the swanks. denver, colorado family photography

i'm the type that believes God places people in your lives for a reason. it has happened to me again and again and again. when i first announced on my blog or facebook, or i can't remember where exactly, that we were moving to denver, i got a very friendly, perky email from a stranger named haley. i won't copy it here, but the gist was, "hi, my name's haley, i live in denver, welcome to the area, please let me know if you need anything." how nice! what a friendly little lady ,i thought. maybe i'll meet her, maybe i won't, i didn't think too much more about it. but we did email back and forth a few times, and she was always so sweet, always the offer of help was there. as wide and natural as a morning stretch.

at the time, marty and i didn't know what part of the denver area we would be moving to. there were so many choices. littleton? stapleton? aurora? highland ranch? the quaint little town, where we ended up, parker, wasn't even on the list of possibilities at that stage.

time marched forward and before we knew it, it was time for uncle marty to move t to denver in order to start school and find us a place. it took awhile, a little too long. and after a few unexpected twists and turns, prayers and answers to prayers, we ended up settling on a home that seemed just perfect for our needs.

and then i got another haley email, with that same friendly tone as before. the subject line was, "NO WAY."

"my husband just came home and said he was helping a new family move into our church. i asked him what their names were, and he said he wasn't sure, he thought maybe martin palmer was the dad's name." did you follow? as luck or fate would have it, the home we decided on just happened to be within a few blocks of haley's home, and we just happened to go to the same church.

at this point, three words jumped into my mind:

meant

to

be.

and let me tell you that haley has more than made good on her offer of me ever needing anything. she found my 3 year old a preschool, she's babysat my kids more than a few times,  and she's become my running partner, to name a few of her good deeds. on the whole, she made our transition to parker completely easy, and i am grateful for the way she reached out to me every.single. day. haley is also a rad photographer who's work you can see here. plus, she's really nice to look at, which i happen to appreciate also on a daily basis. here she is with her four handsome boys.