story :: the homecoming of owen kang (an adoption story)

this is a birth story of sorts, but it isn't birth in the way that most of the stories i post here are births. there was no physical labor, no crowning or breaking water, no placentas or cord-cuttings. but this is a birth of another son into a family by adoption. 

owen is 20 months old at the time of this birth. he was born and lived -- until this yesterday -- in china. his mama and daddy had a burning fire in their heart for the orphan, and that led them to seek to bring one into family. they chose owen, they fought for him, they labored for him, they endured a long and indefinite paper pregnancy, and then they went to get him and brought him home.

though it would have been AMAZING to be in China with them, for that first moment they laid eyes on their boy in real life, that wasn't practical. so the next best thing was to meet them at the airport. this isn't something they were expecting. in fact, they expected to arrive quietly under the midnight skies and slip home without much fanfare. but some of their people thought they deserved a welcoming committee, and so there we were. 

after being greeted and prayed over by friends and family, they returned home where their two other sons -- Jude and Isaac -- were going to be woken from their sleep to meet their new brother. i followed them there, too. 

pray for this family as they transition, and especially for owen as his heart grieves what he's left behind. pray his heart will be open to receiving his new family.

personal :: a church story

if you've read the "about" section of my website you know that i'm married to a pastor, who is the overseer of a small prayer community in a neglected neighborhood in our city. together we've lived here 4 years (though i lived here before marrying him, too). it's home. our work here looks many days like simply living here and showing up and trying to show our neighbors -- whose families are mostly all so broken and painful -- what the Family of God is like, and to be sure they know that they're invited into it. no matter how they look or what they've done or who they are, the Father calls them Home to himself. that's the good news of the gospel of Jesus. 

and in the last few years we started to see that some of the neighbors we've been walking with so long at our weekly community meals (and in other interactions throughout the week) are calling their gatherings with us "church," and are hungry to know more about who Jesus is and what it means to follow him. so we started something a little more like a church meeting, which means it includes some pre-planned worship, a time to hear a teaching or participate in a round-table discussion of a part of the Bible, and some time to pray for one another. we'd been doing it in our three-stall garage, which we converted into a permanent prayer room and meeting place several years ago. but this year, we felt nudged to move it to the same polish hall we rent for our weekly community meals (called Love Feasts), and to a Wednesday night (instead of Sunday), so that more folks might find it accessible and welcoming. 

this past week we held our first church gathering in the hall,  on a wednesday night, immediately before Love Feast. i was happy to see that several friends who haven't joined in the church gathering in the prayer garage chose to take a seat in the circle up in the hall before love feast, where they worshipped, and listened, and even wept. 

i invite you to come along with me to the first gathering of the stockbridge boiler room church family... on a wednesday night.. in a polish hall... followed by a shared meal around the table. 

note: because we meet in a polish hall and this gathering happened on the eve of Pulaski Days, there were many beer banners being hung on the walls as we met. :)

family photojournalism :: the malefyts

the occasion for this in-home session is an upcoming goodbye. ashley contacted me about it shortly before they put their home of the last seven years on the market (it sold within a week!). this home, which they thought they'd never leave, which has been the one to which each of their 5 babies was brought home from the hospital (or the airport, in the case of olive's adoption), where there have been a million home-improvement projects (some unfinished), and the heights of growing children recorded on the hallway walls. this home... so special, and filled with a gazillion memories, which ashley knew were likely to grow dim in the spaces and details of it weren't recorded somehow. 

so, i joined the malefyts for the preparations and eating of breakfast-for-dinner, a final recording of heights on the wall, the reading of bedtime stories and the tucking in of the bigs, then the after-hours party the littles are still permitted to stay up for, and which included nursing and porch-sitting. 

and all the while, i was smiling in my heart. this session made me want a big family. ashley and karl make it look SO fun. at first, they kept apologizing to me for all the noise and chaos. but the point is, it's HAPPY noise, happy chaos. and so beautiful to me. and what i hope these images can remind ashley and karl of is this (it is also what i hope to remind all of my family photojournalism clients of): that what they have been given, and who they have been given, is a tremendous gift. 

as a side note: ashley and karl operate a hugely successful photography studio in the city, producing jaw-dropping gorgeous portraits of children and families. i mean, these are the sorts of portraits you blow up onto huge canvases and hang on your biggest walls. check them out here. 

find out more about family photojournalism sessions here.

gather :: stephanie and dustin's rehearsal dinner

i'm not a wedding photographer any longer, but i do enjoy photographing the gathering of people around a table, where shared meals, heartfelt words, and laughter are trademark features. :)

stephanie -- a friend from when i was 15 years old -- asked me if i'd be interested in photographing her rehearsal dinner, i knew it was a good match. stephanie and dustin are the kindest of souls, and they've gathered such love around themselves because they dish it out with reckless abandon. also, they love and protect animals, which tells you something about them, i think. their wedding weekend was characterized by handmade everything, organic simplicity, and a little nod to quaker traditions. 

so, here's the story of the night before stephanie and dustin's wedding... 

family photojournalism :: bedtime for lou

this the promised follow-up post to the family photojournalism session i posted a couple of days ago. it's a story within a story. 

at the tail end of my evening with the gadziemski family, allie asked me to photograph her as she put her youngest to bed. louis is two years old, and their last baby. knowing it's your last makes you savor things like bedtime routines all the more. there's a magic around this time for them, and she wanted that documented. 

hold your babies close, mamas. stop to see and savor them. this is the good stuff. and it's fleeting. 

family photojournalism :: the gadziemskis

since resolving in my heart to photograph families almost exclusively in a raw, slice-of-life style, and changing my business to reflect that, i've had a bit of trouble finding people who "get" it. it's felt like, overall, photography-seeking people have expectations that include parks or studios, some posing, smiles at the camera, and coordinated clothing. the idea of someone coming into what seems like the unremarkable chaos of their home is not immediately attractive. 

but allie somehow "got" it immediately. her exuberance about the whole idea was actually super encouraging to me. it gave me hope that maybe people CAN begin to love this way of having their families photographed, and that maybe i wasn't crazy to build my business around it. i needed that.

so we set a date and got to work. which, practically speaking, means that allie and her family went about their sunday evening business while i followed them around with a camera. they did a fantastic job ignoring me and not acting too self-conscious. with a house full of 4 boys, this form of photography is probably a great fit, since the boys can just be boys!

there were nerf guns, and there was wrestling. there were tater tots and uno and blocks and running. and in the midst of all of this, deep shalom and joy, contradictory though that might at first appear to be. 

and at the end of the evening, i sat down at the table with allie and heard her story. it's a redemption story, a story of heart-level renewal, a story of surrender to Jesus. which gave context the thick layer of shalom. :)

here, once again, are more photos than you probably even need. :) at the end is a funny series documenting our attempt to get one sit-still-and-smile-at-the-camera shot. each one cracks me up, particularly when viewed one right after the other. 

stay tuned for a second blog post featuring this amazing family. we did a story-within-a-story, too. and i thought it deserved a second post. it's the kind of little story that will melt the heart of every mother. how's that for suspense? ;)

allie, would you leave a comment below about why you wanted to have your family photographed in this way? i know you'll say it well! Thanks!