Graham and I are excited to (finally) share that we are expecting a new addition in early July! We thought that our Christmas card would be a fun way to share the news and the timing was perfect! I apologize to all you who’s spring 2009 weddings I have had to turn down without explanation! It has been hard to turn down the weddings after such an awesome year but God is doing a lot of exciting things right now in our lives and he continues to shake things up just when we think things have settled down!!

From our newly growing family to yours…Merry Christmas!!

-Shay & Graham

A few of you have asked about the pictures from the rest of the photography conference I went to a few weeks ago…well, like I said, there has been a lot going on around here and posting these kind of got pushed to the bottom of the priority list, but here you go. The second and last day of shooting in CA my group worked with brother and sister models. Sort of an odd pairing seeing as we don’t do many brother sister shoots – haha – so for the most part we shot them separately and then pulled them together for a few shots. They both had a really funky California style and were lots of fun to shoot… not the sort of thing you get to capture much in good ol’ Harrisonburg. Enjoy!

Meet Ms. Lindsay Jones!  Lindsay and I had one of the most fun shoots ever last Saturday.  We probably could have hung out and shot all day!   She was such a trooper out in the cold (well lets face it…I pretty much consider anything below 60 to be cold).  We were probably in one of the sketchiest parts of town for this shoot…literally there were homeless people and stray dogs passing us during the shoot…but Lindsay totally went with it and worked the camera like a pro!!  I really love a million shots from her session but I will just share a few here.  Lindsay – you rock and you are as beautiful on the inside as you are on the outside!

The past few months have been quite a rollercoaster and in the midst of it all I think I have pulled away from my photo work a bit for a probably much needed break. There are many new and exciting things going on for Graham and I and yet in the midst of it we have also witnessed tragedy in a way we never expected. A month ago yesterday on a cold and rainy Saturday morning, we sat in an emergency room with our best friends as they were told that their perfectly healthy 5 week old baby boy was no longer alive. It was one of the most surreal and painful things that we have ever experienced and it is only magnified by our wish that we could somehow take this huge burden of pain and sorrow off of our friends and bare it ourselves instead.

We learned a hard lesson about our illusion of control that day but I have also learned many lessons about God’s grace and provision in the lives of our friends during this time. We have seen firsthand how God is restoring the broken and desert places that exist right now in their lives. It is a long a painful road ahead and yet we are getting to witness the fulfillment of God’s promises daily.

This is not the Christmas card message of God’s generic love and peace on earth. This is the very raw, often painful but infinitely rewarding reality of what it means to have a relationship with the God who created the entire universe and yet knows you by name.

I plan on taking the next few weeks to get back to posting as well as revealing a few surprises but what I do is meaningless a part from who I am as a result of God’s work in my life and in the lives of my friends.

Love,

Shay