you learn something new everyday...

capturing innocence

What happened when I told them that if they knocked too hard on the guest cottage door they might disturb Grover and Elmo, who were trying to take their afternoon naps...

I may have scarred them for life. (Forgive me Mom.) But are not Little Sister's expressions so priceless? And I love that you can see Big Sis' thought wheels spinning: Is this lady for real? Are Grover and Elmo really in there sleeping? Hmmmm....

I heart kids.

How could you?!

Through the avenue of Facebook we were all given the sad news that the beloved family cat, Pippen, had run away. I had yet to post these pictures and the thought of doing after receiving the news seemed, well, a little insensitive considering that I knew some sisters were going to be a little sad.
No, mucho sad.

So we Facebook people sat, and waited, glued to our computer screens waiting in suspense for any news. Just kidding...sort of. In the mean time friends left sympathy comments and prayers for his safe return. Hours later (seemed like days) the update that we had all been waiting for finally came:  
Kitty has been found. He was at the neighbors' at the other end of the street. Thanks everyone. :)

Shame on you Pippen.

Saturday's spontaneous self-timer story in six shots (sweet!)

Special notes...

First three shots: setting up the shot, checking my settings. Who needs a tripod when two folded sweatshirts will do the trick. A little crooked, but who cares. We're being spontaneous! (And trying to make this as quick and painless as possible for the kids who are protesting having to sit for a photo.)

Last three shots: the handiwork of Little J pressing the shutter button for me, then running to our places.

The thing about a spontaneous self timer picture is that you never can see what others are doing in the picture until you upload the picture to your computer and examine the results. I just now looked at my husband and said, "Were you eating Bean's ponytail in the last picture or were you channeling your wanna be 80's rock star and using it as a microphone?"

You can't see it, but I promise you, our kids are covered in a yummy layer of dirt and grime. (Yeah for camping! I think I slept in that shirt two nights in a row.)

When you're in the mood for a doggy licky kissy moment, just go for it. Give into the moment...pay no attention to the camera timer and lick the nearest person next to you.

Just days ago a friend of mine gave me a wireless remote shutter release button for my camera (thanks D!) and right around seconds 6,7,8  I was wishing I had brought it with me. Ten seconds is a long time to hold a smile.

Don't ask me what I am doing in that last picture. When you only have a few seconds to run to your place and put on your best crazy face, and you haven't slept well in the last two nights because your mattress was going down hill and your sleeping bag wasn't warm enough, your creative mind is a little muddy and your reflexes slow. Cut me some slack.

Hope you had a great week. I'll be back on Monday with a fun VERB series. Yes, I said VERB. (Di you know that I was once a high school English teacher? Hence the alliteration fun in the post title!) You are now intrigued, no?

collision...

(I worked really hard to capture the collision of light between the two of them.
A little spark of light and love. Smile.)

Over a year ago she had a conversation with her husband that went something like this:

I know we aren't getting any younger, our two kids aren't little anymore, but we have an extra bedroom in our house and plenty of space...why would we not  fill it with a baby that needs us, that we can adopt into our family?

That's exactly what I would have thought. Not really. (Even though I have thought about foster parenting off and on throughout the years, I'm feeling a bit painfully selfish at this moment in my life.)

After some reality checks and prayerful moments they decided to go for it.

A short time later, after they dropped their junior high aged son off at a summer camp, they came home to a whirlwind of events that led them to pick up a preemie baby that was waiting for them in a foster home nearby. When they picked up their son from camp a week later they brought him his new baby brother. (Surprise!)

Now the extra bedroom belongs to this peanut of a baby brother. He is full of laughter and big smiles. Their family is complete, filled with life and love, just the way it was meant to be.

As I spent time with our friends Sunday evening I had to pull my girlfriend out into the fading light to capture her with her son. I really struggle to go on with words here as there are none sufficient to describe what I felt, or what I feel looking at these photos. I will try...

• I am struck by the love of God to rewrite our destinies. When we are seemingly lost to this world, we are found by a God that knows the number of hairs upon our head. 

• We are never without hope, without an eye upon us to know what we need, when we need it and in what manner it should be met. 

• There is a place for each one of us. That place is a part of our story.

• And I am awed by the limitless capacity of love that resides in each one of us, if we so choose to yield to it.

What a beautiful picture of the ultimate form of selfless love: putting your own needs aside to do what is good for the sake of another. I know that we are not all called to adopt needy foster babies, but I am quietly humbled by those that are. There is a special God shaped corner of their hearts that require nothing in return for the love they give. From that place they say,  I know we aren't getting any younger, our two kids aren't little anymore, but we have an extra bedroom in our house and plenty of space...why would we not  fill it with a baby that needs us, that we can adopt into our family?
Of course. Of course.


Nothing is more beautiful than to witness the collision of purpose and action, love made real by obeying the whisper on our hearts to get up and act. And nothing is more amazing to behold when two stories collide in that perfect divine timing, when all the world sees that it was meant to be.

A lesson for my heart indeed.


******

 
p.s. Remember this meant to be story?

p.p.s. Just had to share...I have known this sweet friend for twenty years and counting. I first set eyes on her and her then boyfriend, now hubby, in Genetics 10, a college general ed course for nongenetics majors. And it was at their wedding that I grabbed the hand of my then good friend, now hubby, to dance. I had no idea that he liked me, nor that his heart thumped in his chest the entire time I taught him how to swing dance. I just remember the big smile on his face as we made our way around the dance floor. Two stories colliding in that perfect diving timing...meant to be.

a little Sense and Sensibility

I have known these two sisters ever since they were babies. I am now one of those adults that says, "My look how much you've grown! It seems like yesterday you were just a baby in my lap!"  (Pah-leeze. Shoot me. I have turned into one of those gawking old ladies.) My husband has fond memories of holding one of them on his lap, feeding her ice cream and then feeling the faint warm rumble of a diaper being loaded. He also has memories of playing Candy Land with one of them, encouraging her to cheat while her dad had stepped away from the game. I have memories of going through American Girl catalogues with one of them, having no clue as to what the the big buzz was over the overpriced dolls. (Now I know.) Today, one is a junior in college, the other a senior in high school. Their youngest sister (pictured in this post) is as old as my son. I am so feeling my age. 

We visited a few weeks back and were out in the field behind their house. I insisted on the two of them joining me in the fading light so I could capture a sisterly pose. They were so kind to humor me. I am so glad they did. Look how beautiful they are!

I know one of them (the avid reader and English major) will appreciate when I liken them to two sisters out of Jane Austin novel. They really are two unique women, joined by the loving bond of sisterhood. They are Sense and Sensibility. They are Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, romantics in their own way, who will (I promise) find dashing young men who will appeal to their own sensibilities and sweep them off of their feet.  One loves literature and language, the other loves the romanticism of medieval history. (She even owns a longbow--pictures to come.) One will challenge your best game playing smarts and whip you in the end, the other will selflessly serve you up a tall glass of ice water and whip up a mean chocolate toffee brittle from scratch. If Jane Austin were still around I am sure she would find a place for these two in a novel. In perfect Miss Austin style, their stories would be told with all the smartness, humor, and romanticism that these two beautiful heroines deserve. 

I look forward to watching their stories unfold. 

amphibian

There is a tiny amphibious creature that likes to dwell in all manner of watery places.

Her favorite haunt is a little pond in the Lake Tahoe forest. 

Every summer she slips into the water and never comes out.

You can see her rise to the surface at the end of the day, 

just as the sun is dipping behind the rocky peaks.

People have been known to look for her: Tom Sawyer types with a need for adventure.

They have even experienced a few toes being snatched into her slippery grip.

Some have even tried to attempt to join her in the water in the hopes of knowing her ways.

But alas, she eludes them. She is my little pond dwelling amphibian, content to stay submerged until she absolutely has to come up for air.

p.s. No joke...this evening we were out here at this magical little pond there was a busy beaver swimming the waters with her. He circled the pond with a stick in his mouth, his head just above water leaving a water trail behind him. Bean was tickled! For the rest of the trip we called Bean our little beaver. It was so befitting that she shared the pond with him. Two little busy paddlers enjoying the evening, the pond, the light...