Small World

Pulling up to meet the Seilhammer family for our photo shoot by the lake, 10 year old Aiden's eyes got wide and a smile lit up his face as he recognized his photographers were also his Awana leaders from church :). I've been lucky to have my good friend Jessica, who is also a photographer, help me out on my photo shoots lately. Jessica and I have also been blessed with the opportunity to help out at church Wednesday nights with the elementary kids' T&T (Teaching and Training) Awana program. For those of you that haven't heard of Awanas, it's a a weekly Bible class, that teaches elementary aged kids to read and memorize scripture, incorporating fun games and prizes. Getting to know these wonderful kids has been the highlight of my weeks since last fall. I usually get a slight case of the butterflies before a shoot, especially if I have never met the family, but having Aiden recognize us from church was a nice ice breaker!

 Photography has been rather slow this past month as January and February are usually pretty slow months, but I have enjoyed my time immensely getting to know more people out here on base, and seeing family back at home. When business slows, my time usually gets eaten up with house chores, and life can start feeling a bit mundane. However, lately I have made a point to attend all the socials, and spend as much time as I can with friends, taking every chance I get to invest in the people God has placed in my path right now. 

This photo shoot was a reminder for me of how small my community is I've been placed in, and how important it is to take advantage of constantly running into friends and neighbors everywhere I turn. Not only have I gotten to see Aiden on Wednesdays at Awanas, but I ended up running into Courtney, Aiden's mom, at the book club meeting I attended last week. Meeting new friends really is a huge blessing, and I don't want to take this this opportunity for granite, as I know the next 6 months or so that I have here in Del Rio will fly by in a blink.

Side note: You may have noticed It has been a while since my last post. I have been updating a new Food and Travel blog called the Naked Tomato with pictures and journal entries from our travels to Italy over the Holidays. Eventually I hope to be including more food photography and recipes as well. I added a link to my other blog above, but you can also check it out by clicking here.