all. We will be posting these family portraits on our Instagram and Facebook, so come follow along with us! I think you’ll really enjoy them! Be blessed and see you there. Boom baby!
With much love,
Craig + Unchong