FAMILY....No blood required.

Man....He did it again. God has such a cool way of teaching me lessons! And this is a good one so keep reading....

This past weekend I had two photo shoots. Both taught me some things about life and how quickly it can pass you by if you don't pay attention. As you all know, I'm starting a new business and with that comes the challenges of finding work. Many of the shoots I have done so far have been family or friends...a few paying customers but mostly freebees to get things rollin'.

Anyway, as you also know, my younger brother Brad and his family live in Virginia. He was back in Iowa for a few weeks and spent some time with his "family" while here. To make a long story short, Brad was very lucky as a junior high/high school student to meet a family that lived here in Des Moines when he came down for a basketball camp or something. The important part here is that the Meskimens became his "family"....truly in every sense of the word. On Saturday the Meskimens were together for a baptism so I was allowed (ok....I strongly suggested that they let me!) to take some shots of the family together. Jolynne (mom of the family) lives here in Des Moines, Jen (Jolynne's daughter) and her daughter live in Las Vegas and Brent (Jolynne's son), Mary (Brent's wife) and their son live in North Liberty, Iowa. Jeez....this is taking too long to explain. HANG IN THERE...I'm getting to my point! This shoot was with one 1.5 year old, two 2 year olds, an 8 year old and an (almost!) 10 year old. Challenging, yes, but very fun.

After that shoot I went to another one with 4 kids -- 3 in college and one in junior high, their parents, an aunt and 3 cousins. This one was also full of cool happenings...the third child in this family was leaving for California to begin his freshmen year of college. He was nervous but excited and anxious.

Here is the moral of this blog and what has taken me so long to get to....top 4 things I learned on these 2 shoots:

1) FAMILY....NO BLOOD REQUIRED. It was so obvious to me that my brother, his wife and kiddos and all of the Meskimens are FAMILY. Who ever said you have to have the same blood in you to be a family? The love that came from each of them...the way they interact with each other, the way the kids all play together...they are a FAMILY. Pretty cool stuff if you ask me.

2) WHENEVER POSSIBLE....take a former music teacher with you to a photo shoot! Mary was a music teacher in her former life and her voice...beautiful...saved the day several times. You can see in the pictures below some of the smiles...it's because she's singing. Too bad she lives a few hours away...I'd hire her in a second!!! :)

3) DON'T BLINK....in a matter of three hours I saw children...babies really....to young adults going off to college. We forget how quickly our children grow up! Many times I have caught myself saying "Oh...I can't wait 'til you move out!" when my kiddos are being....well, KIDS...but now I have a different perspective. I believe God was showing me to slow down...enjoy my children while I have them because before I know it they will be out the door!

4) GOD GIVES US THE CHILDREN WE HAVE FOR A REASON....I truly believe that we are handpicked by God to raise the children we are given. Every child has his or her issues, but when they are specially placed with us by God it's for a reason. We are each challenged to raise them the best we can....to teach them the ways of the world and when they grow up and go off to college, we celebrate the work we have done and pray that the wings we helped form, with God's help, will allow them to fly.

Here are some of the pictures from the Meskimen shoot....I'll add some of the Bean shoot as soon as I have them completed. It was absolutely my pleasure to be a part of both of these.

JC is my BFF!

If you're happy and you know it clap your hands! Clap...clap!

THIS ONE MAKES ME LAUGH....As soon as I put the camera down, this is what happened....everyone started running around, getting ready for the next shot! It was so funny. Look at Jolynne....she just laughed. I don't even think anyone knew it happened...I didn't really until I saw this! :)