Yesterday I was thankful for the freedoms I have, and the men and women that protect those freedoms. Today, I’m thankful for my family. As hard as my last two pregnancies were, they did end happily for us. Not everyone is that luck everytime.

Today’s charity is Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, which does infant bereavement photography. When their services are requested a NILMDTS photographer will come to your hospital and conduct a session. The photographers are trained to handle the situation and be especially sensitive. The photos are then retouched, and the disc of images is given to the family with the reprint rights. For more info, check out the website.

My heart goes out to every family that’s experinced infant loss. I’d like to take a minute now to remember my sister, Cynthia, and the daughters of two of my friends – Jen’s daughter Catti and Stephanie’s daughter Amanda.

In honor of Thanksgiving, this week I’m going to be spotlighting some of the photographic charity organizations out there. While it’s certainly important to give back all year long, I tend to find myself focusing even more on it during the holiday season since having kids. It’s so easy to get swept up in the overt commercialism that’s all around us, so I like to help keep myself in check and teach my children the importance and rewards of giving back.

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. ” ~Leo Buscaglia

I’m going to start with Operation: Love ReUnited. I’m starting with them for two reasons. First, this is one of the charities that I am a member, so I’m more familar with the policies and such. Second, area soldiers are deploying in January. OpLove offers free photo sessions to deploying, deployed, and returning military members and their families. Each family is eligible for 2 sessions. The session fee is waived and a session album with the 4×6 images is included. In the case of a pre-deployment or during deployment, the album is sent directly to the deployed military member. For more info or to find a photographer, use the link above. You can also contact me, and I’ll answer your questions.

“The departure of our boys to foreign parts with the ever-present possibility that they might never return, taught the real value of photography to every father and mother. To many a mother the photograph of her boy in his country’s uniform was the one never-failing consolation.”
-Louis Fabian Bachrach

We met this morning at Market Square for their session. It was rather cool out. Definitely colder than when I left the house. We got the session done quickly. It helped that their daughter is much more camera friendly than my little monsters.

If anyone is still wanting to schedule a mini session, let me know asap. I’m running out of available times, and we’re running out of time to get the prints back before Christmas.

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Kristin and Will got married just a few weeks ago. They wanted to get a few more portraits of just the two of them, so Kristin called up the fantabulous Danielle. Danielle then called me to see if I wanted to tag along. We met up with them early early on Thursday morning (the time change has really thrown things off for scheduling sessions) at Lakeshore Park. Kristin is another photographer who is new to the area.

Here’s Ryan & Laura’s slideshow. Thanks so much to Kristy for second shooting for me again.