Kristen Thomas Photography » Northern Virginia Portrait & Wedding Photographer

“Every longing in my heart that had been building for over 2 years was suddenly silenced.  In the awed hush of that stillness, I realized my heart was beating louder and more strongly than ever before — almost as if my heart, like the Grinch of our Christmas tale, grew 5 sizes that day.  There seemed to be an immediately infinite capacity to pour love into this child’s heart.  It was as if I, in sitting down to pull this child that God had intended to be our child from the foundation of time onto my lap, was actually sitting in God’s lap and His arms enfolding us both.

There has been such a stretch of my heart, mind, and soul since those first few moments with our son.  The 4 months between our first visit and going back to pick him up seemed to last forever.  The time since then has flown by.

As I look at my friends who were so blessed to receive physical stretch marks from the births of their children, reminding them of the life that grew within them as God knit together their children in their womb, I thank God for the incredible spiritual stretch marks we have received as our son grew in our heart, and as God gave a glimpse of what He is doing around the world as He adopts each one of us… one heart at a time.”

How amazing… the process of adoption and the ability to open your heart to welcome a child into your family and home.  I love these thoughts from Debbie, describing the first time she met her son, in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.  The Swingle’s were one of the families I had the pleasure to assist through the adoption process.  And in June 2009, they were in VA on vacation, and I had the joy of meeting them for the first time.  After so many emails and phone calls, I truly felt like I already knew them.  They were in town for a few days so we decided to take some pictures of their new beautiful family…

Swingle | Family Portraits

I met Amy though working together at America World.  I’m in the VA office, and she works in the FL office.  I recently flew down there to visit some friends, and Amy put together an amazing AW Florida reunion picnic with all my families who have brought (or are in the process of bringing) precious children home from Eastern Europe!  It was so wonderful to have the chance to meet so many of the families I talk to on a regular basis but never get to see — and the chance to meet some of the children whose lives have been changed by the blessing of adoption.  I cannot thank Amy enough for all her hard work with the reunion and the blessing she is to our EE families!

At the end of the week, we were able to relax and go to the beach to get some pictures of Amy, her husband Jeremy, and their own adopted children: Holly, Christina, and Christopher.  It was a sunny, hot day but we still had so much fun!

Kryszan | Florida Family Portraits