I ♥ Faces: Smile

Do it. It makes life better. Not to mention TED says it makes you a super hero.
Now, my beautiful friend Rachel here has an infectious smile, especially when it's brought on by these two sweethearts who were the flower girls at her wedding last summer.

Check out more entries at iheartfaces.com

I ♥ Faces: Play

Here it is folks, the May photo challenge, PLAY!

This picture is from when I worked at EIBC and I have been waiting for a chance to use it in a challenge. Honestly, it was one of those totally lucky action shots from my point and shoot that actually turned out not blurry and I love the movement to it. It is from a game we called "crud wars". Pretty much it was Revolutionary War style battle in three rounds: 1. cups of water 2. cups of flour (in the picture) then 3. Chicken feed or some form of nasty leftover food that couldn't be served. The team the least coated in gross won. 

We would then do games like mud volleyball etc before cleaning off in the lake.

If you want to see more Play entries, click the button below!

I ♥ Faces: Best Face of 2012

Here it is folks, my favorite face photo of 2012:

Meet Angel. He is 6 and he and his two older brothers were in Iowa this July with the Kidsave: Summer Miracles program. The program brings older orphans or sets of siblings (those much less likely to be adopted) to the US to meet potential forever families. Angel and his brothers were 3 of 10 kids in the Des Moines area when they stayed with my in-laws this summer. For more pictures and information about the program, click here for my original post. We loved getting to know the goof-ball that is Angel and I love how much this picture reminds me of that - especially with the Cheetos residue on his mouth!

Click the Button for the links to other entries for the best face of 2012!

PS- Coming soon here: our new nephew Ben!
On our personal blog: Halloween, our Honeymoon, Christmas and Ben - I'm a little behind :D

Hernando, Rafael and Angel

These wonderful boys are brothers from Colombia that came up to the States to stay with Mike's parents for the month of July. They are part of a program called "Summer Miracles" through the Kidsave organization (the boys are currently featured on the right side of this page). They help older children (8+) and groups of siblings find adoptive families. The boys are back in Colombia now but are still looking for a forever family!

Angel is 5 and such a ham! He just loves to play with you, and especially make faces at the camera.

Rafael is 10 and a natural athlete. He's also a pretty rockin' dancer.

Hernando is 12 and takes really good care of his little brothers. He's also really helpful in communicating with a language barrier.

They also know well how to get a great candy haul at a parade

Angel's first sparkler

Angel and my father-in-law, Bob

Rafael and Bev, my mother-in-law

My love and Angel :)

We're pretty sad that we're too young to adopt them ourselves - you have to be 15 years older than the oldest and we're only 9. :( The parents' house just isn't the same without them. 

I ♥ Faces: Innocent Wonder

Only one of the reasons I love him:

This is Mike and one of the girls from his church at a wedding this summer. I just LOVE the look on her face. She is just the sweetest - I met her that night and she told me she was sad I had to leave at the end of the night because I danced the YMCA with her :D THEN we went to church the next day and they brought their new puppy to show the other kids after the service - major cute overload!! 

For more examples of innocent wonder click the camera 

I ♥ Faces: Best Face of 2010

This week at iheartfaces is a special contest of our absolute best face photo of 2010. I think this one is my favorite because of the emotion it captures. You can only imagine what those beautiful young eyes have seen. It is from my day at a refugee camp in Haiti this March.

Click here to see other's favorite 2010 portraits - Mine is #655 to vote :D

I ♥ Faces: Photojournalism

Oh how I LOVE the idea of being a photojournalist. I used to read national geographic and dream of how cool it would be to travel the world and open the eyes of fellow Americans to how the rest of the world actually lives.
      I really debated whether or not to use my Haiti photos for this entry, and maybe I should have, but I finally decided on a collage of 4 photos from my summer as a summer camp counselor.

The set up for the story they tell? I was 17 that summer. Those are my FIVE campers, all of whom are going into the FIRST grade. Yeah. 5 six-year-olds for little old me to be mom for for the week. Yipes. If any of you are in search of a good birth control for your kids- this is it. I love these girls to death and I'm excited to have kids of my own, but there's no way I could handle taking care of them myself.

Click the camera for more visual stories :)

I ♥ surprised faces!

I had to dig for this one. So much potential in a theme called Surprise! But this one from working at camp summer 2007 is my favorite surprise in my files. There apparently was quite a splash from this event in the water olympics :)

To see even more surprised faces click the camera

I ♥ Faces: "My" Country

Okay, okay, so it's not officially my country. But it sure feels like home when I'm there.

My dad first went to Pignon, Haiti in May 2008 with my uncle's church. This is my favorite picture of him, at the orphanage we work with there, taken I think by my uncle Steve. I LOVE the complete coincidence that he wore his AWESOME DAD shirt from father's day. He sure is an awesome dad. :)

That coming November, my dad organized and led a team consisting of then-18-year-old me, nine men and two 60+ year old women. I knew from the start it was going to be at very least an... interesting trip. It all worked out very well though, with all of the "actual" adults (the youngest 13 years my elder, married with two kids) treating me very well, never once making me feel inferior because of my age.

As the youngest of our
group I was constantly
surrounded by these
beautiful faces

I fell in love with Haiti that first day, as we walked around town. Being white in town makes you quite a spectacle, and the little kids point and holler "Blanc, Blanc" (white, white) as you walk by, or run up to smile at you and hold your hand, one little girl even tried to wipe off my hand as if it were dirty :) These children are the main reason why I love Haiti. They are so full of joy! I went back again in March if 2010 and can't wait to be back again!


Most of my favorite pictures that I have ever taken are from my time in Pignon and the surrounding areas, here are a few:

To see more picture of countries people heart, click the camera and head to iheartfaces.com-

For more information about trips to Pignon, Haiti check out http://promiseforhaiti.blogspot.com/ (the entry "Larry Madole March 2010 Trip" is about my trip this year) or scan through the Haiti tab of my blog, there are just too many stories to tell. Thank goodness that a picture is worth 1000 words!

i ♥ faces TEENS ONLY week!

I am so excited for this week on iheartfaces. Teen entries only. I turn twenty the end of next month, so I was really excited to hear that celebrating teens weeks was happening this summer! I can't wait to see all the fabulous talent from the teen photographers at iheartfaces!

I have had this picture up on the blog before, but not entered in the challenge. The only requirements of this weeks' entries are that the were taken by a teen and feature a face. This is one of my favorites that I have ever taken. I took this one while in Haiti this March on a mission trip. This is at a refugee camp for victims of the earthquake in Port au Prince. I don't know this little girl's name, her story or where she is now, all I know is that she was so happy just to have someone play with her and take her picture. The joy that radiated from her shocked me. Despite all she had seen, tragedy in Port and now living in one of dozens of tents like the one behind her. Such a beautiful reminder to appreciate what we have. 

Click on the camera to see more entries by teen photographers at iheartfaces.com