Steph & Ben {E-Session}

I have known Steph for a long time.  I don't remember when we first met but I know it was sometime after my family began to attend the same church as Steph's family.  There were a bunch of girls that were around my age that attended the church and Steph just happened to be one of them.  All of us girls loved to hang out and became close friends over the years. We have so many great memories together!  So now onto Steph and Ben's story.  Steph and Ben began to date a little over a year ago, and they are such a fun couple.  They love to joke around and have a good time!  And best of all they both love Jesus which makes their relationship so much more awesome. A couple weeks ago, Ben took Steph for a little picnic in the mountains and he proposed to her. They then asked if I would like to take their engagement photos and of course I said, "yes"!  We took the photos a couple Saturdays ago and were blessed with awesome weather!  Here are a few of my favorites from the session!

The Reeder Family

So a couple Saturdays ago I had a photo session with the Reeders.  I love this family they are always so fun to take photos of and Ava is such a cutie.  We were originally thinking that we would do the session in the studio but there were just too many fun looking things to distract Ava, thankfully it was a gorgeous day so we went outside.  Ava found a little yellow chick on the shelf while we were in the studio and she remained attached to it when we went outside so you may be able to spot it in a few of the photos! ;)  I got quite a bit of exercise during the session because I was constantly running to keep up with Ava, she is pretty fast for only being a little over a year.  It was a lot of fun, so without further ado here are a few of the photos!

Eric {Senior Session}

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to photograph Eric's senior pictures.  His mom and I had been scheduling the session for over a month and we kept having to change the date, so we were thrilled to finally meet and do the session!  Eric is a senior at Fannett-Metal High School and is considering going to college for Golf Course Management. A few of my favorites from the session are posted below!

Eric's girlfriend Megan came along so we took a few photos of them together!

Matt & Kristi {E-session}

On Saturday, I had the privilege of meeting Matthew and Kristi.  We met at Hagerstown City Park to take their engagement photos and in exactly 3 months from the day we took the photos, they will be saying "I do" and I also get to take their wedding photos too! Yay!  

Matt and Kristi are such an awesome couple and we had so much fun getting to know each other a little bit and taking pictures was fun too of course! A little bit of background on Matt and Kristi is that they met at the church where they will be married and they have been together for about two years, they actually went to the Hagerstown City Park on their first date. So it was a special place to take their engagement photos!  So with that brief background, here are a few of my favorites from the day! 

 Ahh! Seriously they're so cute!

 We decided to take some photos on the playground equipment!

The Start of Something New...

I'm always brainstorming new things to do with my business. One of the things that I have been musing lately is the idea of blogging my recent photo sessions.  I'm going to try it out and see how it goes.  At this point in my life blogging has never been a high priority to me, but I feel like venturing out and trying it from the business perspective.  Yay, for a new adventure! I love new ideas and trying new things so hopefully this will just become one more thing that I enjoy!  I like the idea of blogging after each photo session because first off it gives me an opportunity to brag a little bit about the awesome people that I just had the opportunity to meet and work with and it also lets whoever may be reading this to get to know a little bit more about me! Check back soon for photos from my recent Engagement Session with Matt and Kristi!

I am obviously not much of a blogger...

So as you can see I am not so great at updating this.  In fact I didn't even post about our last few days in Africa, and I have yet to post my photos on Facebook!  So yes, needless to say I am a little behind!  Looking back on our trip to Africa, I have a few thoughts that summarize what God has shown and reminded me of through the experience:
                 1.  We are incredibly blessed in America
                 2.   When there is a hunger for more of God, he is going to meet the expectation with his presence,                   he won't ignore our needs!
                 3.  Our actions often make more of an impact than what we say.
                 4.  No one, and no ministry is perfect.  
                 5.  When you think about the future,  expect great things because God loves to blow up the little box that we put him in.

So those are a few of the main things that I have learned through this incredible journey.  We are still hearing reports from Africa about people who were healed and about churches becoming dead to religion and on fire for the King of Kings.  In a lot of the reports we are hearing back, they keep saying we can't believe the authority and fire that us women carried.  They were so amazed that Natalie and I could minister to people and weren't afraid.  It is typical for them to think that women do not have the capacity to minister, but we were able to shake that mentality up a bit.  It's funny because we thought of it as being as normal thing for us to be involved in the ministry  when there it was something extraordinarily.  We will never be able to know how much of an impact we had, but it's exciting to be used by God and anticipate what he has in the future!

Our Journey Thus Far: March 12th

This morning we didn't do a whole lot, there was not a morning service because they ended yesterday.  We ended up only going to one the whole week, well actually Mom and Dad went to two.  I didn't mind not going because the benches were so incredibly uncomfortable, and it gave us extra time to sleep.  It is weird how our bodies react to jet lag, it is going to be interesting coming back because we will gain 5 hours.  If it wouldn't be daylight savings time in America we would gain 6 hours.  They don't have daylight savings time here.  So we walked to the seamstress to check on our dresses but she didn't have them done yet, so she told us to come back later in the afternoon.  She called then and told us that she would have them ready at 6:30 tomorrow (Sunday) morning since we wanted to have them for church.  Then a man from church picked us up and we went to his house.  I still haven't learned his name!  I feel so bad for just referring to him as a man.  But anyways it was a very, very bumpy ride there.  I don't know if I have mentioned yet but the roads are in awful condition here.  The ones that are paved have potholes half the size of cars everywhere.  Which results in weaving all around the road to avoid them. So often times people are driving on the wrong side of the road..or the middle of the road.  They don't really pay any attention to the lines either, in America a road that we would use for a two way road, they use the same size road for 4 or 5 rows of cars weaving everywhere.  Sometimes you hit other cars but you just keep going if it's not too bad.  It's kinda like bumper cars at the fair, or at least that is what it reminds Nat and I of. haha  The roads that aren't paved can be even more fun because they are mostly on hills and have deep ravines carved into them from the heavy rain.  There have been quite a few times when we have been going to church that our bus has slid around in the mud.  So back to going to the family from church's house.  So we arrived at the house (they have open sewers here by the way) and we walked back this little alley over some sort of liquid...water? sewage?  I couldn't tell, either way it smelled bad.  Then the man's wife came running out and hugged us all as well as their one daughter.  They welcomed us inside to their living room.  They had a couch and a few tables there.  So we sat down and then they gave us some fruit salad and crackers to eat.  Their hospitality was amazing, in America people would be so ashamed to have people over if they lived in a place like that.  We have barns and tool sheds that are way more elaborate.  But, these people were so thrilled that we came, and we were thrilled to have been invited!  The father told us that he wanted us to see what the inside of a middle class African house was like since we have been staying at the missionary compound.  It was definitely and eye-opener.  Then he took us to the evening service at church.  It was once again very awesome!  Probably about 300 more people came to Jesus! Yay!  Then the Bishop spoke, his message was called The Second Wave.  It was about what happens after people begin to press in for more of God, and about expanding the vision for the church, as well as the times and seasons of God.   I took 3 notebook pages front and back of notes, so it is kind of hard to just summarize in a few sentences.  But just to explain, the first wave carries a breaking anointing and opens new territory, it makes a way where there is none.  Then the second wave redefines the vision of what God has begun, it accomplishes more than the first, it renews the burnt-out and the next generation takes the front line.  The changing between the first and second wave marks the beginning of a new season.  People can't be satisfied with where they are in God, they can't be happy with just the way things are, if they want to grow!  So I don't know if that makes sense to you reading it, but it really was an awesome, challenging message.  God is doing huge things in this church here! I can't wait to come home and see what all he does in our church!