365 People Photos: Number 88 ~ Lissie and her Ladies in Waiting

This time just a favorite from the wedding of our daughter, Alison, last October. (We also call Alison by the nickname Lissie at times.)

The bride was resting during the photography that went on before the ceremony. As soon as Alison sat in one of the church pews, she was immediately surrounded by some of her sisters and dear friends. Out of the photo to the right and touching the bride with her hand was Alison's matron of honor ~ her older sister, Anna.

365 People Photos: Numbers 83-85 ~ My Princess

In May both our oldest daughters served as bridesmaids in the wedding of their dear friend, Hannah. More photos from Hannah and Jordan's wedding are soon to come, but I couldn't resist sharing these pictures of Alison getting ready on the morning of the wedding.

That morning in the bridal-preparation room, Alison just happened to sit facing into a window as she applies her make-up. This made use of that natural light which is a photographer's dream as I've mentioned in a previous post. In the glow of early morning flowing in through the window, even some thing so routine as putting on mascara took on an artistic beauty that made my mother's heart leap for joy in thanksgiving to God for the gift of such a lovely daughter.

I know I'm biased as her mother, but I think this young woman is a treasure. The best thing about Alison? She is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. She loves Jesus passionately and seeks Him fervently. That love of her Saviour transfers to a deep concern for people and a desire to serve others. I thank God for my second oldest daughter! What a blessed mom I am!

365 People Photos--No.50: Twins Born 5,103 Miles Apart

Of our 12 children, these two get the most comments that they look alike. Often people even ask if they're twins. These questions and remarks tickle our family because Lissie (left) and Jaynie (right) may be close in age (16 months apart) and height, but that's where the similarities end. After all, the girls were born on different continents to different parents. Perhaps the assertions that the girls must be twins is especially funny to us since Lissie does have a twin--John. People rarely ask Lissie and John the same query she and Russian-born Jaynie get.

It was God's doing that these two look like sisters even though they share no genetic heritage. The wonder of adoption continues to amaze our family each time someone addresses Lissie or Jaynie with the familiar words, "Boy, you and your sister sure do look a lot alike!" When the question inevitably comes when the two girls are together, the rest of us just turn away and exchange knowing smiles. God certainly knew what He was doing when He placed Jaynie in our family!

365 People Pictures--No. 47: So Easy to Photograph

Love lights up the face. I've seen it in both my oldest daughters as God has brought their man into each of their lives. With Lissie's wedding less than six weeks away, she just exudes joy. And that makes taking a photograph of her absolutely effortless. This picture was taken in Maine last week as we rested and had our souls refreshed by the Lord while staying on that state's stunning coastline for a couple of days. And, yes, her Eric was with us. Ahhh, such bliss!

I treasure the new beginnings that the Lord is creating in our family. Babies and weddings. It just doesn't get any better. I'm a very happy mother.

365 People Pictures: Days 44, 45, and 46--A Broken Mom's Prayer Answered

My husband and I eagerly anticipated  having children before we married. The number of little ones was up in the air (as if we had control over that! Ha! He is God, and we are not! But that we did not grasp years ago! He is the one who opens and shuts the womb! Not us!). But we were more than eager to be parents.

A couple of years of trying to conceive led us to infertility specialists who eventually told us we had ZERO chance of EVER getting pregnant. EVER. I was crushed. My hopes were pulverized.

Despite the prognosis, I just couldn't stop myself from continuing to pray. My prayer? The same as it had been since I was eight years old. That I would be allowed to carry, deliver and raise twins and that these twins would be a boy and a girl. In the face of the doctor's words I was praying for the impossible.

God's response? Twins. A girl and a boy. His way. In His timing.

"When God wills.
As God wills.
How God wills."
Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, pg. 22

Oh, how I thank God for my precious twins. Oh, how I thank God for answering this barren woman's plea! Oh, how I thank God for doing the impossible. Oh, how I thank God for John and Lissie!

365 People Pictures: Day 34--My Baby All Grown Up

 

This morning Lissie, Eric and I visited the venue where their wedding reception will be held in October. While there I pulled out my camera to take a few last photos before Eric returns to his home in the Boston area this afternoon. I thank God that the two of them had an unexpected six days together. I'm also grateful to my Heavenly Father that the two of them are so willing to let me take their picture. Doing photo sessions with this duo brings me such joy!

365 People Pictures: Day 29--Love Captured

This is not a posed picture.

I was just blessed last weekend to capture a special moment between our daughter, Lissie, and her grandma when we visited my mother-in-law in Kansas last week. The two didn't even know I had my camera turned on them. Rather, they were engrossed in the beauty of being together, which was especially sweet after the nine months Lissie had just finished living in Central Asia. Oh the joy of having the opportunity to catch a photographic representation of the strong, enduring bond between these two! I love people photography!

365 People Pictures--Day 11: Lissie

This photo was taken back in January. Lissie, the second oldest of our nine girls, was being courted by Eric Moores. (Now they're engaged!) Eric, who hails from New England, had been staying with us for two weeks so that the couple could have a concentrated time of getting to know one another on a deeper level. The reason this was important was that Lissie was to return to teaching in Central Asia until the end of the school year. Deciding whether to marry someone based solely on Skype calls would be difficult and probably unwise if it could be avoided.

On the day before Eric was to leave and the couple was to part for five months, they spent hours at a local coffee shop praying together, reading God's word together and seeking Him together. They allowed me to tag along and take photos. I did capture some pictures of tears as they anticipated the impending parting, but as the afternoon passed the pair gained their equilibrium in Him and did a great deal of smiling and laughing. It was during a relaxed, resting-in-Him moments for this young couple that God gave me this photo of my precious daughter. He is so kind. Lissie has been a gift for 21 years, and now having this picture that reveals much about her character is a gift

Just A Favorite Photo

Lissie (L) and Daria (R) relishing their new roles as aunties  -- July 2012

Project 366 -- Family & Flowers

Days 80 - 90

Our neighborhood's first tulip

Lissie playing with praise team on Easter Sunday

 

Daria (17)

Alexander (12)

Love the reflections of Daria and Amy in this water goblet

Noticed these "birds" of light created by my water goblet on our dining room table

Our beloved Aunt Jean calls these "Daffer-down-dillies"

Ready garage access for the many pairs of shoes used by the 12 in our family

Project 366 -- Lunch Preps

Day 74

As an extra large family that home schools, we've found that traditional American lunch foods like sandwiches take too long to prepare. Instead, our mid day fare is often a simple casserole. The kids cook lunch on a rotating basis in the late morning while I read aloud to the whole tribe in the adjoining room. Today my 20-year-old daughter, Lissie, was the head of the food-prep team. She was combing a favorite, free cooking magazine which we get from Kraft Foods once a quarter looking for ideas when I snapped this picture of her.

Project 366 -- Reflections

Days 57 & 58 -- March 4-5, 2012

Lissie

The most recent post on our family blog, Unto Him We Live, tells how we took our 20-year-old son, John, to the Omaha airport yesterday for a 10-day trip to Ethiopia with others from our church. I took the photo above as Lissie watched for one of the team members to arrive.

When Lissie gave me her permission to use this picture, she told me that the photo captures what she'll look like in nine days as she eagerly watches for her twin's plane to land.

Lissie misses John terribly, and this is just his first full day gone. What a bond the two share--begun in the womb and still strong more than 20 years later! I have no doubt that some of the movement that I felt while pregnant with the two of them was John cracking a joke and Lissie giggling riotously. In our family, we frequently say that Lissie's always been John's greatest audience. Her consistent willingness to laugh at his puns and quips has probably contributed significantly to the development of John's winning sense of humor that his whole family appreciates and is currently missing.

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This second photo lacks the human interest but is also a reflection I captured at the airport yesterday:

The photo was taken of an empty store front in the Omaha Airport (at the bottom of the photo you can see some of the wiring left when the souvenir shop went out of business.) I was facing the interior of the airport, but the bright sun reflecting on the parking garage makes it look as though I was photographing the exterior. The seams in the store's glass frontage caused the parking garage to look rent (as in ripped) or rippled. The picture feels all too much like modern art for my taste. But in this year when I'm trying to practice nearly daily with my camera to increase my skill and abilities, my experiment of photographing an empty shop was an effective learning experience.

Project 366 -- Days 43-45

Day 43

I continue to be fascinated with this perfume bottle. I just love the way the facets catch the late afternoon light. Even with this second attempt, I'm still not sure I've done the bottle's beauty justice.

Day 44

Lissie helped Oksana make her first batch of cookies, which we happily devoured at lunch yesterday. I missed getting photos of the baking. I did however caught my little one and her sister serving the warm goodies straight from the oven.

Day 45

Our family tradition for more than a decade is to prepare a brunch on Saturday that we then enjoy together before we go to church on Sunday. The photography is poor since the picture is back lit, but I'm including it anyway since it speaks to an important event in our family each week.

Our bruch always includes a sweet, and this week we were treated to carmel roles crafted by Natasha (11). They were SCRUMPTIOUS!

After breakfast I spent some time reading my Bible. Sunshine enjoyed the opportunity to both see and smell the world through the cracked window near where I was sitting.

Sunshine then had the audacity to jump on my bed and settle in for a mid-morning nap. Her eyes spoke of guilt over being where she's not allowed, but she didn't budge.

Day 24 -- Lissie's Loves

You can't know our daughter Lissie (20) long without becoming aware of two of her favorite things--dogs and reading. As I caught her cuddling with our sleepy dog Sunshine this afternoon, I accidentally captured both loves in one photo: the pup in the foreground and Lissie's bookshelf behind her.

Sunshine outgrew being a lap dog not long after we added her to the family. However, she still enjoys being held by Lissie as though she didn't extend far beyond the confines of her lap. Our family's adoption of Sunshine was utterly unexpected. The kids' dad had told them over and over that we were a ONE-dog family. Then in God's mysterious way, He lead us to rescue this quirky dog just before our adoption of Daria, Alexander and Oksana in November 2010. Through this goofy dog, who looks like a cartoon character, God has graced us with many, many laughs which He has used to knit the 14 of us together. Laughter is a powerful healer.

My Daughter's Prayers

Despite the fact that my daughter, Lissie, is thirty years my junior, I find myself learning much from her. She has an exceptional faith in God.

One of the ways Lissie's belief in our astonishing God has grown wings is in her prayers for orphaned children. In 2009, Lissie learned of a boy who needed parents, a home, a family, and, most importantly, the ONLY answer to his numberless needs--the gospel. Unbeknownst to her parents, she began to pray. She tells the story of Christmas 2009 far better than I can. Please take a look at her most recent post.

I want to pray, believing--like my Lissie does--that God hears. I want to pray, believing--like my Lissie does--that God moves. I want to pray, believing--like my Lissie does--that God reaches down into broken lives and heals. I want to pray like my Lissie does--believing.

Although Lissie's story in her post is about God's answer to her prayers about her newest brother, I couldn't easily find a photo of Lissie and "Alexander" (Nikolai) together in Russia, so I've posted pictures of Lissie and the two girls we adopted at the same time. Lissie has played a key role in each of our adoptions of nine older children over the past decade. She prays, and then she loves--while continuing to pray fervently for each of her siblings' healing and salvation. She prays--believing. She's a hero to me.

Oksana (6) and Lissie (18) in G.U.M., the elegant mall in Red Square, Moscow,
November 2010, the week our family traveled to Russia
to bring home our three new family members

Lissie and Daria (15) in G.U.M.

The Beauty of Black and White

Today I was trying to update Lissie's photo on our family blog. However, I failed miserably when it came to the coloration of the photos. Thankfully, Picasa (the photo editing software I'm using) allowed me to salvage the picture in black and white.