Using the Gifts of the Lord

I woke up this morning thinking about how special it is that during this adoption journey Amanda and I have both already utilized our unique gifts from the Lord to help communicate to friends and family and to help fund raise for our future child. I have been working on creating websites for us, and Amanda has been crocheting. If you have not seen it yet Amanda is selling crocheted items on Etsy now to help fund raise for our adoption (http://www.etsy.com/shop/KoehlCrocheted). It was her idea to start making hats one day, and she has built up an inventory quickly. I am in awe of the talent God has given her to turn yarn into something to wear. I helped her by taking the pictures for the websites, and getting them set up and functioning. I am starting to consider selling photography on her Etsy account as well. Photography is special to us because I have taken courses all through High School and College and has been a passion of mine. Recently I have been teaching Amanda what I know and it has become a mutual hobby together. It melts my heart when she says something about the composition, or the lighting of an image. We bought a DSLR for our Christmas present to ourselves and it has been so nice taking pictures with her. I must admit I am still possessive of my old Nikon fm10, and have let Amanda use it only a little. Having a digital camera we can both use together has been very enjoyable. I know that this journey to adoption is part of his plan for us, as it has strengthened our spiritual life and our relationship together.

Take Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. Thou hast given all to me. To Thee, O lord, I return it. All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to Thy will. Give me Thy love and thy grace, for this is sufficient for me.

Ignatius Loyola

The sample pictures below are senior pictures we took together for Amanda's sister.
We used my old Nikon to take these pictures, and then converted them to digital. A process we can avoid now with our new DSLR camera.