In the Fall of 2018, I was having a conversation with a fellow homeschool mom named Crystal about the obvious challenge of doing my photography work with my six and two year old boys at home. I just needed a little bit more uninterrupted time to keep up the pace I believed was necessary to give my clients their photos. Here's just a few photos to give you the proper perspective of what life looked like then...
In that conversation, Crystal said to me, "My daughter, Audrey is dying to babysit!!" They apparently only lived about five minutes from us and had six kids that could keep my boys plenty busy. This sounded like it could be a great fit. We decided to start having my boys come over to their house for three hours on Mondays.
Audrey and the Schmitts (as we referred to them) were obviously TOO helpful because about ten months later, baby Connor was born and added to the chaos...cough...I mean fun!
(First photo, April 29, 2019- second 1-20-22 saying goodbye when we moved, third photo taken on 12-11-23 when we flew Audrey in to surprise the boys and watch them for a few days)
They LOVED having so many kids around that less than a year after that, they adopted three kids from Latvia. Now there were twelve kids playing on Monday's at the Schmitt's household. Nate, the husband worked from home, too. What an amazing family!
(I had the privilege of taking their first family photo with their wonderful newest additions on October 13, 2019)
Mondays became, "Audrey day" in our home. It was a day that both families looked forward to every week. Just picture twelve kids running up and down the stairs, baking or crafting, playing outside in the snow, holding bunnies, chickens, dogs, or swimming in the pool. It was epic. In my busier season, sometimes they got two days of this in a week!
This went on for about three and a half years before we moved to Florida. A year later, the Schmitt's moved to Tennessee. Geez there are a lot of parallels going on here! Ha! We had talked for many months about moving to Tennessee, both feeling the shift out of New York, but God had different plans for our family.
I have fond memories of the many conversations standing by their door chatting with Crystal, Audrey, Nate, and sometimes others about parenting, homeschooling, moving, the Buffalo weather, and LAUGHING. Crystal was a gift to me and Audrey was a gift to my boys. It's why they were included in my post about our big move down (https://www.simplycampbell.com/post/the-journey-part-two)!
When I informed Crystal that we might be in Tennessee in October, she said they could use a photographer for the oldest of the three amazing kids that they adopted, Kristine. She was a senior in high school this year!! She had grown so much since I had last photographed her!
When we drove to Tennessee for the session, of course one cannot just stop to take photos and continue on with such a family as this and a history as ours. We stayed for dinner and visited for the evening before heading back on the road at 10:00pm. We had been out of town for 18 days at that point. As much as we would have loved to have stayed longer, everyone in our family was mostly spent and ready to be home! Next time, God willing. ;)
(Left photo 1-20-22 in NY before we moved, right photo 10-23-24 in TN-Their oldest went off to college and is not pictured.)
Kristine was such a delight to photograph! It was more challenging to try to catch her NOT in a smile. According to her, I am "very funny." I guess that works out well when you are a photographer. It was wonderful to see her flourishing and hearing what she thought about living in Tennessee. To move from Latvia, to New York, and then Tennessee in a matter of a few years is a lot, but she and her siblings have adapted in an incredible manner...her great parents, pointing her to Jesus may have a little bit to do with it, too. ;)
Without further ado (because I could seriously say more), I present to you some of my favs of the stunning Kristine!
