…continued

We excitedly accepted invitations across the country to speak in front of our fellow photographers at some of the world’s best-known photo conventions, including WPPI, ShutterFest, and Showit United. But we were especially humbled (and blessed) when Showit whisked us away for a surprise getaway in rural Virginia with a small group of the world’s top photographers — some of whom we never expected even to meet, much less to eat cheese and shoot the breeze with! (Hmm.. maybe I shouldn’t use “cheese” and “breeze” in the same sentence. Just gives the wrong impression. Oh well, that’s what we did!) Anyway, they had custom bathrobes waiting for us in our rooms, with our logo embroidered. I’m tellin’ ya — swanky! 🙂

We built a brand new studio. Eileen launched a new newborn brand (say that three times fast!) that’s already getting lots of attention. The photography magazine Phillip writes for earned national distribution with Barnes & Noble. Phillip also traveled to Minneapolis for a week to learn from Urban Ventures, one of the country’s most successful urban ministries, in hopes of using the knowledge to advance Engadi, the non-profit we work with in Guatemala. (He will be returning to Guatemala next month to update the organization’s media content. We appreciate your prayers for Engadi and all its amazing work.) To top it off, Blume Photography was named a Bulldog 100 company, something we never saw coming! We felt famous with all the newspaper interviews we were asked to give as a result.

Still, none of it happened without a lot of work. We committed at the start of 2015 to work harder and longer, knowing that we needed to raise support for our (now very close!) adoption from China. (Speaking of which, you can still get one of our 2016 Grand Canyon Calendars to support our adoption right here! Shameless plug.)

Nevertheless, the year took a physical toll, and we do feel guilty about the overwork and time spent apart from our sweet little girls. Thankfully, we were able to take both Jazz and Jules along for “plane rides” some of the time, including to Grand Canyon after we spoke at a conference near Phoenix. We are eternally grateful for our families who have stepped in to help us care for our children as we prepare to grow the family yet again!

Yes, amidst it all we grew closer to family — especially to Eileen’s brother and his family of five who lived with us for two months while they built a home nearby. (Yay! We finally convinced some of Eileen’s family to move closer to us!) And we got long overdue visits from our siblings’ and their families who live overseas. It was such a sweet time.

As for our girls, Jasmine grew up before our eyes and began kindergarten this year, at a public school just two miles from us! She has always loved counting yellow school buses when we’re on the road, and after we (tearfully) dropped her off for her first day of school, she asked if she could be a “bus kid.” She has been enthusiastically running across the yard to her bus at 7:00am every morning since without looking back. (But she still waves to us from the window. And she tackles us on the front lawn, where we patiently wait for her arrival home every day.) She is an amazingly clever, outgoing, and kind girl. She did her first summer ballet class and continues to impress us with her artistic ability. We’re extremely proud of her!

Juliette, who turned three over the holidays, is our happy-go-luck handful. She is in a “fun” stage of drawing, painting, coloring, chalking or otherwise marking on every wall. Whereas Jasmine breaks down in sobs if she thinks you might be disappointed with her, Juliette smiles knowingly when you catch her being mischievous. She apologizes insincerely through that same smile then melts your heart with a big hug and “I wuv you, Daddy!” Oh what are we to do?! The good news is, she is also beautifully generous, kind to everyone, and she and her sister get along so well at their ages now. Such amazing playmates! Juliette’s imagination is like nothing I’ve seen in a child her age, and she entertains us with her song parodies, spot-on impersonations and (at times) crude humor. What a joy!

We already can’t wait to see what 2016 holds! We’ve been invited to give a real TEDx talk, which we’re preparing for now. We’ll be in St. Louis and Las Vegas again soon. We started dropping hints about our new ComeUNITY experience for photographers, and we’re hosting our first national workshop right here in our Athens studio next month, with photographers flying in from around the country. Then it’s off to China to bring home our son! At the center of it all, we’re already getting to know some of the wonderful couples whose weddings we’ll photograph in 2016. After eight years of marriage, Eileen and I can say without a doubt, there’s no milestone or moment more monumental than a wedding.. and the breathtaking adventure that immediately follows. (We’re so excited for them!)

In 2016, we desire to follow the Lord more closely, allowing him to do more through us as we strive less. We pray you will enter this year with a heart full of hope! God bless, and happy new year!

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