Go Gold

Honoring child cancer warriors this month. 💛 We have many young friends (with DS and without) who have suffered through the unbelievable battle of childhood cancer. Children with DS are more likely to suffer from leukemia in particular, and Lydia is screened for it every year. It is never far from our minds, and our incredible friends & their families who have walked this road are always in our hearts & prayers.
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🎗September is pediatric cancer awareness month.🎗Today, 43 children will be diagnosed with cancer and sadly 7 children will die from this disease.

💛The causes of childhood cancer and unknown and can not be prevented.

💛Due to a lack of research, some pediatric cancers have a zero percent survival rate, either at diagnosis or recurrence.

💛All 16 different childhood cancers receive 4% of the national cancer institute’s nearly $5 billion dollar budget while other cancers receive much more.
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When a child is diagnosed with cancer, the whole family is affected and we want them to know they are not alone in this journey.

To show our love and support for the many families affected by childhood cancer we are turning Instagram GOLD this September with the support of many hubs, The Gold Hope Project, and the #teamup4goldkidsloop.
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For those of you that don’t know, @TheGoldHopeProject is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization of photographers who aim to provide free portrait sessions to families battling pediatric cancer while funding innovative pediatric cancer research.⁠⠀
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Join us by tagging your images #teamup4goldkids or to learn more please visit @thegoldhopeproject.

Group Project

Collaborative projects “Four-armed Kid” and “Tree with Arms.”

Savor

In my head moments move slowly—like a photograph. That pretty thing—paused. Analyzed. Appreciated. Life doesn’t work like that—it doesn’t stop. But can I help it if I don’t want all my memories to read like horse races: beginning, middle, end; over in a flash? The living, the meandering, the nonsensical deviant punctuation points across the day... these make up a large part of reality, too. Maybe the most real parts.

Brother Handshake

Making up a handshake. 🤷🏼‍♀️
So much stress right now, but going outside always makes me feel better.

Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields;
and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

-Irish Blessing

Never Truly Separated

We’ve been having church at home (as per everything covid), but last night we went on a walk around a special building for my faith and I enjoyed feeling closer to God. This shot symbolizes a lot of this time for me. Alone, but never alone.
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom 8:38-39 #am_covidchronicles

It’s the end of summer. It’s been a weird one but a good one. Throwback to a fav image & details of summer adventures. 💛

Forest Love

Dan and I talk often about visiting the Redwoods in CA. We have been wanting to go for years and were ready to plan that trip post quarantine. I visited that remarkable area as a child and still remember the complete awe I felt there for the earth’s beauty. It is a place like no other. Praying so hard for CA during these tragic fires, both for all the people who are affected and for the natural resources & wonders of the state. 💔🙏🏻

Happy Heartiversary!

Today is Lydie’s “New-birth day!” Two years ago today she had her second heart surgery & her pacemaker implanted. This was the day we got to say “repaired” and start moving forward. 🙏🏻
I think about Lydia on a heart & lung bypass machine, then hooked to a machine that breathed for her, and feel every day the lump in her abdomen that marks the miraculous device enabling her heart to beat regularly.
And then I see her, this baby who was once too weak to even cry or eat, learning to walk & communicate and lighting our family up with joy every single day.
When I consider these things I thank God for His hand in all the miracles that allow us to keep her one more day. A thousand days. A lifetime of beautiful, wonderful days.
Not all heart families get to this point, and today we honor them, too, as well as the Savior who brings us all our own new hearts and new-birth days in His own time. #lydiesheart #misslydiefaith

Choosing

We live nearish some schools and if you listen for them you can hear the bells throughout the day. My oldest burst into the house the other day exclaiming, “It’s the first day of school! I heard the bell!” Then later, “It’s the first recess!” My heart completely caved in. I thought of what they are missing, the effect of quarantine on their hearts & lives, and questioned all my decisions. It is so hard. But I was reading my scriptures last night and read a passage that said essentially “Cheer up your hearts! You have freedom to choose!” and that hit me. Choose to be happy. Choose to make this unique time full of positive growth. Whatever your back to school decision was, it’s not the final one—we choose every day how each day will go. So here’s to choosing to make 2020 bloom—or at least choosing to allow ourselves to bloom in it. 💛🙏🏻

#am_covidchronicles (Whenever I use this tag now it links my posts to the CDC. Whatever.)

Celebrating Photography

Happy world photography day! There’s a day for everything now, right? 😅 But I am grateful for this hobby that has helped me see and safe-keep all the beautiful little things. May all your selfies today be shameless 😉

Lake Story

I want to start a series called “Untold Stories” where I go back and edit sets of images from our many adventures & stories that haven’t been told yet. This one is one of my favs. Can you guess which brother got pushed in the lake and who did the pushing? 😅💦
#am_twoboys

Warrior Anniversaries

I learned during our first week with this girl—the one when we received two shocking, back-to-back life-changing diagnoses—that I could either throw myself into sickness & despair worrying about the future, or we could take each day, sometimes each hour, as it came and focus on that. Funnily enough, this same “live in the moment” philosophy also applies to living in the past. I try not to think about the details of Lydie’s first six months very often—particularly the scary hospital ones. But every once in many months or even a year something will remind me. I look at the pictures and read my own words from those days in disbelief. Then I remember all the things that were never said or photographed. And I marvel. At all there was and how in the world we got through it and was that really me?? Oh... yes. I have the achy scars to prove it.
But aside from those poignant moments when I pause to acknowledge the journey and all God has seen us through, I try not to think about the past. We bury it in the sweet moments of today—the progress that we’ve made and are making, and the many, many, many, MANY sacred joys this girl brings into our lives.
This is the week we remember, feel, and appreciate it all. #lydiesheart

Fancy Free

I heard school starts next week but I’m going to postpone that a little as I get my ducks in a row and also because I can do that now 😆 #am_covidchronicals

Click Pro!

Good things happen in the Target parking lot. 😆 Like when you get an email announcing that you have been accepted to @clickprophotographers !!! This is a goal I have been working towards for years and I spent most of last night crying because it felt so good to finally reach it. To be accepted to Click Pro you have to submit a portfolio of 150 images that are scored in seven different areas and you have to meet a certain score. This represents years of learning, honing skills, falling down and getting back up to try again. I mostly make my art for me and my kids, but I have been so inspired by many Click Pro artists over the years and at some point in my journey that became a standard of excellence to shoot for. I am completely honored to be included and incredibly excited for the next steps in my artist journey. Special thanks to my friends who helped with my portfolio especially @laceytaylorphotos who really helped me fine tune it. And to Dan, who has completely supported my edu and has tolerated a camera in his face more than anyone ever should. 😂 💛🎉

Maintenance

A fav and an ode to these last days of summer.