Greenville South Carolina Family Photographer | Molly Flanagan » In Home Family Lifestyle Photojournalistic Storytelling Photographer serving Anderson, Greenville Upstate South Carolina Molly Flanagan

Yesterday my husband and I celebrated Valentine’s Day by going out for Indian food. It tasted so amazingly good that we both had to sit in silence for a few minutes afterward, basking in the deliciousness of our curried food coma. For me there are no words that come close to describing the all encompassing experience of eating good Indian food.

In the same way, I can not find words that come close to expressing how honored I was to play a part in the lives of the Geurink family by telling a tiny part of their story. I have been trying to figure out what details to share about this family, but no matter what combination of words I use, my words fall short.

The Geurinks did an internet search for “lifestyle photography greenville sc” and I am so happy my name appeared on that list! Thank you internet!!! Michael and Katrina are missionaries working with Amazon tribes where Brazil, Peru, and Colombia all come together. Rarely stateside, they do not have a permanent home in America, so they live in this old bus from the 1960s with their 4 Brazilian children, each of whom have the most incredible adoption stories.

We’ve always said, “Home is where we are together.” We’re not tied to one particular house or city. Our home in Brazil has been a boat we named Peregrino, which means “pilgrim” in Portuguese, because we truly are strangers and pilgrims on the earth looking forward to a permanent city. – Michael Geurink

By faith [Abraham] made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country…for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. . Hebrews 11:9-10

Trent and Ashley are in the process of building a house and I am so excited to help document this moment in their journey. I felt fortunate to be with them at this time, knowing they just raised the frame of the house where they will raise their two boys.

Soon the roof will be finished,
bricks laid,
electricity will run through the walls.
Plumbing lines, counter tops,
driveway and mailbox will all be put in their places.
Furniture will be arranged, pictures hung.
Meals will be made.
The yard will become green grass and gardens instead of red South Carolina clay.
Toys and homework will be strewn about the tables and hallways.
Time will pass.
And in the process this house will become a home.

My mind can’t help but fast-forward to years from now when when these blonde babes are fully grown, pulling into the driveway to bring their own children to visit Grandma and Grandpa. They will take their children through the house reminiscing about all of the memories held in each corner. Memories that, today, they have not yet made.

Today it is just a frame surrounded by mud, but each day Trent and Ashley and their kids live and breathe as a family, this house becomes more of a home. While they have a tangible blueprint that tells them exactly what their house will look like once it is built, there is no simple blueprint of how a house really becomes a home. Yet the process is part of the adventure. And this adventure is just beginning…

Material goods & self-glorifying domestic perfectionism are definitely not the heart of the home. The heart of the home is found in the relationships nurtured there and the comfort offered to one another – comfort we have first received from God, the Father of compassion, and then share with one another. – Carolyn McCulley

Email me at mollyflanaganphotography(at)gmail(dot)com or send me a message through this blog contact tab to learn more about having your own story told. xoxo