Now look at their beautiful family.

How times flies.

Please don’t let it be another 8 years before I get to capture your family again!

Isn't she lovely? Stunning.

This is how it starts...

AND this is how it ends! Everyone giving me their crazy!

Here she is being herself, singing her heart out and having the time of her life! Brace yourself for an incredible amount of cuteness.

on the car ride home she sighs and says, “Ohh I wish we could go back to the school and I could sing again!” Wow, right? And she follows that comment up with, “Tomorrow, when people say, ‘Hey Adriah!’ I’ll turn around and say, ‘No It’s Judy!”

I love this girl!

I love you all and happy to celebrate your baby’s 2nd birthday!

She had enough of the cold...the end.

I feel the need to explain myself to you.

I am not a runner.

When I run I feel like I’m going to die.

I would never volunteer to run anywhere.

The furthest I’ve run is when I have a friend beside me distracting me from my own hyperventilating sounds.

I walk outside (safe) and run on a treadmill (because only “real” runners run outside)

Even then, I’ve fallen off the treadmill…twice. It’s like the treadmill knows it’s me and doesn’t want to be embarrassed.

So, I tell people I’m going to run 1 mile a day for 8 weeks and they say, “Great!” when inside I’m saying, “I hope I make it past the first day!”

And then I think about Human Trafficking…and I stop complaining about how much this is going to hurt.

I care about the strangers out there who are being forced into the slave trade. Did you know that the average age is 13? Or that some are being sold by family members? I care those people and I want to “do” something. If it’s possible to end Human Trafficking I want to be a part of that movement. Don’t you?

Tread on Trafficking is going to cost me. I’m okay with that. (But, I wouldn’t mind company for my runs though!)

As my donation…I’m having a garage sale in May and part of the proceeds are going towards LOVE 146 and part is going towards Olive Tree Adoptions.

I am studying the book of James in the bible and I’m being challenge to live out what I say I believe. Faith means action.

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. “

I want you to help me and join me.

Want to run with me? Email me (info@noemiphotography.com) to find out how to join my team.

Want to end Human Trafficking? Sponsor me. Let’s do this!

If you’re looking for a church to attend on Easter Sunday…we’d love to have you join us at Bethany Church this weekend!

This book did something to my heart. I’ll try and explain. The whole time I was reading I kept asking myself about the power of the human heart or spirit. How much can we endure? Why can some endure more then others? Am I wired to survive, fight, persevere, endure…anything? How can one human heart endure while another gives up?

After I pondered that I kept reading and just when I think no more evil/hardship can happen to one man…more happens. I was amazed at the cruelty of one man and then endurance of another. I started asking myself questions of how can one human torment another, sleep at night and do the whole thing all over again in the morning? Over and over and over again. I don’t have the answers. But I know that it didn’t end with world war II. I’ve been reading, studying, and watching documentaries trying to understand the horrors of human trafficking and I can’t understand…how we are still enslaving human beings? Even more than that, we are doing it to children – don’t even get me started. But, I want do something for those children and I want to believe that the human spirit in them can survive, heal and be whole. My faith fuels that belief.

Unbroken was an incredible book! Not easy to read but I was challenged to live my life well and that means do something about the suffering in the world. SO…I’m doing “something” but, I need your help to make a difference.

I’ve never done this before and I’m really nervous to be saying this out loud…those of you who know me know I don’t like to work out! But this is bigger my likes and dislikes, I am going to run a mile a day for 8 weeks and if I raise $1500.00…I will run 5 miles! (so yes, part of me doesn’t want to to raise the full amount cause I’ve never run 5 miles before and I don’t even know if I can physically do it!) But, this cause is worth a little of my blood, sweat and tears.

Here’s the info:

TO SPONSOR ME…and push me towards running my first 5 mile run. Or join my team and run a mile a day with me – getting people to sponsor you in the process.

If you’ve ever shopped or bought a play-set you know that it’s like buying a car! Tons of models and tons of money! We’re obviously wanting to make a good decision.

So here’s my questions:
1. Have you ever bought a new play-set? Is there anything we should know when shopping?
2. Have you ever purchased a used play-set? I’ve looked at Craigslist and Rainbow sets are still super expensive (about 50%-60% less then the original price) Any thoughts on pros and cons?
3. Any play-set other then Rainbow worth looking at?

Please, please, please…I need you’re advice.

Waiting to hear from you!

Confession: I have no interest in College Basketball during year but…when March Madness hits I am in with 5 brackets as soon as the teams are chosen! WHY? I love to compete! Does this sound crazy to you? You didn’t know I had this side to my personality? Well, there’s more, even more then my love for competing…is my love to win!

Last night the teams were announced and you have until the first game (Thursday, I think) to pick who you think will win each game and move on to the next round. Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final 4 and then the Championship Game!

I love picking my teams based on my zero knowledge and watching the teams have it out and see my percentages go up and down with every game. This tournament is amazing! It’s all or nothing…each team gets their shot and if they don’t win THEY ARE OUT! I literally watch almost all the games and don’t know who I’m wanting to win unless I look at my bracket. Funny right? Why do I do it? My husband watches basketball and is a diehard Kansas Jay Hawk fan and he would watch the tournament every year. A few years back I saw him filling out the bracket and said, “I could that!” So now we share/compete for the best score every year. I watch every game cause because I care about my team winning and he watches cause he loves basketball…everyone is happy!

Ok. Now I’m going to tell you incredible science behind the 5 brackets I filled out – the boys at the sports center desk will never forgive me!

1. Pick team based on the best ranking.

2. Pick team based on the best uniform color.

3. Pick team based on best away game record.

4. Pick team based on my random whim.

5. Pick team based on the team scoring average.

If you’ve never filled out a bracket and you have a husband that loves this tournament…think about the cuddles on the couch for the next two weeks (well, in my case that’s only if my team is winning…otherwise it’s separate couches for sure! You think I’m joking but I’m not.)

The other thing I love is it feels SO AMERICAN. I love that! The whole country is tuning in to watch their teams and I get to be apart of that!

Go KANSAS!

I’m 36 today. I don’t think I have tons of gray hairs to prove it but I wouldn’t mind if I did. I don’t mind getting older. I like my skin and I’m constantly learning about who I am and who I was created to be.

Sorry that the quality of these pictures isn’t great but it’s all I have of my childhood so they are perfect to me.

I'm the bald baby!

I think I've shown this one before...but I love this shot taken from the beaches of Montevideo Uruguay.

I'm the smaller one in front.

I'm the cute little baby

I love my Dad's mustache!

I'm the standing baby.

I love my older sister Elizabeth then and even more now. We're only 15 months apart but I look up to her in so many ways. Happy that we have these pictures of us together.

Here’s my 5 day journey through the lens of my Iphone 4S! I took these photos over the last 5 days and uploaded to facebook (NoemiPhotography) and twitter (NoemiPhotograph)…Feel free to “like” me for future posts! Cheapest pro camera I’ve ever purchased!

from my window seat!

We arrived a day early to take in the weather and sites!

These looked so good I almost paid the crazy price but regained my sanity just in time!

Yup! You can totally laugh at this. We took this for our 3 year old boys!

walking back that night...loved this quiet moment!

My new Vegas hat...I was sweating while posing for this shot! I was dressed for Minnesota on the hottest day in Vegas! It was 75 degrees.

Flying home!

Something different right?

ENJOY!

There's a little bit of paperwork involved.Off to the races!

Off to the races!

…I actually feel like my heart has grown in love.

My heart is full.
I’m thinking about changing the way I do things.
I have so many things I love and some things I hate.
You’ve heard me speak loudly about the things I love often on this blog:
family, Jesus, friends, photography, traveling, church, reading, singing, and my passion for teaching others…

But, I’ve never told you about the things heavy on my heart.
Probably not.
I haven’t even whispered them until lately and now, I’m ready to talk.

What do I hate? Injustice.
More then that…I hate injustice towards the poor and towards children.

I’m ready to do something about it.
I’m ready to love.

Have you ever heard anything about Human Trafficking? I’m new too. At first I didn’t want to hear about it, look it or talk about it…like that would make it go away. But, now I have heard, listened, seen and I am changed…wounded by horrors of one human enslaving another for his own gain.

I’m just starting to learn. So, what do you do when you don’t know about something? I typed in “Human Trafficking” in the Google search bar and found www.humantrafficking.org.

The United States of America is principally a transit and destination country for trafficking in persons. It is estimated that 14,500 to 17,500 people, primarily women and children, are trafficked to the U.S. annually. (read more)

I stumbled upon Love146 through a friend. (Pressing this link will change your life…it’s changed mine)

I keep thinking about the “utopian” society that the American 50′s tried to create…and still there was so much hatred in our country. I feel like one of those sheltered 50′s moms or wives that recently stepped out of the kitchen and decided to go to a Martin Luther King Jr. public speech…I’m shocked, stirred and changed but I keep asking the question what can i do about changing anything? Answer:  I can do something.

1. Give money to a trusted organization.

2. Pray for the end of Human Trafficking.

3. Invest my time into learning and teaching others.

I have many titles but for my work I always list “Photographer” as my job. I feel like need to change my title to Photographer/Abolitionist. I will be working just as hard to end modern day slavery.

I watched “Amazing Grace” last week and was struck by the sickly, small in stature, young statesman named William Wilberforce. God opened his eyes to see slavery and proceeded to open the eyes of everyone around him. He changed the world. Our modern day views stem from his unwavering determination to change laws to protect the poor and end slavery. I feel like we’re let him down by owing it back into our culture. Wilberforce’s “great change” involved his time and money. Those are two things I have control over too.

If to be feeling alive to the sufferings of my fellow creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.

–William Wilberforce

There is so much more coming on this topic. I think I might start doing TWO blogs. Am I crazy? YES. My heart is captured and I have to do something. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I was reflecting on everything that happened and how it effected me. I started to write and this is what came out.

Everyone is asking, “How are you really doing?”
My tiredness is slowly fading
My emotions aren’t ruling
And my thoughts are turning
Towards thankfulness.

In the midst of shaking i felt nothing,
Afterwards I’m still moving,
I keep going back re-living,
Stop second guessing,
And starting to listen.

I needed you more than anything
In the midst of pain I was floating
On the prayers of those caring
My burdens you were carrying
So I could rest and hope.

You were there in the shaking,
And now, I’m still standing,
My heart you were holding,
Keeping me, trusting
The one who held me through it all…is the one that holds tomorrow.

This week started like any other Sunday included church, home and rest. Clara was warm when she went to sleep but, that wasn’t cause for alarm. Monday she woke up with a cough, the kind that doesn’t do anything but annoy, and she coughed all day. Monday night I put her down and every 30 minutes or so she’d wake up coughing, crying herself awake and breathing weird – very unusual. I did all I knew to do…put a mist machine in her room, did a neb treatment with last year’s leftover Albutiral and gave her Tylenol for her fever. She seemed to settle. When Matt came home he checked on her and he didn’t like the way she was breathing so he slept with her. At 5am I took over and he got some sleep. I did another neb and decided we needed to go into the Dr. that morning. We got in at 11am, he checked her oxygen and found out she was low (85 instead of high 90′s) and he gave her adrenaline mist and her levels came back up. She had a fever of 101 and tested positive for RSV. He explained what the virus was and sent us home saying most cases they get better on their own but if she sounds “worse or different” to come back that afternoon. Now I was sooo annoyed by that…what does worse sound like? And what is different? How am I supposed to know her oxygen levels at home? Very frustrating.

When she got up from her nap she was whimpering with every breath…that was different enough for me. She fell asleep on the way to the Dr. and I was scared…if knew something wasn’t right. We got into the office and they tested her oxygen levels and they were back down to 85, they did the same adrenaline treatment and she didn’t improve so the Doc suggested admitting her to St. Francis. He made it sound like it was just a precaution so I wouldn’t have to keep guessing through out the night cause kids usually are worse at night. So I agreed.

We got settled into our room and the Respiratory Therapist came in looked at her for 3 minutes and said, “she should be at Children’s Hospital.” Matt and I looked at each other and I thought, “That’s a bit over the top!” But, after trying two different types of oxygen masks and neither bringing her levels to normal they ordered an ambulance to take us to Children’s. At this point, I’m just trying to keep up. You have to remember that morning I think my daughter has a cold Tuesday night I’m riding in an ambulance to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at one of the best children’s hospitals in the country…it’s a bit of a leap right?

Clara was limp, white and breathing hard the whole way there. I kept re-playing the doctor’s last words in my head, “She’s working really hard and at some point she’s going to stop working.” Not possible. She’s MY baby. Needless to say, I was praying, crying and praying some more. I reached out to friends and family through Facebook…asking people to join with us. It was so encouraging to read everyone’s comments. I’d talk to the doctor, text the update, and read about people praying. Amazing! Matt and I knew we’re weren’t alone.

When we got to Children’s 5 doctors and nurses were waiting for us…not a good sign. We had x-rays and blood drawn immediately and everything looked very bad but not awful. The lead doctor came to talk to Matt and I to tell that if she got any worse she would need a breathing tube and she would have to be sedated. I didn’t understand want that meant until later…he was talking about putting her into a coma so they could regulate her breathing. Now, things are getting very serious and still all we could do was pray and wait. All night she woke up in a panic from the strange room and tubes attached to every limb. She hated the oxygen mask and kept pulling at it. I slept in the same bed with her and cried. I felt that feeling…the one where I want to take her pain on myself so my precious baby wouldn’t hurt anymore. But, I was powerless, all I could do was pray.

Wednesday she improved so much that they downgraded (or upgraded depending on how you look at it) us to a ICU room down the hall. She wasn’t critical anymore. AND they had started weaning her off the oxygen. Still not eating or drinking or sleeping…she wasn’t a happy camper. At the end of the day they let her have liquids and I was so relieved to see her doing something “normal.” That night Matt came and I went home. I hadn’t slept since the whole thing began and I was emotionally spent. She needed her daddy and I needed to go home and hug my other babies.

Thursday morning I came back and she started to get mad which medically speaking is wonderful but emotionally is so hard on me. They wanted her to scream and cry because she has loosen everything in her chest but I wanted to comfort her. AND I wanted to do was walk up and down the halls explaining what the doctors said to all the other parents taking care of sick kids listening to my almost 2 year old scream bloody murder! Plus, she would have a full on temper tantrum and pull at every cord attached to her body. It was awful. She was better but not well enough to take the tubes off. Eventually she calmed down and slept. I kept asking them to turn down the oxygen knowing that if she could prove she didn’t need it we could go home sooner. She did went without oxygen for most of the day…and then into the night. People were praying and so was I.


At 4am the nurse came in to check on her and because she’d been off oxygen for so long I asked about removing the tubes. It was a wonderful moment to see my babies face again.

Friday morning I saw the doctor and he signed our release.
They said it would 5-7 days…we were out in 3.
Prayer works.

The last image is Clara playing the Doctor…waiting for Daddy to drive through the show storm and come get us.

At home Friday night she slept 13 hours straight and today she took two 2 hour naps. She is on the mend and being home is the best thing for her.

We’re laying low for the next week so we don’t spread this nasty bug. I don’t mind. This will be a week of resting, cuddling, and thanking the Lord for all my blessings.

I know there are mom’s who have suffered worse and my heart goes out to each one. It is truly painful to watch your child in pain. I was so thankful for the network of friends and family all over the world who stopped for a minute and prayed for Clara. What a gift.

This is our story. Thank you for reading…blogging is therapy for me. Someday Clara can scroll back and read about her trip to Children’s Hospital!