Family = Faith + Laughter + Love… the Van’t Wout Family

This photo session was very special to me.  First of all, it’s of a HUGE family – lots of branches who all gathered together to celebrate BEING together.  Some of them travelled all the way from California to be there, and it was God’s kindness that allowed me to have an open day to be able to hang out with them and capture their beauty and graciousness and silliness and love.  It’s a family of sisters – three beautiful ladies who I’ve known since high school.  And it was a particular joy for me to meet their own families and see them as mamas – loving on their babies and complementing their husbands and being grown women and seeing that all the things that made them so wonderful in high school are still present.

And what was most special about this occasion was that it was a moment of showing love and respect to their 96 year old Oma.  They wanted to get a photo of everyone together for her to have and enjoy.  And they wanted pictures of the girls giving her a very special necklace that they all share, a symbol of her new faith in Jesus – a butterfly, new birth in Christ.  It was beautiful!  It made me teary, and even now thinking of it my heart is warmed and I’m so grateful to have been able to give them this gift with my camera.

Because there were so many people, and because so many came from across the country, I took a ridiculous amount of photos and I didn’t pick and choose, but edited almost all of them.  That’s because this was so much more for me than just a photo shoot – it was my heart being poured out for them and thankfulness at being invited to take part in watching and capturing their love.

Thank you, precious family, for the gift you gave me that day.  I hope everyone who sees these photos sees the utter joy that I see in your smiles!