alifeblog

This morning was one of those morning where I realized just how blessed I am.  Every once in a while I need that reminder, heck, we all need that reminder, and it is by the grace of God that He sometimes gives them to us in gentle ways, like He gave me this morning.  This post was going to be about how it snowed this morning and I was going to share some photos, but as I was going through these photos, and as I was taking them, I was struck with how beautiful it was, and just how beautiful the area is where I live.  The photos you will see were taken from my bathroom window.  This is the view I wake up to every morning, and look at everyday from my back yard.  Granted both of my neighbors have dirt piles in their yards, and haven’t cleared all of their trees away yet, but it’s beautiful all the same.

After I took some photos of the snow, I went back downstairs and found something even more beautiful eating breakfast.  There is only one girl more beautiful then my wife, and that is my daughter.  My wife and I apparently have the super human ability to make the cutest babies man has ever seen.  Don’t believe me?  Just take a look at the photos below.  :)

So, you’ll have to forgive me for being sentimental in this post, but I just feel blessed this morning.  God has given me more than I could have on my own.  He has blessed me with being able to work for me, even though He did it in the scariest way possible.  I haven’t always been a full time photographer, in fact this is my first wedding season being full time.  Up until last October I had a pretty good full-time job working for a very large bank.  (I won’t say which bank, but they are always in the news, and they are the only ones who’s stock isn’t completely trash.)  I mainly worked from home as a program analyst, which means I ran reports for credit card collection managers.  I also had my photography business part time.  Between the two of them, it was getting to be too much.  I found myself praying, ‘God, I can’t do both of these jobs, one of them has to go.’  Well, we all know what started to happen in October, and like thousands of others in the financial industry, I was ‘terminated’.  (Don’t you just love that term?  Why don’t they just say let go, or fired?  Terminated sounds like they killed you.)  God had answered my prayers.  I knew it as soon as I was walking to the HR office.  While they were talking to me, I didn’t get mad, or angry, I was excited.  I was a little scared too, and nervous, but mostly I was excited.  This was the opportunity of a lifetime.  The company was awesome.  My severance package paid me my full salary up until just last week.  That gave me plenty of time to start working to make my business full time, and, by the grace of God, is exactly what I have done.  With my wife’s total support I started working for Aesthetic Life Studio full time the next day after I was let go, and my business has taken off exponentially.  One of the awesome things that happened the day I was let go was that I booked a wedding that evening.  (Thanks Shannon and Todd.)  :)  Which, to me was confirmation that I wasn’t crazy.  That Friday I booked another wedding.  To date, I have made my minimum wedding goal for 2009, and I have other opportunities I would never have been able to take advantage of if I was still working for someone else.

This brings me back to this morning, and why I feel blessed.  I don’t go to a 9-5 job away from my family.  I go to my home office located in the lower part of my home.  While this has it’s challenges, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.  Every morning I look forward to going to work.  I love my job, and I have the best bosses in the world, my clients.  I don’t write this to brag, but to show how good God is.  A lot has changed in the past few months for me and my family, but He has been faithful.  So, let me share my blessings with these photos:

The two photos above is the view from my bathroom window.  I’m looking forward to my neighbor getting rid of his trees so I can see more of the pond.  :)

The photos above are obviously of my daughter eating breakfast.  I don’t mean to be partial, but isn’t she the cutest baby ever?!  :)

I encourage you to look around today at all the blessing you have in your life.  What are they?  With all the negativity that is thrown at us day in and day out it’s good to think about the blessings we do have.  Heck, the very fact that you are reading this means your on a computer in some type of shelter, and that you have the leisure time to be browsing through blogs, and that is a blessing in and of itself.  :)