catching up.

spring is ever a hopping time at chez owens, but this year we're positively teeming with Things That Must Get Done, Preferably Last Week. no doubt it's mostly good and necessary stuff, but my brain sure could use a secretary to keep all the crazies tidy.

 a couple updates:

-lots of y'all have asked how the kids are processing the impending move and i'd have to say: surprisingly well. one of our five does sometimes trudge along to the tune of 'i'm gonna miss my friends,' to which i can only say, me too, buddy. me too.

-way back yonder i promised to post more from dana and steve's wedding, so i am here to make good. better late than exceptionally late is my personal theme song these days.










   





those are some beautiful folks.

thanks, steve and dana, for the distinct pleasure of photographing such a momentous day. you two plus God are going to shake this place up in the best way.

the beginning.

2010 kate joyce :: AIM

over the course of numerous weeks and months and years, God has been harrowing us through, cracking wide our hearts of dust to be open to His grace, to follow His lead.

we didn't quite know He'd lead us to africa.

we've been there before, of course, two brief glimpses of the horn as we became a family to our youngest son, but now we're heading back. this time to kenya. this time for good.

2009 kate joyce :: AIM

africa is vast, a mass of desert and coastline and jungle and bush. it walks on tiptoe the razor-thin line between beautiful and treacherous. it gets under your skin.

how many times have we heard that?

africa gets under your skin.

but here's what i suspect: as much as this continent sings of raw beauty, as much as the spread of sky and markets and sand seep through your pores, it's the people who steal your heart clean out from under you.

2009 mike saum :: AIM

2009 kate joyce :: AIM

vibrant, resilient, precious people: they're the real draw.

earlier this month, after a full week in peachtree city, the mister and i were appointed as missionaries by africa inland mission. we'll serve our first term in kenya at rift valley academy, where we'll educate and mentor and love on the kids of our missionary team, making it possible for our team to work across the continent.

our departure date is set for july of next year, and there are mountains to be moved in these next fifteen months. please pray with us. it all looks impossible from where i stand, so it's a mighty good thing we worship a God who specializes in just that line of work.

He's got this.

2008 ted rurup :: AIM

it still floors me most days that God would choose to use the likes of me to help build His kingdom. i'm nothing to write home about: not particularly gifted or wonderful or selfless. i'm prone to myopia. fissured and flawed.

but if He'll have us, we're so His for the taking.

surfacing for air.

i duly apologize for managing to fall off the side of the planet again. it seems i got a bit carried away with all the spring breaking and processing wedding photos and a week in georgia's peachtree city (more on that to come), but i am very much alive and happily ticking along.

one of the things God's been teaching me is to slow the heck down and be with the good folk around me, get involved in their story. especially when it comes to heartache, i have this internal compulsion to Solve Everything And Move Forward, when mostly what's needed is to be someone's quiet company.





we did the georgia things sans kiddos, thanks to the mister's courageous mother who took mighty good care of our crew. i suspect little em honeymooned with grandma (as he does with anyone new), so then we came back home and all our hard-won relational progress had flitted off to never never land. the past couple days have been a bit bumpy, but with enough consistency and a generous helping of grace, i imagine we'll relocate our groove.


in other news, i think i've disclosed my status as a fair weather runner, yes? well, unfortunately for me, this spring has been uncharacteristically fair, so sunday i headed out for my inaugural near-death experience run. except this time i was actually smart enough to snail-pace myself so as not to dry heave at the first mile marker. i really do sometimes learn things.




also, soccer season is once again upon us, and except for the fact that these small people have entirely too much energy, i am awfully fond of my team. i also have high hopes of winning a game or two this time around, but if not, we shan't lose heart: the post-game snack makes defeat but a hazy memory.


anyhow, i've missed you all something fierce. i'm woefully behind on life and things are only picking up speed, so if i owe you an email or phone call or blog visit, give me a friendly nudge or leave me a link to something going on with you.





ps so these ferny guys. i love them. one week they're fisted bulbs of new green, and six days later they've fanned knee-high. i never tire of photographing them, and secretly? i don't think they mind.