Since I don’t normally blog about my personal life and it’s actually really nice to know your photographer before you decide to work with them, here’s ten things about me and my life that you should know. 🙂

1.) I broke my first bone at the prime age of 34. I’m so graceful that I fell in a parking lot racing my daughter to the doors of the rest area. I broke my shoulder and chipped my tooth as I fell to the pavement. It was not one of my finer moments. However, that break, along with time off work, lead me to specialize in High School Seniors and it is one of the best decisions I ever made. My girls bring me so much joy.

2.) I love being outdoors, although not as much when it’s cold. I’ve always loved hiking but that’s a little difficult to do here in Indiana. I settle for kayaking, brisk walks with my 3 dogs and laying on the shores of local lakes.

3.) Last year I took up cycling. The world looks totally different from a bike and I am obsessed. If you haven’t rode a bike lately, do it, you won’t regret it.

4.) I was an only child the majority of my childhood. I didn’t find out I had a half brother until I was in the 7th grade and my step brother moved in with us in 8th grade. I went from an only child to having 2 brothers almost overnight. I’m thrilled to have siblings and I have the coolest nieces and nephews on the planet.

5.) I am a night owl. As a matter of fact, I am writing this at 3 am while serving at our church that is currently a Red Cross shelter for people displaced by recent flooding. I have tried everything I can think of to become a morning person and well, it just ain’t happening.

6.) I don’t watch TV, except the occasional binge of HGTV. I stopped watching TV about 2 years ago after reading the book, “The Power of Vulnerability” by Brene Brown. She goes into detail about how shows that I loved like, CSI, SVU and even the news create a lot of unnecessary fear in our lives. I decided then I would control what I viewed and now I rarely watch TV. I am however, quite the YouTube junkie. Anybody else a huge Desi and Katy fan?

7.) I’m also a documentary junkie. I have a ridiculous need for information and get hooked on documentaries. Any good recommendations?

8.) One of my dreams is to spend significant time serving and photographing refugees. While at the Newseum in DC about a year ago, I was incredibly moved by an exhibit of many different photographers prospective on refugees across the world. I believe the ability to create is one of the greatest gifts from God. Being able to create and bring a world that seems so foreign to us, to the forefront of our awareness, that’s powerful.

9.) It’s about to get deep and personal. No judgement zone.

I struggle with Bipolar 2 disorder. Don’t worry, I’m not completely out of my mind…yet. At the young age of about 13 I started to struggle with major depression. My teen years, while I had lots of friends and my life from the outside looked great; I was internally an emotional disaster, far beyond what normal teens experience. One day I’m up, confident and living the good life, the next day I felt hopeless and I couldn’t get out of bed, for no reason at all.

I’ve continued to struggle on and off for the last 23 years. I actually didn’t get a proper diagnoses until early this year and it was one of the most emotional moments of my life. It’s not the easiest diagnoses to swallow but I am so relieved to finally have answers and proper treatment. Many many years of doc appts, diagnoses after diagnoses, drug after drug, I had given up even trying to figure it out for many years. Which brings me to…

10.) Jesus is everything to me. I came to know Him at the age of 22 but even before I trusted in the Lord, He was very present in my life. Here is one of my most recent, of many, testimonies.

I was greatly convicted towards the end of last year after falling into a long depressive state, to seek help from a therapist. I had created a lot of safeguards in my life over the years to keep me from deep debilitating depressions but nothing was working and I was sinking fast. It’s still hard for me to admit, stupid pride I guess, but I needed help.

I went into therapy fully trusting that God would lead me in the right direction and this time it would be different. Through a few weeks of therapy and someone finally asking the right questions, He pointed me to my answer. A diagnoses that finally fit. “Ask and you shall receive” (Matthew 7:7). I couldn’t believe after all these years, I had never thought to ask Him for answers, I just dealt with it (insert banging head on wall).

Armed with my recent findings, I wrote out a timeline of my life to find the patterns. Then something incredible happened, I saw with my own eyes, just how much Jesus has cared for me and protected me through so many deep dark times. I am living proof, God will always work things out for your good. I’m beyond blessed.

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:16‐21

This is the verse that our current women’s ministry challenge is focusing on. I just happened to be diagnosed the week before this challenge started. God’s work is no accident. I know that just got super deep but knowing someone, is knowing their stories and Jesus is a big part of my story. There truly is no greater love and I can’t help but share.

So, that’s a little more about me. Comment below with some things people don’t know about you.