Hello Sweet Friend!
My name is Heather and I’m just the girl next door trying to figure out life, one day at a time. Aside from my dad’s death when I was a freshman in high school, my life was pretty easy breezy. I got married in 2000, started a family in 2002 and by the end of 2005 I was a stay at home mom to 3 precious, wild and crazy boys. I was happy ‘just being a mom’ and loved the day to day adventures we had together. Life was good. At some point, life became less and less good and it all boiled down to a failing marriage. I refused to admit it. I spent years in counseling trying to figure out how to fix things. By the fall of 2010, the realization that our marriage was teetering on the edge of extinction was apparent and we spent almost the next 5 years trying to finalize a very complex, multi faceted, mentally exhausting divorce.
In the fall of 2011, I knew I needed to transition from a stay at home mom to earning a living. Photography has always been a passion of mine, so I began learning more about manual settings, lighting, posing, and began my business. Each year has provided more growth than the last and now I specialize in seniors and weddings and travel nationally and internationally for destination weddings. Sweet Lemonade Photography, capturing life’s sweetest moments. I’m the girl behind that business. The name is perfect. Life gave me lemons and I now am running my own business, co-owning Sweet Darling Weddings, and able to work my schedule (for the most part) around my children. No sweeter lemonade than that!
And you know what…. I am confident that I NEVER would have had the courage to start this business had my world not gotten flipped upside down, drowning me in so many unknowns, mentally exhausting me (some days I crawled back into bed after I dropped the kids off at school and didn’t get back out of bed until I had to pick them up), uncontrollable tears realizing the life I knew, and that I was comfortable with, had vanished.
But guess what? Not only have I survived, I have thrived… and in ways I never thought possible. And it’s because of the darkest period of my life.
I cut the clutter from my life. I reduced my commitments. I focused on me and my boys. I sought God out harder than I ever had before. I did more soul searching. I read more books. I realized I was good enough. I was created perfectly by our heavenly Father who loves us like no one on Earth ever will. And I’m learning that, THAT is enough.
Some days are still tough. I go through periods of sweet and sour. That’s life. But Lord have mercy, I never would have seen these sweet days, that keep getting sweeter, if life hadn’t given me a bunch of lemons.
At the urging of friends, I’ve started this blog. I’m not exactly sure what kind of form it will take yet but what I’d like to do is provide some hope for others struggling, humor to make you laugh, and spread some love and kindness to others just by sharing my heart.
I’m an open book. Who knows, what I’ll decide to blog about. But I’m glad you’ve decided to open up my book and see what my life is all about.
Welcome to my Chapter 2… a fresh start.
Cheers to new beginnings!
XOXOXOXO
~Heather
Heather@SweetLemonadeLife.com
Photo Credit: My Sweet Darling Weddings partner Kristin Darling (also with kDarling Photography)
