A Worthy Life

worthy women*: ashley ann

Ashley Ann had me falling for her at first sight. Somewhere, somehow I had stumbled across pictures of the most original and innovative nursery I had ever seen. The way she married vintage and modern, refurbished and re-designated pieces to new uses, and intermingled playful paper crafts into a colorful room fit for a princess whose mom didn't have a royal budget was the most jaw-dropping thing I had ever seen! It was featured on a design blog read by thousands, one I visited rarely, but on this day a certain godsend. I clicked over to her own blog and was lost for hours reading all her past posts and other diy projects. Besides the obvious knack she had for photography and crafting, I was drawn in by her humble spirit and overjoyed to find common ground as I noticed bits and pieces of her faith spilling over through her personal entries.

While you'd be hard pressed to find anyone within the photography/crafting/diy blogging community who hasn't been inspired by Ashely Ann, the one post that spoke volumes to my own heart was one relating to nothing of what she has become known for.

I remember the day vividly. I was carrying my husband's iPhone out with me to the garage to work on some project as I read her latest entry (a must read; go, now!) on the registration of her first online SnapShop course, a course designed to help beginning DSLR users in understanding their cameras and the basics of photography. In the first three days of offering the course, the combined purchases of all the "attendees" had been enough to pay for not one, but two adoptions in full. And in a moment, I learned a little of God's plans and future for one of His own daughters.

Through faithful documentation and cultivation of her interests and talents, God had given her a platform that now reached thousands. What once began as a creative outlet was now a vehicle of provision to bring an orphan from China into the arms of her new forever family and another into the lives of a friend's family. While I struggled so often with purpose and knowing God's will and direction for my life, wondering if I was squandering time and energy with the things that brought me joy and deeper meaning, here was Ashley Ann, just doing her thing until God showed up big time and allowed her to see in retrospect what He was doing all the while.

Enough about my thoughts. Here are some of Ashley's thoughts on her own journey, her answers to my questions that are emphasized in bold:

When did photography first become a passion for you?

Photography became a passion and gift in my life when I learned how to shoot manually. I've always loved the sound of the shutter, but before knowing how to use it I was often frustrated that the shots I got were not the ones in my head. Once I learned how to fully use my camera, I was able to capture in a picture the image in my head. My camera hasn't had a day off since. That probably has a lot to do with why I want to teach others how to learn to shoot manually.

 
When you first started your online presence, what was your primary intent?

I originally had a blog related to my photography business. When I 'closed' my business, I wasn't sure what to do with my blog. There were only a handful of people reading it so I changed the layout and kind of started new. I decided to just start posting about the random things I was making or the things I was doing with my family. I had no intentions of being a 'blogger', I just liked the outlet for sharing creative things. My kids were young and were not interested in hearing how I hot glued pictures to their walls. However, surprisingly there were a few people online that liked reading my randomness. My blog just kind of happened.

Even as your discipline with blogging increased, when and why did you choose to make it a daily intentional to-do on an already long lists of tasks-to-be-done?
When I started blogging (after the photography business), I challenged myself to blog every weekday for a month. Just a personal challenge, I didn't have any real motivation in it. One month turned into two and I never looked back. I quickly learned that it was a daily outlet and discipline I enjoyed. It gives me a break from laundry and helps me to celebrate little things in life. I am sure part of my daily posting now is related to habit (I feel weird not to post!), but a large part is simply because I enjoy it.

What was the moment/project/collaboration when you saw a huge spike in traffic to your blog and what was your first thought?
The first huge spike in traffic I saw was when I shared about hosting a Little Dresses for Africa party. I never expected it to be received like it did. It was the first time I shared about something related to a social justice issue on my blog. To get such great feedback was exciting and made me realize how fulfilling it is to be able to advocate for others online.

Like I mentioned earlier, I love how God's provision came from nothing that you had conspired to do on your own; it didn't come from your own personal vision for how adoption might play out for you or where the funds might come from. It simply came in 3 days, built on the daily discipline of living and blogging real life with a creative spin. When you finally sat down to create the curriculum for an online Snap Shops, was there any buzz of anticipation or expectancy to see how God was going to work?
When I wrote the online curriculum, I was just focused on getting it written. I had gotten numerous requests from readers who lived out of state for me to offer the course online. It wasn't until after the online course was written and I shared it with friends that I began seeing how God might use it to help with our adoption. The days leading up to registration were filled with anticipation to see what God would do with it.

When you texted your friend guaranteeing funds for their adoption on Monday (the day the online course would start registration), what were you thinking?! You already had $20,000 needed for your own adoption, let alone supporting someone else!
I was thinking God is going to do this. I wish there was a more in depth answer. I can't explain it. I just knew in the deepest parts of me that God was going to do it. Not many times in my life have I felt so sure of something. I just knew. I also knew she wouldn't believe me, so I had to keep telling her in the days leading up to it...so when it did happen she would know it was a gift from God, not from me.

Looking back at your earliest intentions for your photography and blog, can you still believe what God has done?? What has been the biggest surprise and joy in this journey through blogging?
I absolutely cannot believe all that God has done through photography and blogging in my life. I get to do all the things I love, all the things that make up who I am...on this strange thing called a 'blog'. It is difficult for me to even put into words how grateful I am for the gifts God has given me through blogging and photography. There are too many joys and surprises to name. Katrina, who writes Pugly Pixel, once referred to bloggers as tourists of life. That is how I feel about photography and blogging. These two gifts God has given me have taught me to be a tourist of life in a sense...to see all the little details and special things that get overlooked when we just go through the motions of everyday life. One day people will realize I am not very cool or interesting and they will stop reading my blog...but I'll keep writing it because it is joy in my life.

Looking forward, have you learned by now that God sometimes has bigger plans for us than we dare hope for and have your dreams increased as a result?
I think I've stopped dreaming. Not in a bad sense, but in content and hopeful sense. I find that God blows even my biggest dreams out of the water. I still dream, but I dream loosely. I've learned that most of my dreams will never compare to what God has in store for me. Instead of thinking too far down the road, I want to take in every detail of each step...my days are numbered, so I want to be fully present today and not focus too much on what I want years down the road.

Thank you, Ashley Ann, for the time and heart you put into answering these questions and for a life that continually displays God's glory. I love that Little Dresses for Africa was a turning point for your blog, it was one of my favorites and a party idea I have shopped for and am awaiting hosting! Your answer to the last question was especially poignant because, in a culture that says dream big or go home, you remind us that God's plans are so above and beyond our own and infinitely more eternal, too!

(Adorable family of dolls seen in the first picture are from Passive Juice Motel and can also be found on my wish list!)

*Awhile back, years really, I had the idea to feature stories of other women here on this blog that is really the continuing story of my life. I knew so many strong and beautiful women whose stories were not being told, examples who were so busy living out life that they had little time or desire to write about it themselves, and everyday heroes that live among us that are changing their corners of the world through love, compassion, service, etc. Today marks my return to that desire of relating stories of woman who are worthy of their calling as women and mothers, not for their perfection or superiority, but because of their faithfulness to the God who they journey towards.

from Vietnam, with love

We met her a little over a year after she had given up on life. She was a petite Asian with excited eyes and an exuberance that bubbled over to everyone she spoke to. I noticed the way my kids watched her expectantly, with huge smiles, while they followed her. Who was this and what had she done to so enthrall my kids only an hour after meeting them?

After stumbling upstairs on her way out through our friend's house, our paths finally collided. I sat down with this Sunday School teacher and within minutes I learned we shared a sisterhood not uncommon between those who love Jesus. One founded on more than the sharing of stories of salvation, ours became one we planned to strengthen together - her by continuing to live her calling and me by promising to continue telling others of it.

She came to the States from Vietnam as a child, her family an object of charity to a government whose soldiers have fathered thousands of children while there fighting an unpopular war. Having escaped the poverty and the darkness that oppressed so many, she vowed never to return.

With a good education and a bright future, her life became one of plenty. She found success in her career, opportunity in graduate studies, and plenty of ways to spend the riches that each brought.  A life that should have brought her accomplishment and pleasure soon began to offer only hopelessness and a deepening darkness. All that she had worked for and dreamed of led her to wanting more and experiencing nightmares in return.

An effervescent personality by day, she returned home at night to her sorrowful truth of loneliness and emptiness. She began to fill her nights with what would become her only faithful friends, bottles of liquor to numb her inner pain. She saw no light in her dark religious past and no hope in a world full of people struggling to find the same. Each day a meaningless cycle, she desperately wanted to end hers.

Somewhere in the darkness, a twinkling light emerged. A friendly face spoke kindness and a concerned friend offered her a Bible. Within days, she became convinced that this God of this Book was what her heart was longing for. She cried out to Him and He answered with the Life that brought meaning and understanding, one that filled her with a Love that satisfied her every craving.

I met her only a year after her conversion. Her brilliant joy was the same that others had always noticed except this smile and hopefulness didn't dissipate with darkening skies or stay buoyed with temporary elixirs. So radical was the change that she had committed to doing the one thing she vowed she never would: return to Vietnam.

Less than two years after meeting the One she describes as the Lover she had forever desired, she is back in her home country. Her trip has no scheduled return date because this journey is to be lifelong. Burdened with her Lover's message of salvation, she wants to plant seeds of God's promise of eternal life in hearts and lives that line the dusty streets of an impoverished village.

“Bring them to me and I will plant my seed of hope in their little bodies; I will pour out my love onto their young hearts; and I will claim my ways in their tiny footsteps, and they shall bring the good news to this town.”

This is her promised blessing from a God who can do the impossible. Through the love and labor of local believers (who are themselves struggling to support their own), materials and funds are accumulating for an orphanage to house, among others, the faces of those you see above.

Would you commit this week or this month, to bring these children to God in prayer? Can you, together with those living out their calling there, answer this call to stand with them for a harvest of lives from Vietnam?

Their names are common among their own people: Pham, Mang, Nguyen, Dinh. Bring those to Jesus' ear and you'll be bringing half the population to Him! Even so, I trust He'll recognize the faces that you see while your eyes are closed in prayer! :)

silvia's gift

She had recently loaned me a book that communicated to me all that I needed to hear about a radically different approach to raising/teaching/loving my children. Finally, words that I had often waded through in my own foggy mind but here they were after the fog had lifted, confirmed by a brilliant author with a lifetime of experience (and a little over 70 children having passed under his roof). It was a book that challenged parents to look at the nature of God and His example as a Father, allowing our children the freedom of choice just as He does while giving them the responsibility of the repercussions. Who do we parents so often think we are, trying to break the will of children and make them in our image? He has made them in His and each uniquely different. It is our responsibility to allow them to be who God has made them to be, while helping them navigate the challenging lessons of life while still safely protected under our roofs.

We talked today. I was calling her back after coming home too late to respond to her invitation to get together. This morning I called, hours after a difficult night for her. She was implementing some of these same principles in a challenging situation gone on too long. With only three hours of sleep, she was unusually peppy. Plowing through her day at home with her mama hat a little off-skew, she was resolute in winning her daughter. I offered her an out by suggesting another day to get together. She insisted that today was still a good day.

My girls and I met up with her later. We brought a bottle of the beverage she turned me onto, with a gift card for caffeine and a homemade hair/sweater accessory flattering it nicely. Our girls ran circles around us as we chatted on a sunny bench. I admired her for her commitment to her children. I looked up to her for her fortitude. I marveled at the love mirrored so beautifully in the eyes of her little ones, even the littlest who had to sit quietly beside us.

I brought my friend a gift today. It was the least I could do after she had so blessed me with the gift of wisdom and the example of her life as a mother on one of her more trying days at work.

WW/MM #1: Daniele

This is my big sister. Who also happens to be my Big Sister. Only now, after delivering baby #3 into the family just last week, she is much, much smaller. ;o)

Growing up, no sisters were more different than the two of us. Nor were any sisters closer than we. Our differences, rather than separating us, were the cementing bond that caused us to love each other, rely on each other, and to appreciate the strengths of the other.

She was the talker, me the listener. She was confident and outgoing. Me, shy and reserved. She - the life of the party. Me - the one who proudly looked on and thought, "That's my sister!"

In high school she led the way in starting a new, and what would become one of the largest, clubs on campus. I inherited the role of president only after she graduated and did so with much trepidation. While watching her countless matches on the varsity volleyball team, the passion to play myself began to grow within. She was the high school newspaper's front page news editor so without thinking of any other options, guess who followed in her steps?! Whatever she did, I did. She was the trailblazer, me the awed spectator and follower.

Even today, though we've each blossomed and metamorphized into women, wives, and mothers, we remain very different. She looks/looked absolutely adorable pregnant, with a perfectly round belly and no weight gain anywhere else. I just looked lumpy all over. While my ideal birthday party surprise would be a visit from NBA star Chris Paul (at my husband's offer), hers perhaps would be a visit from her ideal presidential candidate Ron Paul. :o)

But it is her passion for politics, health, and family that continues to conjure up those old feelings of my pre-teen self, "That's my sister!" Her unwavering commitment to what she believes in continues to challenge me in my life.

For the last 2.5 years she has served as the Health Commissioner for her city, fighting for smoke free policies in public places and better health education within the schools. Vowing to create a better future for her children, she has committed herself to researching and adopting better eating habits, educating herself and others on more natural pregnancies and deliveries, and being an informed citizen of the United States so her vote will matter in every election. She dreams big, and while she admits some of them are perhaps lofty, there are certain ones that she would love to see come to fruition within the next few years. Sensing within herself a soft heart towards orphans from a young age, she would love to have a solidified direction in regards to adoption. She doesn't know if this means personally adopting, financially enabling someone else to adopt, or simply involving herself and family in outreach to orphans, but she is determined to reach out to children who are without the love of parents.

Most importantly she devotes each of her days to her children, Anna Grace, Cate, and Noah, providing a real life role model that they can now and forever look up to as a pillar of love and protection. But to her, the role she values most is being the best friend of her husband of five years, Michael. When she speaks of being a help meet and the one whose contribution enables her husband to be a better man, the best he can be, you can hear in her voice that she cannot imagine a better suited job description than that.

Thank you, Daniele, for being an example and friend to me all these years. Though we don't always see eye to eye, I have you to thank for opening my eyes to some very important issues for myself and my family. Your courage and passion for standing up for what you believe is unprecedented among all those I look up to. Thank you for teaching me that you can be bold and gentle, passionate and yet non-judgmental, convinced but always learning.

Congratulations on the birth of Noah Michael! I can't wait to meet him!!

 

(picture of Noah Michael to follow!)

Worthy Women/Model Mothers

Mall watchers.

You know their kind, right? People who either sit on a mall bench or stand lurking in a hidden corner to watch the comings and goings of the strangers that come from all walks of life to congregate at the mall.

Maybe you've felt their eyes on you at some point. Or, maybe you've been one yourself, even if just momentarily.

Hey, no judgment here! I know the feeling of wanting to observe other's lives and perhaps pick up a tip on how to dress, how to style your hair, or how not to berate your children in public. Or anywhere for that matter. Sure, I understand completely. Problem is, I'm more of a people watcher, and malls are not my only stalking grounds.

I know...terrible. Creepy lurking weirdo. Let me explain....!

I have a fascination with people, to know them, to understand them, to learn from them, to feel a connection with them. No group of people fascinate me more than women. Their ability to love and lead, serve and seduce, succor and secure seems a certain dichotomy and yet they master the union of their sensitivity and their strength with such grace and beauty. Their strength and beauty is most brilliantly observed in the sometimes unglamorous moments of life, in the steaming cauldrons of testing and overwhelming circumstances. No woman is without such moments, however strong or perfect they seem. To me, it is knowing of or observing those moments in another woman's life that offer a window to increased wisdom and dignity in my own.

I have been blessed to know such exemplary women in my life, worthy women or model mothers that embody such characteristics. Through observing their lives, their ups and downs, listening to their stories, I have gained perspective and have been spared many of their lowest days by learning from their own journeys.

These women are my friends, my family members, my childhood playmates, my neighbors, and some are just precious souls I was granted a special privilege to have crossed paths with for the briefest of moments. Each of them has left an imprint on my life and as I continue to reflect on their examples, I am energized to recommit to living a more worthy life myself, as a woman, as a wife, as a mother, as a friend.

As I write about these women and models in the upcoming months, my desire is to preserve their stories for my own benefit. My hope is that their lives might also serve as inspiration to you, whoever you might be, my friends, my family, or just some creepy blog lurker. ;o)

ps If you know of a woman who has served as inspiration to you and you feel her story might provide the same for others, please share with me her story so I can consider it for a future post!
(Sarah, how's that for an desperate attempt at more comments?! ;o)