MPW.65 / 2013 Getting Back the Life We Had by Ryan Dorgan
Photographer
Ryan Dorgan Granger, Ind.

Team Lee

Recipient of the Biggest Leap Award
Story Summary

For a little while, Lynnsey and Daniel Betz and Lynnsey's four-year-old daughter Harley were together as a family.

The first year of Lynnsey and Daniel's still-fresh marriage was spent largely separate, in and out of incarceration, struggling with the constant battles that follow a troubled past. They lost their jobs, their home and their cars. They lost precious time with Harley.

As they work to reintegrate into each other's lives, Harley, too, finds herself in a period of change and transition. She spends her weekdays after school with her mother and stepfather, her nights at grandma's and weekends at her father's house in a nearby town.

Their personal struggles continue, but so does their dream of being a family. The pair asks for help from their own families while they take time to mend a dream put on hold.