"Farther Along" - Josh Garrels

I am loving the new Josh Garrels album. You can get it for free right here. He's a true lyricist and songwriter. I'd be embarrassed to admit how many times I've listened to this song on itunes already. Okay, I'll tell you, 94 times, THAT'S how good it is.

If you know what's good for you, you'll go download it right this second.

Then listen to the song called Ulysses. Because that song , whew, THAT song hits me at the core of my very being.

*sigh*

What would I do without music?

It's the equivalent to those all-comforting two words "me too". To know that others have thought my same thoughts and been through what I've been through, that's worth everything and somehow makes going through the hard stuff just a little bit more bearable and little more hopeful.

mark and courtney

i just love these two together.

just perfectly so.

sweet love

so many cute ones of ben and dacia.

LOVE karyn's hair

Somehow a few pictures I snapped while getting ready for my lovely friend Karyn's wedding went missing until just yesterday.

She had the most beautiful hair.

Just look at it.

I loved it, so much.

Hair by Heather B. Simon at Tribe Studio, located in Portland, OR.

ben & dacia

I'm really excited for these two.

They are beautiful people inside and out and the way I've seen them both serve the people and community around them just blows me away.

I couldn't be happier for them.

I had so much fun shooting their engagement pictures last weekend out on Sauvie Island.

We had fun scouting out places and thinking of fun ideas.

I'm not done editing yet, but I had to share a couple with you all.

:)

Life in Camp Hope

As I type this, the team that's headed to Camp Hope are running around checking things off their "to-do" lists and counting down the number of sleeps until Haiti.

I won't be joining them this time and it kills me; it literally aches in my heart.

I just want to be with them and joke with them and experience joy with them.

But it will have to wait, and until then I will be with my people here and joke and experience joy here, and wait until I can go back again.

Enough, whining.

I am thrilled to be sending down the second half of our portrait project to the camp.

In February, Carly and I went from tent to tent capturing the lives and faces of the residents of Camp Hope and promising them a portrait of their family to keep.

This is the awesome part of it too. Something that was intangible and a possible false promise from a couple American girls will become a beautiful tangible gift for these families.

I don't have loads of money to give away but I do have a camera and time, so that's my gift.

It's a small gesture, but I know they will be so grateful for it.

That makes me happy.

maddox

Is he not the cutest?

This is Maddox, my friend Janine's little nephew.

He's such a cutie and a lover of the camera.

I bet he'll be a model someday.

Can I just say how much I love those newsies hats?

I love them, so much.

I think all little boys should be required to wear them.

Actually,

I think boys of all ages should be required to wear them.