Adoption Photo Blog

When I was in jr high I was gone for two weeks in the summer. I went to Mountain TOP (church camp) for a week, came home for one night, and then left for a week in Panama City with Christy and her family. When I came home after the first week, there was new carpet going in my bedroom and the hall, but I had no idea that I was coming home from the second week to a whole new bedroom. There were sunflowers everywhere and it was one of the happiest, most beautiful rooms I had ever seen. This room began about a 5 year obsession with sunflowers - the kind that starts out strong and ends in burn-out - and I really haven’t loved them as much since. Until I saw this outfit.

Coco Bonbons Maisie Collection for Summer 2008 was this beautiful combination of sunflowers, yellow, brown, green and cream and for some reason I knew it would suit Norah perfectly. Originally I had in mind that she could wear this for her beach pictures, but when I tried it on the night of our beach photo shoot, the straps wouldn’t stay up and I knew it would be a bad idea. So I waited. Until today.

The straps are still a little big (it’s an 18 month size) but the rest of it fit perfectly. And her personality just shined while I was photographing her. We shot for all of 15 minutes and got probably 20 “keepers.” I am thinking one of these could end up as my “one-year” picture of her on a canvas. You’ll have to tell me what you like!

I am a sucker for a black & white

And the strap is falling off her arm here, but I still love this picture. If I can photoshop the strap, this might make the one year canvas.

I was torn about shoes with this outfit. It does have green dots that are the same color as the green shoes, but I’m still not sure it’s the right look. I put brown shoes on her first, but they were too boring and I didn’t like the way they looked at all. I am typically in favor of bare feet, but I think she would have sat down immediately if she was barefoot because we were outside and it was rocky/uneven.

Yes, the title of this post really is THAT long. There will be many facets to this post - I hope you will stay with me to the end.

1. Encores and More North Childrens Consignment Sale
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that my friend Brea runs a childrens consignment sale in rivergate each summer and winter. The upcoming Fall/Winter sale is August 9-16 and it will be my third sale to shop there. While I have been to many childrens consignment sales in my day, never have I been to one like Brea’s. This sale includes over $900,000 of new with tag Gymboree clothing at 60-80% off retail (we all know my unnatural love for Gymboree when I can get it cheap). The sale also features a huge selection of boutique items - think smocked dresses from Remember Nguyen, Greggy Girl, trendy Baby Lulu, and the list goes on and on. At the last sale, I bought several pairs of Baby Lulu PJ’s for 75% off retail, and even got Norah a pair of her favorite Pediped shoes. All of this to say - this is a childrens consignment sale that has top quality merchandise for a fraction of retail prices. It is well worth the 45 minute drive from my side of town…and I will probably do it at least twice during the sale! I highly recommend you do it too.

2. They say (and I have no clue who “they” are) that food preferences are established in the first years of life and if you expose your child to a variety of foods they will be more likely to accept and enjoy new things throughout life. Makes sense to me. We are trying to broaden Norah’s horizons when it comes to food. I am offering her tastes of pretty much anything and everything that would be healthy for her to eat. While we were at Grammy & Granddaddy’s she gobbled up cucumber/onion salad - yes soaked in vinegar - and asked for more. She also had pork chops and purple hull peas that night. She ate my French Onion soup at Atlanta Bread Company in Germantown. She ate Fried Green Tomatoes at Jim N Nick’s. She ate pieces of red and green bell peppers and let me feed her small bites of my salad at lunch on Sunday. Peanut butter can cause a serious allergic reaction, so you’re supposed to exercise caution when introducing it to your child. Our pediatrician had told us it was fine to let her try it after her one year checkup, but to keep an eye on her after it. I hadn’t been brave enough until today, but we let her try the thinnest layer of peanut butter on a graham cracker and she seemed to really enjoy it. Some of her other current favorites are blueberries, mandarin oranges, cheese quesadillas, cheese pizza, green beans (cooked in low-sodium broth), and chicken. She’s also getting big enough to manage a sandwich in her carseat - I gave her a grilled cheese a quarter at a time and she ate it happily. Not that I want her to eat all of her meals in the car or have fast food all the time, but on a road trip, this was a helpful development.

3. I feel embarrassed to admit that it has been two months since I had sent a letter or pictures to Norah’s birthmother and our social worker emailed and said that “Mama L” called and wondered if we would send some. It made me cry to know that she has probably been looking for them every day for the past month (I have sent them once a month for the past year) and that she’s been disappointed, worried, sad, etc. because I hadn’t done it. You better believe I sat down last night and wrote a 3 page letter to catch her up on everything, and uploaded a bunch of pictures and had them printed at Wal-Mart and that they will be in the mail to her tomorrow. Seriously, not a day goes by that I don’t think about Mama L, and I think that will only increase as Norah grows and her personality shines through. The thought of disappointing her made my stomach turn.

4. At church on Sunday, Kyle Goen taught from Ephesians, and the essential point of his message was “Submission is MY responsibility,” in reference to the biblical principle of wives submitting to husbands as the head of the home, and husbands loving their wives as Christ loved the church. If you have a few minutes, definitely listen to the sermon or download it to your ipod. I wanted to brag on my sweet husband because Kyle mentioned several things that husbands can do to show their wives they love and value them, and Brad already has those things down. He comes home from work and feeds Norah her dinner and spends time on the floor playing with her instead of coming home and checking out for the evening. I am amazed and impressed at how much of a “hands on dad” that he is and I know it is because he loves her so much and he loves me so much and we are blessed that he is the leader of our home. Submission in the context of marriage is a hot topic - and one that we will all struggle with - and I know that it is my responsibility to keep my heart focused on Jesus, and that spirit will carry over into serving and loving my husband with humility and bring a few less “I told you so’s.”

Random night, I know.

On our way home from Bolivar we stopped at North Park in Jackson - a huge new beautiful playground with tons of padded playground surfaces and brightly colored playground equipment. I really wish it wasn’t 100 degrees or we could have stayed and played all afternoon…however, it was pretty hot so our little ones didn’t last too long. Our friend Clint brought four month old Taylor so we could meet her for the first time, and Mr Colin who is three. My camera decided it was too hot also, so I didn’t even get to take a picture of Colin!

Here’s Clint with Miss Taylor

Norah had fun chasing Colin around on the playground

When it was time to go, we were loading up the car and looked down to see that Norah had climbed in on top of Taylor in her carseat to give her a kiss goodbye. I didn’t catch her fast enough but you get the idea! It was precious.

Great to see y’all!

Norah and I sure did have a big week in Bolivar with Grammy, Granddaddy and Aunt Lucy. Grammy is a champ and is doing so great with all of her knee surgery rehab exercises. We are so proud of her! A few things that we did this week…

Drank a lot of milk

Played in the backyard pool

Snuggles and kisses with Grammy & Aunt Lucy

Practiced walking (I need to figure out how to animate this series because it would make a little movie!)

Uncle Kyle came over from Memphis and hung out for the evening. Played in the pool some more

Painted toenails - that was a challenge

Went to Memphis and visited Aunt Lucy and all of her work friends! We have been wanting to do that for a while now and they were all so excited to see Norah. Ms Jennifer made us a sweet welcome banner, Ms Shay brought us a balloon and Ms Pam brought presents! Thank you ladies so much!




Helping Aunt Lucy with some filing

Went to Great Grandmother’s house in Saulsbury to visit Cousin Leigh Ann and brand new baby Jackson! He was so sweet and tiny. His big sisters Ragon and Shelby were very proud to show him off. Grammy held Jackson and Norah climbed up into her lap. Shelby brought Norah her picture and said “Look Norah, it’s you!”

Whew! We had such a great week spending time with our family and friends. Love you all!

Blogging this week from West Tennessee…Norah and I are taking care of Grammy & Granddaddy after Grammy’s knee surgery over the July 4th weekend. Uncle Kyle came over this evening for dinner and he used his high quality video camera phone to get this little video so that you could see Norah’s newest accomplishment.

Again, the quality is not the best but you get the idea. She’s wearing Granddaddy’s Tennessee Titans hat. She started taking steps at the beginning of July and now she’s up to probably 8-10 before dropping and crawling. She’s still such a fast crawler that she chooses that method if she needs to get somewhere in a hurry.

OK, be honest. How many of you had given up on hearing who won my contest from FOUR WEEKS AGO? Personally, I was starting to wonder if I would ever get around to doing it too.

I had the cutest idea of dressing Norah up in her newest MaggieMoo t-shirt and taking pictures of her choosing a name out of a fishbowl and letting photos of her announce the winner. Wouldn’t that be the cutest thing? Just think about it for a minute.

I guess that thought will have to do, because I haven’t had a chance to get it together. The Beach Girl shirt - its in the laundry somewhere and who knows if I could even uncover the fishbowl that lives somewhere in this house! So, I am going to rely on the old random number generator to choose a winner for us from the comments submitted before the deadline! Here goes:

So our winner is:

Congratulations Rebekah! I know Connor will love his new shirt. Can’t wait to see which one you choose.

Thinking of a new contest this week. Hope you’ll stay tuned to win something fabulous!

We spent our Fourth of July holiday in West Tennessee with Brad’s family. Grammy Linda had knee replacement surgery on the third and by the fourth she was itching to get her hands on the babies. We spent some of the day visiting with Grammy in the hospital and some of the day shopping with Aunt Lucille (babies don’t really do so well in cramped hospital rooms) and ended the day back and Grammy & Granddaddy’s house. Grammy wanted us to get a picture of Hank & Norah together. Hank was very cooperative. Ahem.

Ahem. Thank you.


It’s a tough crowd sometimes.

We were all surprised when Grammy called on Saturday morning and told us not to come to the hospital because she was getting out on good behavior coming home! We were also pleasantly surprised when Great Grandmother, Brad’s cousin LeeAnn and her daughter Shelby stopped by to visit. Hank & Norah had fun playing with Shelby. She is a character.

Norah and I are planning to spend a little more time with Grammy while she is recovering at home, so stay tuned for more West TN-flavored posts in the weeks to come.

This has been suggested to me many times…so I thought I would put this survey out there and see what kind of response I get.

Click Here to take my survey

This was my first year to be a part of Vacation Bible School at our church. I am amazed at how much of a well-oiled machine the leadership team makes the week for the volunteers. This year’s VBS theme was “Power Lab” and was so easy to teach and fun to be part of. I was a crew leader for 4 year olds. They were a hoot. Here are some pictures from the morning and afternoon worship times with all 400 kids in the auditorium.

I loved these two times of our day because I am so impressed by the energy that Allen & Jennifer and the children who helped lead worship on the stage shared with the rest of us! It was fun even for me as an adult! Thanks to everyone who made such a great week possible!

On Friday evening, we decided that we needed a few more pictures of Norah in this beautiful dress that Amy made especially for her beach portraits. Before I post the pictures I must say that Amy is so talented and creative. She whipped up this dress in no time and added some sweet details to it that made it just perfect. We had her put our last initial on it instead of a full monogram because I hope that maybe another little girl in our future could wear it - I love it that much! Thank you Amy! (If you’re interested in this or any other precious dresses, shirts, etc. I know Amy would be glad to create something for your little princess!) OK - on to the pictures.

I thought I would also share some quick tips for a shoot similar to what we did.

1. Your camera needs time to adjust to the temperature/humidity of the warm air if it has been inside your freezing cold hotel room. Consider taking the camera outside, even still inside the camera bag, and give it 15-30 minutes to adjust gradually and it will prevent the camera fog from the condensation on the lens and viewfinder.

2. Don’t take the camera bag onto the beach. It will come back with sand in it and you will NEVER get it out. Put the camera strap around your neck and don’t take it off. Never let the camera touch the ground. If you must have a bag, try a backpack. Never change lenses or remove your lenses on the beach - sand can scratch the interior mirrors or glass and your camera will never be the same.

3. As I mentioned in a previous post, hit the beach during the “sweet light” - usually about an hour before sunset is a good time to start.

4. For photographing a child Norah’s age, a baby wrangler was absolutely necessary. My Mom was the one that moved her from location to location, wiped her face and hands, straightened the dress, coaxed her to stand, picked her back up when she would sit down at the wrong time, etc. You’ll be much happier if you have a helper.

5. Don’t be afraid to let them be kids and get dirty. After I knew I had enough portrait-y shots of Norah standing like I wanted, I totally just let her explore. We planned our day and ate dinner before so we weren’t going anywhere after the photos. There was nothing that she could do to ruin the dress - she could be bathed and the dress washed and came out fine. The shot above of her sitting and playing in the water is one of my favorites.

6. Don’t be afraid to get dirty yourself. If you’re going to go, go all the way. Commit to the photos. I dressed in my bathing suit and some shorts and by this point i was laying on my side on the wet sand so that I could get down on Norah’s level. The waves washed up on me as much as they did on her, but because I had the camera strap around my neck and because I never let go of the camera, it stayed clean and dry. Mom handled Norah, and I handled the camera, all the way back to the room.

7. It’s tempting to only shoot tight on your subject, but part of the beach photo experience is to show you’re on the beach, so shoot some wide shots that include more of your surroundings.

8. Keep shooting. I was sharing with Leslie this morning that one of the secrets of photography is the more you shoot the better chance you have to get good images. If you and your subject are having a good time, there’s no reason to stop. Norah was having fun playing so we just kept shooting.

9. Flip - your entire composition. Don’t forget this. I shot every photo above from one general area with the sun behind me, lighting Norah’s face. For the last series, as the sun was setting, I flipped the entire setup and went behind Norah, so that now I am shooting into the sun. You might not get it right the very first time, but if you work at it long enough, you’ll come out with some keepers. This one I feel is a priceless shot.

10. Um, I feel like only nine tips would be too strange, so I am coming up with a tenth one. Don’t leave your photo shoot until the end of your trip. That way, if things go south and your kids (or husband) end up in a crabby mood, you have another day to try again.

Hope that helps. Let me know how you do!