From Roanoke to Charlottesville: Reflecting on a year of big changes and small moments

It was about this time last year — I was sitting on the couch, in front of the tree, wondering where we would be spending our next Christmas. 

Tyler and I had been itching to start house-hunting again, and we knew that come spring, he would graduate and (hopefully) land a job he loved. 

Fast forward 12 months, and I’m realizing that everything and not much at all has changed. 

In July, we said goodbye to our little home in Roanoke, and hello to a new adventure in Charlottesville. It was so hard to leave the place that held our first memories as a family of three.

And while I still remember the creak of those floors, the grooves in the kitchen counters, the smell of the radiator heat, and the slam of the screen door, I'm learning to love things like that here, too.

The weeks following our move, I barely picked up my camera. Partly out of exhaustion, partly because I felt like this house hadn’t earned that honor yet, like I was betraying our first home by documenting life in this one.

But then I started seeing the same kind of beautiful moments happening here that made me fall in love with our life in Roanoke. 

Evening summertime walks. Watching Tucker splash in the backyard and finger-paint on a towel. His first jump into a leaf pile. His last night in his baby bed. Carving pumpkins. Helping Tyler bake brownies. Dancing to Christmas music on the kitchen floor — all an endless string of magic that has carried me from crying in an empty house to sitting here in front of the Christmas tree once again.

So this year, I take comfort in knowing that, really, we’re exactly where we were last year: together. And I’ll let that carry me into the new year, and all the years to come.

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Laura Richards is a family, newborn and maternity photographer in Charlottesville, Virginia. She specializes in authentic, feel-good photography that tells "the story of you" for decades. Learn all about what makes her different from other photographers in the Charlottesville area here.