staging mishaps

i never thought we'd leave our beloved cheboygan community, friends, & home. i never thought the potted basil plant we gave 'family' for P & B's gifts last Christmas would also be reminders of our garden we left behind. but with God's grace it's also a reminder to bloom where we're planted.

i volunteered to photograph our home for the real estate listing. i wanted to capture each nook and cranny, literally, in it's best light. over the course of 4 consecutive sunny days (in between pager calls) the task was completed, but not without outtakes. goodbye house with the sledding hill, river, garden, mystical magical miraculous backyard, curving driveway, purple skies, 84 degree living room, giant tub that i never used, 9 foot sunflowers...

left: blues clues

right: gary runs thru kitchen, lights off




left: lij falls asleep in the sun while i work around him

right: simon wanders in just as i'm capturing the boy's room

left: simon baby's shadow

right: simon drags an empty box into the sunlight and settles in







elijahsaurus rex awakens

Happy New Year 2010!

The motto for this year: Open the Floodgates ... Let it Rain!

I often wonder how far I would go if God called.
I think of the martyrs, the saints, even our contemporaries
like Mother Teresa or JPII.

Once when holding Simon, I realized that if Mad and I did
our jobs right, we were preparing him for persecution.
Trying to live a faithfully Catholic Christian life in our culture
today is counter-cultural. It is a life that attracts attention:

"You're closed-minded."
"You don't care about women."
"Not using contraception is just plain stupid."
"You worship Mary and the Pope."
"With sex, you've gotta experiment to find happiness."
"You're a homophobe."
"You're married? Lame."

Open the floodgates! Let it Rain!
Thy will be done.