This past week I had the pleasure of doing maternity portraits for a beautiful soon-to-be-momma, Sarah! Sarah and Ali are expecting their first, a boy, in only a couple of weeks. Yes, you might say we waited until the last hour for these pictures, but the little man hung on and granted us the time to get these portraits done. We are so glad!
Yes, so this is very last-minute, but I just saw these featured on Style Me Pretty, and I must echo Abby’s sentiment. I LOVE these little letterpress calendars by Pearl Papers!! What fabulous Christmas gifts these would make (hint, hint). And at the end of each month, you could carefully remove that month from the calendar and use it for something else! After all, they are MUCH too pretty to throw away…. Let’s say you’re having (or had) a baby in January. Well, take January, circle the blessed day (hehe), and then frame it (perhaps in a shadow box?) along with a picture of your bouncing bundle of joy. Or do it with a wedding photo!
Oh, and the little bags they come in, so perfect!
These past few weeks my mind has naturally been occupied with the trials that cancer patients go through each and every day. Not a week goes by that Rich isn’t poked and prodded in some manner, but for others it is a daily occurrence. Many times in the first couple of weeks after Rich’s diagnosis I sat in agony in a waiting room, just imaging the horrors his body was experiencing during surgery and other procedures. This may sound very silly, and even a bit insane to some of you, but I often found myself wanting to run down to the blood donation center to give blood; I wanted to be poked too, to feel like I was doing something other than just sitting there, and in a way, to share some of Rich’s pain.
We are blessed in that Rich’s cancer was found at stage two, rather than stage four. Stage four would have meant that his bone marrow was compromised, and could have possibly brought with it the future need of a bone marrow transplant. We thank God daily that this will not be the case for him. But, it could have been, and it IS the case for untold numbers of others sruggling with cancer. Sadly, many people who might have lived die without bone marrow transplants because no match can be found. This is where I CAN help! Yesterday I registered with the National Bone Marrow Donor Program. I went to the blood donation center at Ft. Sam Houston here in San Antonio where they also register marrow donors, and I was in and out in under 20 minutes. It is a simple procedure that doesn’t even involve giving blood! All you do is swab four different areas of the insides of your cheeks. That provides enough information for you to be matched to someone as a potential donor.
There is a GREAT need for bone marrow donors. It is super easy for us, and only a minor inconvenience; but it can mean the difference between life and death for someone else. To find out more information, check out the National Marrow Donor Program website here. You will find that you can even register online and get a kit through the mail! I ask you to prayerfully consider signing up and making yourself available to help someone else.
Today was a really good day! Rich felt better than he has for the past several days, so we got dressed up (“dressed up” = not regular t-shirts) and took pictures for our Christmas cards. Rich wasn’t overly thrilled about it, but he cheered up once we got outside and he found that he could amuse himself with the acorns scattered on the ground. So, while I dutifully set the camera up on the tripod, focused, did test shots etc., Rich dutifully sat in the grass in front of the camera flicking acorns at me the WHOLE time. 
Here are a few pictures from our session!
Rich, contemplating what to do with the acorn in his hand….
He decides to go for it! (notice small, blurry acorn leaving his hand…)
Oh, what fun!
Rich put the acorns away for a picture with me.
It felt a bit odd taking Christmas pictures in such warm weather, so we decided to throw in some props to make it look and feel a bit more “Christmas-y.”
It will be fun to send out Christmas cards! I’ve never done it before, but I thought it would be nice this year since it is our first “married” Christmas together. Only time will tell if the trend continues…..
