HOME. It's where you go to rest. To be yourself. To be safe, secure, and loved.
But what if you don't have a home? What if you don't have a place to call your own.? A place where things are safe and secure? A place to return when life is a mess?
The families in these photographs are (or were) part of the Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN) within Northwest Assistance Ministries (NAM) in Houston, Texas. As part of their program, IHN provides meals and shelter for families with children. Local participating churches become their HOME for a week at a time. A little bit of stability in an otherwise scary time. Still, these families move from church to church and visit the Day Center at NAM when they are not at a church. Life is chaotic.
But there, in the center of the chaos, in the center of the messiness and headache of everyday life, is HOME.
Love abounds.
Joy bursts through.
Family is HOME.
I am so thankful for my HOME - my family, my church family, my place in this world. And I am thankful that I am able to give the families in the IHN program family photographs. They would otherwise not be able to afford custom photography. I am honored to know each of the 24 families that I have photographed over the last two years. I hope to continue working with the IHN families and give them a little something to remember this messy, chaotic, and beautiful time in their lives when the LOVE that bubbles up within them and surrounds them is HOME.
Hi, I'm Tara Flannery. I am in love with life and with capturing the joy of life through photography. You are beautiful. Just the way you are. Now. Today. Let's take this moment and remember it forever.
