Now This Is A Story All About How…

…my life got flipped, turned upside down. Forgive me. I turn to humor when I’m stressed, and The Fresh Prince just felt right. You know those moments when you think you have life somewhat figured out and then the rug gets pulled out from under you? Yea that’s how the entire year of 2016 was for us. Being a Virginia wedding photographer was a struggle and exactly what I needed all at once. I truly wish this was going to be one of those super motivational New Years posts. Sadly, it isn’t. However, I’m going to pop in some fun family photos – in an attempt to keep this bright & cheery.

I realize this isn’t a cheery photo – but y’all….it’s hilarious

If you follow along with me on Instagram then you know that we opened a brand new chapter in April. Signing a contract to build our dream home seemed surreal. We waited a long time for this – over 11 years. After signing the contract, Mother Nature decided to give us an entire MONTH of rain! Little did we know at the time, that was the first of several big delays.

Planning a big move to a new area is always stressful, but it’s also really exciting. Living a quiet life on an acre of land in Moyock is exactly what we were looking for – or so we thought. The builders started to dig in the ground (OUR ground!), and cinderblocks layered up one by one. Driving down to check the progress of our home was so exciting. Finally, after years and years of patiently waiting, it felt like things were coming together.

This boy y’all…such a Sour Patch kid

After being given the green light to put in notice on our rental, Carson started school in Moyock. The summer came to an end, and due to several delays, the house wouldn’t be ready. We now had to find somewhere to live, and move twice. Once out of our rental and into who-knows-where, and one more time into our home. Talk about stress!

Thankfully one of Vernon’s clients offered us her newly renovated beach house in Sandbridge. For that I am SO SO grateful! After reviewing long term hotel options, we came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the best situation for our family. Our friends really don’t know how much they saved us by letting us stay in their Sandbridge rental.

Chandler was SO thrilled…you can see that Carson knows the drill

So all of our stuff went in storage, and we moved into the furnished rental. What was supposed to be a one month delay on the house turned into two months. Two months of driving 4-6 hours EVERY SINGLE WEEKDAY. Between getting Carson to school and softball practice, I was putting 1,000 miles on my car every week. All of this happening during the busiest time of the year for me. Oh the tears that were shed y’all.

At the end of those two months we needed to find yet ANOTHER place to live. Enter my amazing in-laws. They took us in, and obviously spoil our kids rotten in the process. Never would we have imagined – being so independent and marrying at 17 & 18 years old…moving back home at 29 & 30. Two of Vernon’s younger brothers live at home, so there are now 8 of us in a 3 bedroom house. We have all had to adapt, but it’s actually been a really pleasant experience.

Obviously my MIL is on cloud 9 with having a house full of family. Bigger & louder dinners, family Wheel of Fortune watching, and NERF gun fights. Things could be worse. We’ve been here 2 months now, and we will more than likely be here for quite a while longer. It’s funny how sometimes you end up right back where you started. We are learning that this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Norfolk is where it all began for us – and it’s kinda what is saving us right now.

Our Moyock house was scheduled to be finished August 31st, then September 30th, then November 15th. All of this is to say that things unfold just how they are supposed to. We have decided to move on from the Moyock house. Realizing that all of this is happening for a reason. The entire experience has been horrible and we cannot wait to move past this. I’ve never wanted to fast forward with my life more than I do right now. Being in limbo is hard, and it doesn’t look like our living situation will be changing any time soon.

While there is no way of knowing what 2017 brings for us, I know it has to be better than this past year. It’s really common to see everyone setting big goals for 2017, and to choose their “word.” The word that they want to carry with them throughout the year. I like New Years resolutions. I’ve posted about it before. Setting out to do 10 things and accomplishing 1 is just that – an accomplishment. I wish my “word” for 2017 was some super inspirational word. Unfortunately it isn’t.

Survive. All of this moving, days full of driving, and big house hopes breaking has been unbelievably hard. Testing my patience, our marriage, my relationships with my kids & family – don’t get me started with friendships, pretty sure I shattered those – my business, everything. My goal is to simply survive this next year. Without being able to go into too much detail, the first half of 2017 is shaping up to not be so awesome on a personal level.

It’s times like these that I am SO thankful that I get to do what I love. When I am out shooting couples, my mind is totally there. With them in those moments of flirting, and love, and everything happy. I couldn’t be farther from all of these stresses. Crazy 2016 has left me with a mile long to do list. Nevertheless, I’m scratching things off the list little by little!

I Feel Like I’ve Been The Worst Virginia Wedding Photographer Ever

Cheers to all of you, and thank you to all of my couples for hanging in there with me. For the not-so-fast email responses, and the texts that I read on some of those 5 hour driving days & forgot to respond to. I’m forever grateful for having the best couples, and being a part of your journey.

If you enjoyed this post, check out some of my other personal posts here & here!

be silly. be honest. be kind.