Faith...

WOW - things have been amazingly busy for me this summer and I am simply overwhelmed with all the incredible feedback from all of my clients over the past few weeks. It makes my heart fly out of my chest when someone tells me that they litterally cried when they saw their portraits for the first time...it still amazes me when anyone other than my family loves my work. To be honest, I cannot take credit for any of it - it is all God. Sometimes I see a portrait I created and I ask myself - "how on earth did I do that?"!!! I love what I do and sometime during each of my sessions I know God takes over and works through me - my prayer is always that he will touch each and every family I come in contact with. During the time we were praying about the move to this new house and studio, it was a very trying, difficult time. We had been through so much over the past three years and we just wanted to make sure that we were where God wanted us to be. From the world's point of view, I am sure that it must have looked like we were off our rocker...gone off the deep end. A lot of people put you in a box based on your past experiences...really what is happening is they are putting God in a box saying he can't do amazing things that surpass what makes sense. I praise God that he never puts us in a box. I have learned over the past few years and now recently, that I am not in control - what I have in my life is not of my own doing - it is all from him. I am a "billboard" kind of girl - I need signs up in neon from God. God kept telling me to trust him - have faith. But I was scared. It had been an emotional couple of weeks and the day we finally made the decision to go ahead with the new house, I was driving home and passed a local church...this is what their sign said:

Faith, sees the invisible
Faith, believes the unbelievable
Faith, receives the impossible

Can it get any clearer! I really wanted to share this...maybe it might help someone. I leave you with a few portraits from this weeks sessions.

FIREPROOF...

Just wanted to share this movie with everyone - it comes out this September. It has such conviction, passion and emotion - I can't wait to see it!!!! I am sorry there have been no portraits posted lately - I have been so busy with orders, sessions, you name it....I LOVE my life!!!!!!! I promise something this week!!!

Bling...Bling...Jewelry anyone???

I have added an incredible line of custom photo jewelry to my portrait collections. I will be offering 10% off your first jewelry order but you must contact the studio with your order by June 16th. There are samples here in the studio - all of the jewelry is .925 solid sterling silver fine jewelry, not silver-plated. Each piece is handcrafted, waterproof and airtight and truly an heirloom to be treasured. The Jewelry is made to last a lifetime. You can wear your jewelry in the shower, doing dishes, swimming. etc. Your jewelry can contain a portrait that I have taken for you or a special snapshot you have taken (digital files sent to me via email). Call the studio if you would like to come by and see the samples.

Failure...

I read a devotion this morning that stopped me in my tracks. It talked about this graduation ceremony and how the speaker was a very successful. Everyone expected his speech to be on how to achieve success and go out and conquer the world...it was quite different. His hope for this graduating class was that they go out and fail. He went on to say he hoped they would fail at something that was extremely important to them. Early in his life he had one failure after another - he concluded by saying things didn't change until he learned to see failure as an effective teacher. I immediately thought about my life...I am an extreme "go getter" and I hate to fail...but my life is so full of times I have failed that I stopped counting. I remember 8 years ago, I tried to start my business and it just flopped. Again when I decided to go back to college and finish my photography program. Halfway through we ended up having to move and again, another failure. I thought about how many trials and failures my husband and I have been through in the past 3-4 years. All of these were enough to make anyone want to give up. It wasn't until I really gave everything over to God, stopped trying to make it all happen, be still and hear what He was trying to teach me. I praise God I did fail all those times. I praise God that I was knocked down enough times that I stopped to see what he was trying to teach me. If not, I would still be chasing my tail. My failures have made me successful. It is not anything I have done on my own, but what God has given me to work with. Everything in my life, He has given me...it is an amazing view. More beautiful than anything I could have ever done on MY own.

I want to leave you with some personal pictures of my kids this week. My son is so skinny that his pants constantly fall down (have a laugh when you see these pics - my daughter and I did!!!). My son keeps me crazy 24/7 and my beautiful daughter is growing up - they are my true gifts from God.