Happy Weekend

Just wanted to stop in and leave a few "honey" words and happy thoughts for you for the weekend.

Some weekend inspiration and ideas...

Go offline for the rest of the weekend. Be in the moment with your family.

Wear a sundress (no matter your size) roll the windows down ( this will require you to get your hair messed up- it will be okay!) and go barefoot all weekend (even without a tan or freshly polished toes.) Just give it a try! It is liberating.

Try a new church on Sunday morning or try church for the first time. There is no perfect church but ask Him to prompt you or lead you to the place He wants you to try this Sunday ...blessings await.

Visit your local Farmer's Market. Even if there is only a five dollar budget. Fresh from the farm taste beats the grocery store taste every, single time!

Just for the weekend- don't worry. About anything.

This is a gift you are going to give yourself.

And whatever those worries are- just write them all down and offer them up in a prayer to the Father in one brave moment and ask Him to forgive you for not trusting Him.

That is all worrying really is you know...that we are not trusting the Father fully. 

Then trust Him on a new level while wearing your sundress and going barefoot and driving with the windows down. Just begin to thank Him.

Thank Him that He is working it out. That He is going before you. That He is orchestrating and organizing and opening doors on your behalf even now. Thank Him in advance. 

Read several books to your babies- no matter their age. Then allow them the chance to read to you. They love it and it is time well spent with them.

Get the camera out. Take some pictures with your children.


Even if it is like herding cats. (ask me how I know...) Do it anyway! Don't give up! Mama must be in the pictures this weekend. Set it on auto timer if you have to. Don't get upset if they are crying, running from you or stripping down to their Superman underwear. Just keep trying. You will cherish these photos almost immediately- promise. 

Listen to some amazing music. It is healing.  Jazz, classical, gospel, praise and worship...it's all good.

And lastly, bake a little something.  Your family will love you for this and your home will be filled with fresh baked goodness.

I hope you soak up every drop this weekend! All while you are offline, wearing a sundress, going barefoot, driving with the windows down, listening to music, reading to your babies, taking pictures, baking something wonderful, not worrying, trusting on a new level and trying a little church on Sunday morning.

Happy weekend sweet friends....

The True Measure Of A Man

We recently celebrated twelve years of marriage and fourteen years together~ as a family.

We've always been a family.

I was a single mama raising my baby girl of just eight years old when I met my husband.

I can remember sharing about my girl right after meeting him.

And going ahead and "letting him know" right away that he could just keep on keeping on because I most likely was not what he was looking for in a date, a girlfriend and especially a wife.

He thought it was wonderful....that I had this gift of a daughter.

He insisted that we at least have dinner.

I could hardly wait but was worried at the same time.

Most men were not interested in a "woman with child" type of relationship.

But I was wrong.

He was wonderful. By every possible definition.

I can remember later on in our relationship when he shared some of the kindest things he's ever spoken to me.

During a time of feeling insecure and worried that I wasn't enough.

Worried that I was just damaged goods. Worried that I wasn't really his dream girl.

He was busy planning our future together.

He shared with me how lucky he felt to be able to see what kind of mother I was before he married me.

"How many men get that opportunity?"

"To know the woman you are marrying is going to be a good mother?"

Tears.

And my girl?

He loved her. With the kind of love that is written about in the good book.

He loved her like nothing I had ever witnessed- or experienced.

He loved her and adored her and blessed her and made her his.

The Father created my husband with the spirit of adoption in his heart.

My girl was the one who made him a father.

On May 20, 2000 right there at that glorious alter.

He became a husband and a father in the same moment.

A double portion.

It was as if it had always been.

I can remember after dating a short time he shared with me that he wanted a basketball team.

A big family.

Which had always been my dream.

But I had never heard another man talk about dreaming of a having a big family of his own.

Dreaming of playing in the NFL? Winning the US Open?  Or landing an amazing job? Yes.

But a big family? Never.

I couldn't believe his heart.

And so it happened...after thirteen years of waiting for two pink lines.

Because of God's unmerited grace....

He poured out a team of children to two very undeserving people.

Half a dozen precious ones to raise up in the admonition of the Lord.

Raising a big family can sometimes feel like the hardest thing in the world.

But our joy is multiplied six times over.

With each baby our knees stay on the ground longer.

More prayers.

More petitions.

More forgiveness.

More grace.

More mercy.

More to thank Him for.....


Martin Luther King Jr. said it best when he said these words...

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

So powerful. So true.

I also believe that the true measure of a man can be found in the love he pours out onto his family during times of adversity.

In spite of adversity.

That doesn't mean perfection. Lord knows there isn't anything even close to perfect in this house.

There is no perfect husband, perfect wife or perfect family.

Only a perfect God.

There are times of frustration and sadness and despair and wishing for brighter days, for all of us.

But when the bottom drops out ...

To know that he still has something left to give us.  Some love left to comfort us. Some faith left to cling to. Still has some hope left to offer us....

Is a humbling thing.

I have watched this man lay his life down for this family.

Lay his life down so that the gospel can be heard.

Lay his life down to serve God's people. Love God's people. Love a wife who loves God's people.

I have watched him get on a 5:09 a.m. train and commute into the city for two hours a day for ten years so that our first born could attend incredible public schools and live in the suburbs in a wonderful community.

I have watched him get up before the sun. Never miss a day of work unless babies were being born.  Never even be late for work for twelve years. I have watched him be brought to his knees at the thought of not being able to provide for us when job loss became part of our testimony.

I have watched him remain faithful to a grueling commute to another state for two and half years and only be able to see us on the weekends, if that, in order to provide for us.

I have watched Him pour into a family- without being poured into in the same way.

I have watched him give generously over and over again in every possible way to many.

Without that generosity ever being sown into his own life.

I've watched him sow and love and pour into a family with every card stacked against him and through what would cause many to collapse in life...

Without help, support, counsel, mentors, pastors, leaders or extended family.

I have watched him stare cancer in the face and beat it- survive it.

I have heard the prayers and the pleading with the Father in the midnight hour to provide for us when job loss hit our family the week of Thanksgiving last year and during the months of crisis that followed that.

I was humbled by his prayers and petitions for months for The Pearl Event. For the Father to gather his daughters and pour out and bless others even in the midst of a time of tremendous adversity within our own family.

To watch a grown man pray for hundreds of women he's never met- because his wife had a dream
that a single pearl would be the reminder that they are loved and that it is not over....

Is a beautiful thing.

Thank you sweetheart.

From the very depths of my being.

For being the gospel to us.

For loving us unconditionally.

For pressing in when you could have given up.

For not withholding.

For being the strong tower of unshakable faith during some of the hardest and most pressing years of our lives.

I celebrate you and honor you this week of Father's Day and always...

The very best is yet to come. He has promised us that....

Pearls and Grace Photography

After much prayer and consideration and discussion about this for years....

I am excited to share the official start of my photography business. By His grace alone.
After years of photographing many friends and their beautiful children for free and after a short
try with it as a business in between having babies, I am happy to share that it is now official!

You can look through photographs here on the blog to get the look and feel of my style but it is very much an artistic approach to photography. I am not big on posed photos. I love a more candid capture.

I usually do the opposite of what you might expect when shooting. I photograph the wrinkles in the feet of children and the scrumptious hand and arm rolls on newborn babies, as well as the back of their tiny heads. I love a family of children piled on top of one another on a favorite quilt or little ones in pink tutu's with rose petals tossed up into the air. I'm an artist at heart and think outside the norm with every natural light shoot.

I look for what might be special to you and do my best to add it in to the session. I want to know you and your family and what is sentimental and special to you that you would like to remember.

And then there is the styling element. I love to style and used to do that for a living.
And so it seemed like a natural option to offer in my business and one that I thoroughly enjoy!

To help you choose or to offer clothing for the session is something that makes me want to twirl....

This little pearl of a business is based out of Tennessee but will be available in Seaside, Florida
several times a year with enough bookings.

And Seaside is filled with more charm and beauty than one girl can manage.

It is a photographers dream.

I have been shooting there since 1997 and it is where I have captured the images that make my heart sing the most.

It is a glorious place but any place along the gift that is 30 A is really stunning.

So if you would like to be one of my first official clients and you are in the Seaside area please leave me a comment or send me an email and I would love to capture God's glory in your family.

Lastly, I want to thank you for your many words of encouragement over the years with my photography and I am so looking forward to meeting you and capturing your family whether it be near the beauty of rolling hills in Tennessee or near the seashore of Seaside, Florida.

To God be the glory.

Just Wait

Holding God's faithfulness~ Spring of 2009

A tiny voice yelled inside the house yesterday....

"Mama, hurry!"

"The turtle had a baby! There is an egg!"

My sweet girl was beside herself with excitement and reached down and touched the egg and wanted to hold it.

"Oh don't touch it baby!"

"You can't touch it."

"Why Mama?"

"Because honey. God is trying to do something. If you touch it.....
You could mess the whole thing up."

And right there in the frame of those simple words was the wisdom I needed for my own life.

I'm not sure if I can count the times I've touched what God was trying to do in my life and most likely messed the whole thing up.

I've given up too soon.

I've settled.

I've shut it down.

Stepped on it.

Pushed it aside.

Been angry about it.

Been careless with it.

Dismissed it as nothing.

I've sat on giftings and talent and ideas.

Convinced it was never going to happen.

When I wanted it to happen. How I wanted it to happen.

I've messed up and fallen short and touched what the Master was creating without
allowing Him to complete His purpose many times.

Sometimes out of exhaustion and frustration.

Sometimes out of a lack of patience and disappointment.

But if we will just wait.

If we can just wait on the Lord. 

There are things stored up that are about to be released.

There is a divine timing for your life and only One who orchestrates it all.

There are beautiful things with your name and your name alone labeled across them.

There are ideas that will change lives that are set aside for you and you alone.

There are books and songs and stories and teachings and business ideas that will help, heal, teach and deliver a multitude of God's people- all with your name on it.

There is a calling, a ministry, a job opportunity, an open door that is yours and yours alone.

There is a healing that belongs to you. For your broken heart, your broken body or broken faith.

There are authentic friendships of Godly men and women~ pillars of faith~ ordained for your life.

There is a spouse who is a strong tower of love and hope and faith and comfort and who was made to walk perfectly with you.

There is a restoration coming upon your family, your marriage and your relationships.

There is a home for you that only God could make available.

There are two pink lines, and nine glorious months and a newborn tucked inside your arms that have ached for years.

There are adoption papers signed, sealed and delivered and a beautiful baby who will call you mama and know you as a living, breathing example of the love of Jesus Christ here on earth.

The Father is at work.

If we can just know this truth in the innermost places of our heart.

He has not forgotten you.

If we would remember not to touch what God is trying to do.

Not to get in His way.

Not to give up. Not to shrink back.

Not to allow the sting of despair to fill our heart and mind and spirit.

If we could just keep our hands still and our hearts focused on Him.

On His faithfulness. His truth. His word.

If we could trade our hopelessness for His promises....

Soon.

Everything is going to change for the better.

And there will be a testimony of a life transformed and the faithfulness of a Father who loves you with an everlasting love.....