nothing less than a miracle

Welcome to Friday friend. I am heading out of town for the weekend with some girlfriends and won't be back to Blogland until Monday. So I'm leaving you all with some pictures of my morning that I spent with a family yesterday. Days ago they welcomed a little baby brother into their midst via a very crazy birth story. As I sat down with this beautiful mom and heard the birth story I was in awe, yet again, of how life is precious...a miracle. I will save the details of the story, simply because it would take a few blog pages to write it, but also because it would make you wanna go punch a few nurses at a certain hospital. And I love nurses (really) because I know a few, and their jobs are hard. So instead, as you scroll through the pictures, simply be reminded of how miraculous it is that babies are even born in the first place. That, for most of us, our womanly bodies know what to do when it is time to give birth. And even if our bodies do have trouble, our brains (whether it be ours or the doctor's) are super smart enough to come up with, and fight for, a solution...all to participate in the miracle of birthing life. 

I titled this one below: 40 Toes

Funny thought I had while editing this picture below: 

We enter this world with saggy, flakey skin, a double chin, poor eye sight, and uncontrollable bowels. We leave this world with saggy, flakey skin, multiple double chins, poor eye sight, and uncontrollable bowels. And somehow it is much more cuter when we are at the start line, rather than at the finish line. (Sigh) Oh to be a baby. 

I hope you know that your life is nothing less than a miracle.

Have a great weekend.

xoxo

p.s. It was a joy meeting you M family. :)

wear it like you mean it

If your face can't communicate it clearly...

Perhaps your shirt can?

I said to her...

Girl. You can hang out with my daughter anytime!

Just don't ever toss that shirt.



(Do they make them in teen sizes?)

Umbrella Outtakes...Oh JOY!

The following are left overs from our umbrella time. This one below...I know she is my daughter, but I think she is the most beautiful Bean on this planet, inside and out.  I do love her so.

And these pictures below...a testimony to her Bean-ness. As I was looking at these, my memory flashed before me scenes of her as a baby: smiley and joyful, easy (except for the sleep thing), and relational. She would smile at anyone, anything, a doorknob. She would beam a smile at you from across the room when you walked by. In her toddler years that smiley disposition developed into a sense of humor that caught us off guard. Knee slapping laughter. Nights of trying to make her big brother laugh after we put them to bed in a shared room. Where did this come from? Maybe she inherited some of her dad's wit, or Papa's corniness? When we review old videos we are reminded of how early she caught onto the understanding that laughter engages people. And she is, to this day, fond of being with people. (Dinner time is social hour, she is the last to clean off her plate.)  As she has grown older she has become quite articulate, and hilariously frank.  She is a sensitive, soft, tender, and emotive soul, blended together with a kick of comedic relief that still catches us off guard. As I write this I wonder if all parents think their child is the funniest creature on the earth? Perhaps so. But now that I pause and reflect,  I realize that Bean is just a joyful joyful creature. And that joy bleeds out the seams and cracks of her skin. 

She is still that baby that smiles at life, because she believes that life is worthy of her joy.

I am so blessed to be her mama.

iheartfaces challenge: collages (I heart collages!)

Last night, Bean and I went outside after dinner to play with our new umbrella. I was strolling through a store a few days ago and this umbrella was waiting for a nice person like me to purchase it for only $6.99. Bean is a lover of umbrellas. (She was devastated when her Hello Kitty one broke recently.) With more spring rain coming our way this week, I thought Bean might like to sport a spiffy new umbrella. 

Bean + cute umbrella = fun pictures.

I put my two favorite pictures together for the iheartfaces weekly photo challenge.

It's collage week over there. My favorite! I heart collages.
I especially heart Bean collages.
Go check out all the other fun pictures over at iheartfaces.

What to do with an unwilling subject...

Fire off a gazillion frames in hopes of catching a good one?

And then put the unwilling subject in a time out.

What a stinker.

Happy Monday blogging world!

xoxo


p.s. If you didn't check in yesterday, read about the unwilling subject's special family story.
It is way more touching than today's post. :)

Meant to be

Let me tell you a story about little big brother...

And big big brother...

And how their new little baby sister and baby brother...

were meant to be.

Their mama and dada were happy with their two older boys but something stirred in them to have another. For various reasons, they wanted to explore adopting and decided to jump through every hoop, sign every dotted line, and wait for a match made in heaven. If it was meant to be, it was meant to be.

But as I often find the story goes...while they were waiting, mama discovered she was pregnant! Thrilled with their surprise, they called the adoption people and removed their name from the potential parent list. 

They prepared for number three.  Big brothers and family were excited, all was well.

Until one day...

They received a phone call from the adoption people and it went something like this:

Adoption people: We have a baby for you.

Parents:  What do you mean?! There must be some confusion, we took our names off the list.

Adoption people: Not sure what you mean, but there is a birth family that would like you to have their baby.

Parents: But...we...are pregnant, and...took our names off of the list?

Adoption people: This family has chosen you.

Parents: But we...are.......When is the mother due?

Adoption people: Any day.

It took a prayerful moment and a quick intake of all that this would mean (bringing home a new born while pregnant with another, four kids instead of three) and yet deep in their hearts they knew that if it was meant to be, it was meant to be. How can you argue with being chosen? 

Days later they brought home baby sister (whom, I think, personally felt it was time to give mom a break from all the testosterone in the house. I mean look at those girly lips and sweet cheeks!).

And a couple of months later they brought home baby brother...

As I stood over these two, clicking away, I felt this voice in my heart say: nothing is bigger than Me Tracey. Not your plans, not your logic, not your defenses, or excuses, or your limitations. If something is meant to be, it is meant to BE. 

When we participate in the divine, the journey is amazing. 

Because I am discovering that God dreams bigger for our lives than we do for ourselves. 

I do not think this mama knew that her heart had room for two more, but God did. And when you are chosen, how great the honor and privilege to step up to the call. No matter how difficult or what you think your limitations may be, when you participate (fear and all) the return on your investment will be what you could not have possibly imagined. It is too big for your finite mind to even comprehend.

When something is meant to be...difficult or miraculous...it is a gift wrapped in an unusual package. Opening it up we find may find that it was more than we thought we could handle or imagine, but we find that it was created specifically for us to grow us, teach us, move us to a place that was better than where we once stood.

How great a gift.

Be a little explorer

He was a tiny explorer, perfectly sized to fit underneath the structure.
He was a cautious explorer, creeping carefully on the untraversed path.
He was a curious explorer, wondering where his journey would take him.

The destination was his to discover.

******

I sometimes feel so small in this world, but I know that I am built perfectly for my path.
I may be cautious, slower than some, but at least I am on an untraversed path of my own.
So I remain curious, wondering and praying where my journey will take me.
Because I know that my destination is mine alone to discover.
(And that the journey is part of the destination.)

My greatest obstacle? Fiercely holding on to what I know. (Oh safety!)

Creep if you must, but never stop being an explorer.

Happy Friday friends.
I am so very very very very very happy that it is Friday. (Exhale)

xoxo

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you...

...Lily the Great!
(Can I just say how much I like this girl and she's not even my own.)

Her lovely mother asked me to take some pictures because she had a vision of "pictures in a field". 

"No more of the tired Sears portraits," she said. Ok. I can't do boring, tired Sears portraits anyway.

So we headed out to a nearby field (there are a lot of them in this town) and then made our way up to a local winery (there are also a lot of those).

So yeah, I didn't know until after our time that Miss Lily is totally allergic to outside stuff (pollen, springy type things) and I was totally dragging her through the fields and flowers like we were on some Sound of Music shoot.  But she was totally game for it all. (She's Lily the Great!)

And did you know that she is a master bubble blower? Of course. Not all Lily's are great, but this one is for sure. And she even had to battle some breeze to get those bubbles to work. (And I had to fire off a gazillion pictures to get those bubbles before they popped. It was a work out people.)

We headed up to the winery to check the place out. I had never taken photos up there before, but I heard it was lovely. And, oh my, it was. Made me want to get married again (to the same man) just so I could have my guests overlook the vineyards and we could dance on the terrace. (And then we could leave for a month long honeymoon to somewhere sunny and coastal.)

Lily did her own dancing on the terrace, making that skirt twirl and billow with air. 

I loved the band aids. There is nothing else in the world that screams I am a little kid more than two knees patched up by band aids.

We headed back down to the fields one more time just to capture Lily and her mom in the setting sun. I just love Lily looking right at me, hanging onto her mom, the sun pouring over their hair...

Now. Here's where I was about to end my post. But I thought it wouldn't be complete without me tagging on some outtakes. My favorite part of watching a movie is heading straight to the special features section to see if there is a gag reel. (Am I the only one?) Anyway, after spending a couple of hours with these two I discovered very quickly that these two are stand up comedians. Mom should really quit her day job and become a talk show host. Lily will be the comic relief. The two had this funny, playful vibe going on that was just hysterical. So, this is for you mom...

Lily's still blowing bubbles...

Sweet Lovely Lily. 

When I asked her what her mom was doing behind me, this is what she gave me.

Two peas in a pod, I tell ya.

(Seriously, the could have their own talk show.)

More gushing (Mini Boden part II)

I have never done a slideshow before because basically I stink at technology and doing simple things like copying/pasting an html code causes mild panic. But I wanted to post so many pictures from yesterday's photo shoot that the patience of posting each one to my blog drove me to push through my technophobia.

So. I do hope you all can watch this. If it is not working please leave me some gentle comments and I will stop the madness. You can also click on my Flickr link in the side bar and go check out all the photos over there.

It was such a delight to go through every picture and swoon over her. Sweet Pea is just simply adorable. Yesterday I did plenty of gushing so I won't gush too much more but in case you didn't connect the dots...Sweat Pea is the "mini" in my Mini Boden shoot from a few weeks ago. (Still waiting for a call from head quarters to jump on a plane and come do a MB shoot.) This was part two that I promised mama I would come and do for her. So glad I did, not because I love this little face, but because I love her mom who has always been and forever will be a dear sweet sister. (smooch smooch SC)

Ok, so enough gushing! Enjoy the show...



Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I can't even stand it!

Excuse me please while I totally gush...

This face is just the most adorable face I have ever seen (not including my kids and the other really cute babies out there). She was little Miss Happy and little Miss Wiggly and totally into the ceiling fan and her diaper.

She also has the cutest little bum that I did take some modest pictures of so mama could remember just how cute it was. Her crawling skills have not quite developed but she is practicing the "get up on all fours from the belly position" which, if you have had any baby experience, you know this is the runner up move to the crawl. (Bean would do this in her sleep at night. I would check in on her before I went to bed and she would be up on all fours rocking back and forth, pacifier in her mouth, totally asleep.) 

I spent an hour with this little miss and her mama and so I have many more photos to share, which I will once I go through them, but for now I would like to gush about my second most favorite part of the day...

Lord have mercy. I can't even stand it. Sweet Pea's mama is an amazing baker and has begun a little side business that, with my constant gushing, will soon be bigger than Martha Stewart. Seriously folks, there are not enough words in my vocabulary to describe how incredible these were. She had these waiting for me when I showed up this morning and I could not believe that she had made my most favorite cupcakes in the entire universe: black bottom cupcakes. Super moist, rich (yet not overly sweet) chocolate cupcakes filled with a chocolate chip/cream cheese center, topped with chocolate ganache. I ate one on the way home in the car (almost caused an accident swerving off the road in a b.b.c. induced high). I ate one after dinner. And just now walked into the kitchen to ask my hubby if he was going to eat his, to which he asked, "Do you want to split it?"

I love that man.

I loved these cupcakes so much I had to photograph them. My friend had packed them in a cute brown Baby Gap box.  And little did she know,  the cup cakes matched perfectly with the box interior. It was all meant to be! 

I have now gushed all over my friend's facebook page like a total stalker. I begged her to strike a deal with me: I will be her personal food stylist and cupcake photographer if she will simply give me a life time supply of these cupcakes. I am so distraught that I cannot simply run to Trader Joes and buy some more. Is it too much to drive the 45 minute trek up to her house every day? Will she think me crazy to be standing out side in my bathrobe and slippers and 6am, knocking on her bedroom window asking for more? 

Topped with chocolate ganache...killin' me...