Wednesday, July 6, 2011

(Not Quite Wordless) Wednesday: Gratitude

The other day I shared the many things I love and am grateful for about the 4th of July.  Well now I have two more things to add to my list this year....



This year's 4th my sister and her family were away in Arkansas and couldn't join us for our festivities. But after a 10 hour car ride from Arkansas to Chicago, with her husband and two young children, she surprised me at the fireworks.



For this I am grateful.


A few minutes after the fireworks began a voice came over the loud speaker saying a little girl named Veronica was missing.  My heart went in my stomach (as I'm sure it did for every parent there.) Watching the fireworks seemed very meaningless knowing the anguish this mother and daughter were going through separated from each other in a sea of thousands. While looking up at the exploding sky and praying hard, several minutes later, the voice came back to say Veronica had been reunited with her mother.



For this I am grateful.



Now I apologize for all the obligatory fireworks photos. I'm like your grandmother forcing you to look at her vacation photos of the Grand Canyon. But this was my first year bringing my "gear" and playing around in manual mode to capture these photos. (Trust me, there were many, so making you look at seven really isn't all that bad.)  Now if you have stuck around long enough to make it to the end of this blog post.... well....



For this I am grateful.


"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."  James 1:17 






9 comments:

  1. thank you for being grateful and sharing it with us :) we are grateful for you! :) KC

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  2. I'm glad you shared these with us! They are fabulous! I brought my gear too, but yours came out much better. The lines on most of my photos look all squiggly. I did use a tripod so maybe it's because I didn't use a remote shutter release. And we were really far away, but it doesn't seem like that would make a difference.

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  3. gorgeous photos, mine look like some avant garde dance rave. but that's ok with me too :)

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  4. @Deb duty, I didn't have a shutter release either- but the tripod is crucial. For a few of these photos I purposefully jiggled or tapped on the camera to get those zig-zaggy lines.
    @Anna, Love your description of the 'avant garde dance rave'! :)

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  5. Aw, I totally started crying when I read that your sister and her family surprised you. (I'm still bawling. lol) How sweet! And the poor mother who lost her child... Ugh! That's one of my biggest fears. I'm so glad that they were reunited. Okay, moving on to the photos...these are so awesome! I think my favorites are the first three pics. :)
    Thanks for joining Alicia and I for the Crazy Days of Summer Photo Challenge. I hope you'll join us again next week when we tackle a new theme, critters. (Eek! I hate bugs. lol) Have a great day!

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  6. I love this post. How wonderful to have your sister surprise you and for the little girl to be found. Lovely captures! I hope to have a tripod by next year :)

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  7. WOW- those are just so amazing! I feel like I'm there.

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  8. So great that you could be with your family! I love your fireworks shots. Especially that first one. You must tell us your secrets. Thanks so much for joining us for the Crazy Days of Summer!

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