One day I was wandering around church taking pictures and I, quite literally, ran into Martha who was pushing a little kid in a stroller during the worship experience. We introduced ourselves to each other and she realized I was Lincoln's mom and I realized she volunteered with him in eKids. We made the usual small talk where I found out she was originally from Kenya (so, I have a lifelong obsession with Kenya and tried really hard to study abroad there but couldn't make it work with my Spanish major) and that she loved to babysit and didn't have classes on Mondays. I told her to write her phone number down (neither of us had our phones on us at the moment) on Lincoln's sheet for the day and I'd get in touch with her about Monday babysits. She forgot to that day, but the next week wrote her info down and I texted her and we set it up. She would be our Monday morning babysitter so I could work for a couple of hours. And I was SO excited because it wasn't long after that I found out I was pregnant and all I wanted to do was sleep.
Finding a consistent babysitter has been really hard for us. Why? I have no idea. Our kid is cute! We're super fun people! But basically they either turned out to be a little crazy, not dependable, or were SO AMAZING they got better gigs than one morning a week.
Enter, Martha. A literal answer to prayer.
Basically, she is the best. She and Lincoln hit it off immediately. Not long after she started babysitting we got baptized on the same night at Code Orange Revival and I got to hear a little bit of her story-- she is the best! Not long after Code Orange, she decided to shave her head, and wrote on Facebook about how she wanted her beauty to come from within and not be dependent upon what she looks like, or having long hair. And she is truly beautiful, inside and out!
I've been feeling a little burnt out with photography lately. I love it. It's so much fun, and I really enjoy it but just so many things have a higher priority over it these days. When I do book sessions or weddings there's so much emphasis on "the biz", contracts and legal agreements and re-creating images from Pinterest and it really just bogged it all down for me. I told Martha I wanted to document her current season and her celebration of all that Jesus has done in her life. I was all-- "I hope this isn't weird... but can I take pictures of you one day!?!" and apparently, it wasn't weird at all. And it really wasn't! She, Lincoln, Marshall and I went downtown and took some photos and enjoyed an awesome dinner at Remedy Diner and it was such a wonderful day! The weather was perfect. The sun was perfect and she is gorgeous. Perfect day.
Today, pastor preached about getting your passion back. I have many passions in life, photography is definitely one of them. When I got home today, instead of napping or playing on my phone and watching TV while Lincoln napped I decided to finally go through these images and pick a few to share. This day was so good for my heart. Thank you, Jesus! For Martha. For Elevation Raleigh. For my camera. For our photography team. For my eyeballs. For the sunshine. For this season.
PS: Martha wants to go to school in Charlotte next year, but LOOK AT THAT RALEIGH SKYLINE!
