2 Elves

Elf on the shelf... Our elf, Eddie, requested special permission on Saturday night to stay a little longer with our family since he joined us so late this year! My middle daughter, was super excited to come down Christmas morning to find a balance beam AND Eddie still here. She climbed up on the beam just like him and they had a nice conversation. Unfortunately all I had on hand was my husband's little point and shoot! Check out I Heart Faces to see many clever Elf's this December!

Sunday Snapshot

Ok, ok, ok... this little neglected space of the internet is getting a small slice of my time tonight.  I am playing along with Stephanie over at Ni Hao Yall and entering my Sunday Snapshot.  In general I love taking pictures and working with them in post processing but despite massive improvements in my photoshop knowledge... I could use some help with post processing! 
This is my little stinker Ruthie! I was working on taking a couple of photos of her after the other two were tucked in bed.  I was shooting at ISO 1600 on my canon D20 which doesn't really handle 800+ ISOs very well.  I was using the on camera flash and diffusing/bouncing the light with my hand which gave the photo a very warm feel.  This is SOOC with no post processing.  During Ruthie's photo-shoot she waited ever so patiently for the perfect chance to grab my iphone and then let out a cackle!   I snapped this picture as quickly as I could so that I could capture this little squirt in action.  Proof to all her adoring fans that she does have a little mischievous streak :) I love this photo as it gives a little glimpse of  her personality behind that beautiful little face!  Ruthie, you add a joy and love of life to our family and all 4 of us adore you.


The formal shot below:

thoughts... and the last piece of an end

I don't know why but my blogging always comes back to adoption.  :) My little "In Quest of Light" blog hasn't really done much.  I have been largely uninspired and well, busy!  I do have a couple of ideas for this little space and I may begin working on them soon but I have a different post for today.
Today, when I cam home there was a flat envelope on our door step.  It was beat up and dirty.  When I picked it up, and saw the return address, I knew exactly what it was.  Our dossier... paperwork very lovingly and meticulously put together  7 years ago.  As I opened up the envelop and held the papers I have to admit it was a hard moment.  So much has happened, has healed, has numbed since I kissed the pages that held our pictures thinking then that the next time I saw those pictures, it would be in my child's hands.  When we withdrew from the adoption 2.5 years ago, we requested our dossier back.  I didn't really want all my personal info just hanging out in a random office of Colombia but as it never came back, sometimes I would dare to hope that maybe by some crazy happen chance, we would end up getting a referral.  But that never came and so 2 years later the dossier has come, full circle, back home and the adoption is a distant memory.  The Lord has blessed us and we are not childless but where we were once a whole family, now there is someone missing.  A loss that is tucked in my heart and will always accompany me.
In my life now, many people that are friends and part of my life don't know anything about our adoption or that we were once a waiting family.  It came up in conversation a few weeks back and just saying "we applied to adopt once" came out sounding very foreign and weird as if it were just a crazy dream, a distant memory with a very real scar.
I don't really know what to make of all of my emotions today.  They are not as strong as I thought they might be, but they are still haunting.  The adoption is finally closed.  There is no opportunity for false hope.  If feels sad.

Yellow

Oh I have neglected my I Heart Faces posts :) in light of the craziness that is the end of the school year. And in part because Sunday and Monday are just busy. I hope they go back to Monday & Tuesday! However how could I resist the yellow theme? It is my all time favorite color. I love this picture. Often when the kids take a picture together, B will give MB a guess for the camera. I guess he wants proof that he is nice to his sister! Anyway... at a beautiful St. Simon's wedding the kids got to get in the trolly that the wedding party was taking to the reception. I pulled out the camera and MB leaned over to kiss B before he could even move. It was too cute!

Check out the other great photos at

http://www.iheartfaces.com/2011/05/photo-contest-yellow/#more-5068

Slice of Life- I Heart Faces

I know the color isn't perfect and the picture is grainy but this is how I will remember these years. In January we got a big snow fall which is unusual for our area. We were stuck in our house for several days. After the 4th day, we braved the iced over roads with some friends to go to the Bounce House with the kids. It was a perfect morning.

Check out all the other images at...

Anything but a face

On my son's 4th birthday, we took a walk up to the fire station. He was so mesmerized by the big engines that I stopped trying to take his picture with his face and instead captured this moment.

Click on the image for a bigger image.
Check out the other entries at....

People's Choice- Best Face

One of my favorite shots of Maggie Brooke... ever! (Click on the image for full size view.)

Check out all the other wonderful faces at I Heart Faces!

My utmost...

Every time I go back to "My Utmost for His Highest" I am just amazed at the writings. If I tried to take the most meaningful quote from each day, I would end up quoting the entire daily devotion...

I Heart Faces- Winter Wonderland

This week's theme is Winter Wonderland. This moment was captured when my son was experience what I think will be his first memory of snow. :) Click on the to view the image larger.

Check out all the other wonderful pictures over at I Heart Faces!

A new name.

Although this is a very new blog with very few posts and even fewer viewers, I am changing the name. I have been wanting to start a new blog for some time and although I have had a general idea bouncing around in my head for sometime, it has been very hard to have that idea materialize. I finally acquired a new blog address about a month ago so that I could enter the I Heart Faces weekly challenges. I am not a professional photographer, an amateur photographer would be a kind description but photography has always captured me. It is a voice, it is a art, it is a memory. And I want to get better at it (I know... I know... a sentence fragment, but it is how I think!) So I picked a blog address and put a few pics up and it met the requirements for I Heart Faces but yet I was still very uninspired. I didn't have anything to write about or even to say either through words or photographs.
As the new year has rolled in, I have reflected on my last 32 years and made some "goals" for the coming year and it is in this process that I found my inspiration. Light. For seeing light and feeling its warmth and beauty is something I do naturally, a gift I might say, but capturing it and reflecting it is another story. My epiphany came when I realized that this was true from a photography standpoint as well as spiritually. And that is something I want to get better at. So this is my journey for 2011 and on. Being quiet and seeing the Light, capturing it and reflecting it. I am not perfect. I will fail at times, maybe most of the time... but this is the journey I choose. -Jacq

Rainy Day

The other day it was raining so hard that you couldn't see the neighbors on the hill behind my house.  The light was unusual so I grabbed my camera and took a shot!

Missed shot

Well I didn't quite make the I Heart Faces challange.  I have a great idea but I will have to work on it some before I think I can get it.  However I did find a giveaway to HomeGoods on No Big Dill's blog.  Check it out!

I Heart Faces- Scenic B&W

Cusco, Peru at night

This is my first time entering a I Heart Faces contest.  I chose a night photo for my entry.  I love that you can barely see the Christ statue at the top of the frame as he looks down and keeps watch over the city. I also love how the lights seem to dance off the picture.
Make sure to view the other scenic pictures at I Heart Faces this week!

A New Blog

Wow, a new blog.  I'm not really sure if anyone will be interested in it or not, but it is an "authentic audience" as my Education professors would like to say.  An authentic audience inspires me to write and post, even when the writing is done mostly for me. So here I am, starting a new blog.  I hope to focus on my photography... not that it is special but the hope is that it will get better.  I hope to stretch myself, get some feed back and share my world, at least the world I see from behind the viewfinder!  Enjoy.