As 2025 comes to a close, I can’t help but reflect on the year and all its changes.
This year has been the absolute worst year of my life. Though it started off pretty well, everything came crashing down after I left my job in May. As I struggled to find a new role and was forced to ask loved ones for financial help just to survive, my ex-husband decided it was the perfect time to wage war against me. He took me to court for custody of our younger children and used my own daughters to help convince the judge that I wasn’t fit to care for them. The weight of the betrayal I felt is indescribable, and I have grappled with a level of depression darker than I ever knew could exist. If it hadn’t been for my amazing family and friends, who knows where I’d be today. God has truly blessed me with some incredible people in my life, and for that I am unspeakably grateful.
Despite doing everything the court asked of me, I lost. I lost custody of my younger children, and life as I knew it is over. Suddenly, I’m no longer allowed to see my children unless my ex-husband permits it- and most of the time, that’s only at public events. I do get electronic visitation, but it’s not nearly the same. As someone who has always tried so hard to provide for my children and co-parent peacefully, I cannot understand how life has turned out this way. The justice system has clearly failed me.
Anyone who knows me knows that my children have always been the center of my world. Coming home every day to an empty house and being forced into a solitude I never asked for has been utterly soul-crushing at times. To say I’m happy to see 2025 coming to an end would be a gross understatement. However, there have been bright spots this year: moments that gave me hope and helped pull me through some of my darkest days:
💒 I started a new job in October that I absolutely love, and I couldn’t be more thankful that God blessed me with my role at Bartlett United Methodist Church. I only wish I could truly express how being embraced as part of the BUMC family has helped carry me through some of the hardest days of my life.
📖 I published not one but two books that I am incredibly proud of! Writing is something I have always loved, and being able to share my passion with others has been such a gift.
🥰 In November, I met someone through the most unexpected means possible, and he has helped restore my faith in dating.
I am moving into 2026 a changed person. My heart is heavier, and I am far more guarded now. I may smile on the outside, but my heart is beaten and bruised, and it’s going to take a very long time to heal the wounds 2025 left me with.
I’ve been thinking about closing this site down for a while now. I no longer operate a photography or design business, and I don’t shoot nearly as often as I once did. However, through Bible study and therapy, one theme has come up time and time again: we have to tell our story. We have to share what God has done for us and use our voices to help others.
Moving forward, the site and my Facebook page will be a place for me to share my writing. I will still share photos as I always have, but each one will come with a story- similar to my book, “Where the Heart Is: Echoes of a Place That Shaped Me”. If that’s not your thing, I completely understand if you choose to unfollow.
Here’s to 2026- may it be a much brighter, more joyful year, full of love and laughter.
