Many of you have found this page because you found me on Instagram and have followed along since the daily baby "beach walk nap days" with Lei Lei. Some things in life have remained the same, like we're always at the beach and I'm still making jewelry, of course. Yet as a lot of you know, other things have drastically changed over the years!

 

I began this little jewelry making business in 2013, where my main motivation at the time was figuring out a way to remain a stay-at-home mom, while maybe one day having the possibility of supporting myself and my children if I needed to...but that was about it. I had a psychology degree, yet chose to be a stay-at-home mom and never really planned on starting a business, let alone making jewelry.  This was an endeavor I basically had no clue about and honestly decided I could figure it out as I went along.  I knew that I loved the beach, collecting shells and sea glass, and I thought silver jewelry was beautiful. To this day, I am so grateful for my parents who believed in me, encouraged me and even bought all my tools and supplies to start this business. They made it possible for me, with a lot of prayer and hard work, to turn a little dream into a reality! 

 

These past years have not only been a journey of navigating how to build a small business from the ground up, but simultaneously it's been a journey of rebuilding my life from the ground up. I've encountered huge life-changes that I never would have imagined ...which is where my life as a single mom ended and our love story began!!

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Since you probably found us on Instagram, you know my hubby and I are head over heels in love.  I promise you, this isn't just an "Instagram" thing where we gush on each other, but it's actually how we are in "real life"...our love is something that is really rare and unique. Somehow, God has allowed us to have a second chance at love in our lives and we are beyond thankful for that!! The obvious part is that we love each other a ton, but the part I want to share is how we found each other!

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I had been living at Sunset Beach, on the North Shore. My good friends were going to a church all the way out in Kaneohe that they loved, but was about an hour away. Let's just say if you live on the North Shore, that's a long ways away...hahahaha!! So instead of a long drive to Kaneohe to see why they loved it so much, I just started listening to the online messages from their church. At the time, I was going through a divorce and the messages the pastor shared were so encouraging and I felt like they were exactly what I needed to hear. I could relate to the stories he would tell and he even used illustrations about diving for shells to explain life-lessons from God. This was something God used in his life and it was so similar to the way God used shells in my life, especially in that season. I finally decided to make the drive each week to Kaneohe and call Anchor Church my home church.

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My life at that time consisted of being the most present mom I could be, while also trying to build this jewelry-making business into something that could financially provide for the three of us. My weekly drive to church was my "big outing" for the week. It was the most peaceful drive along the ocean road that led to the beauty of the Ko'olau Mountains. Until then, I had rarely made that drive, but it quickly became something I looked forward to. It was a real healing time for me. It gave me a chance to take a break from working and just be alone with my thoughts with the Lord. I got excited knowing that I was going to hear a really great message each week that spoke to my heart. I remember crying so many tears in that season along that drive. They weren't tears of sadness, they were really and truly tears of hope. It was a hope that the Lord still had a plan for my life. I believed with all my heart that one day God would bring true love into my life and that I would be able to experience marriage the way He designed it. I didn't know how it would happen, but I knew deep down that it would happen somehow!

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Little did I know at that time, my pastor at the time had been 

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Aloha,

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Carl and Kristin

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