My own little stimulus package

Ok, get your mind out of the gutter!  I’ve been doing a little pre-tax shopping because darn it, I am tired of constantly saving.  I have NEVER spent my taxes on anything fun for myself.  It was paying for college, saving for a down payment for my house, and then putting money towards two dossiers/adoptions. 

I felt guilty for buying it when I still owe my parents money, but as my mom reminded me it is a gift for both Spud and me.  Memories fade, good photos don’t.  So, I now have a Canon XSi.  Ultimately it was a Nikon D80 or a Canon—both had a lot of the same features and both came highly recommended.  The thing that finally pushed me towards the Canon is that every photographer that Spud has worked with over the last few weeks and every professional photographer I know personally recommended the Canon Rebel.   I should also note that most of them also had a Nikon so I think at some point it comes down to a matter of preference. 

In addition, Kelly (thank you, Kelly!) emailed me suggestions on authors for photography books.  So, here are some photos of the “dead” flowers at my parent’s house.

    

I LOVE this face!  He is such a flirt. 

Today I am so thankful that some of my old passions are beginning to resurface.  The things I used to enjoy, before dossiers and horrendous waits and hair losing stress (thankfully the hair is growing back), are beginning to awaken in me again.  I used to love to do photography in the days before digital, well, before digital was main stream.  I used to go into the lab on campus and develop the film and I would spend hours printing (you know, in the dark with the little red light) trying to get just the right look.  Now you can shoot it, delete it and fix it in Photoshop.  So much easier!  I’ve also been writing again.  Somedays it just flows out of me—I usually use my blog as a way of getting the flow going.  Other days it just isn’t there and that’s ok too.  I’m just glad it is waking something up in me again.  I feel happier (of course, a lot of that is probably Spud).  For so long my focus has been work and the horrendous wait of these adoptions.  I still think of my daughter and wonder what it will be like when she is here.  I still dream of her. Just last week I dreamed of her again and I realized that we are probably closer than we realize.  On occasion there will be debates on RQ about who is “most deserving” of a child or who longs for a child the most—the childless person/couple or the one who already has one or more.  The families with one or more always argue that it is just as hard.  I can’t agree.  Having a child at home does take the edge off the wait for my daughter.  Two years ago I could never have imagined loving a son this much and now I wonder how large my heart will swell when I have two. 

God has been very good to me.