How are you using the gifts you've been given?

I love taking pictures.

I honestly can't think of any better combination than a beautiful 80° day, a light breeze, and my camera. Especially this time of the year. Flowers are in bloom, the butterflies dance along your paths, everything seems so fresh.

Ever since June of 2007 I really have taken a liking to photography. When my son was born in June of 2007 I couldn't quit thinking about all the cute ways I could photograph him. I started with a Sony Cybershot 3.2 mega pixels camera....and my pictures still looked good! I determined that real skill in the photography realm isn't totally dependent on the equipment alone.

From there I got an Olympus Point and Shoot camera that could be frozen, thrown in water, dropped, and still work. It was Olympus’ latest in practically indestructible cameras. I enjoyed the jump – I went from 3.2 to 10 megapixels and found that I had so much more room to play with pictures in the photo editing sense without taking too much away from the picture itself, quality wise.

Today I am shooting with an Olympus DSLR and love it!

I have thoroughly enjoyed taking pictures of my little man, and most of the other ones have been family members or nature. I love taking pictures of flowers along a nature trail…or birds or turtles, or butterflies, or whatever else we might happen upon along life’s path.

The more pictures I took, the more I wanted to take…our weekends became time for exploring state parks that were close to us so that I could take lots of pictures! I never seem to tire when it comes to taking pictures. Just the other night I had my camera out at 11:15 at night taking a picture of a lady bug that had managed to get inside our home….There are days that I wish I could just spend the whole day taking pictures.

My love of taking pictures, and seeing how people reacted to the pictures that I took…I got to thinking that maybe it would be a way to make some extra money…so I began taking steps to ‘get my name out there’ so to speak. I did some photo finishing work in creating a calendar for a local high school in exchange for my add being placed in the calendar. I took pictures of little ones free of charge. I took pictures at a birthday party and provided a print to everybody who attended with my watermark on it. In the midst of doing this, time flew by, like it always seems to do.

Before I knew it December 2009 was quickly approaching.

I learned of a movement by photographers all around the world known as Help Portrait. It was the idea that you use your time, expertise and equipment to give back to somebody less fortunate. For me the family that I did this for had recently lost their husband/father to cancer. Left behind were his wife and son and daughter. They were relocating here because there was family here. A lot of their belongings were left behind because they couldn’t afford to send them all here. They were starting out with the bare minimum but doing what they needed to get from one day to the next. The mother wanted to have a family picture done for the holidays but knew that there was no way she could afford it. The target had been located! I took pictures of them, and she brought along a picture of her husband, hoping that in some way I could incorporate a picture of him into the picture. The task before me was huge. I had never done anything like this. Yet my one wish for Christmas was to find a way to give it away. I had heard the song by Matthew West, “Give this Christmas away” and was just waiting for my opportunity to do just that. This is what the picture looked like upon completion…actually this is a compilation of all the pictures that I came up with…but you can see where I took his picture and the picture of the three of them and combined them.

Needless to say the woman and her children were moved to tears. They loved the way that it looked like he was just part of the picture. I was satisfied with the finished product, very rarely am I ever ‘happy’ with the finished product – I look at it and see so much room for improvement and things I should have/could have done differently. I did feel a since of accomplishment. It was the first time taking pictures for somebody else that it made me feel so good about doing it. I mean this feeling went straight to my heart…it was amazing how good it felt to use the gift that God has given me to make somebody else happy, to give them hope, and to give Christmas away.

Time goes on, life goes on, I get back in school. I continue to take pictures but quit doing so much to ‘get my name out there’…Then Relay For Life comes along…and again I am in the unique position of having three good pictures of a woman who my mom knew personally is currently fighting cancer. She and her family came out to Relay and thoroughly enjoyed the event. I was the only one that my mom knew of that had pictures of she and her family walking together. I took the pictures that I had managed to get and made a collage for her. She too, was very pleased with the finished result. And again, it felt like my heart and spirit were being lifted. Yet again, by doing something good for somebody else I felt like I was benefiting more from it than they were. I was so motivated and felt so good about the finished product.

And then it hit me like a ton of bricks…it is amazing how when His message gets to you, when you hear His message – the impact that it can have on you is astounding. The question that remained in my head upon completing Relay for Life was this one – What are you doing to further God’s kingdom? I couldn’t understand why that question would be placed in my head upon completing the picture. And finally it got through my thick skull – my photography abilities are not meant to provide any monetary gains at this time in my life. The purpose of my photography is to honor God…I dug out the first watermark that I made – it had a VP in the middle of it and around the outside, in the form of a heart it read, “Honoring God, one click at a time. Van Deusen Photography.” My photography is only meant to benefit me when it is in the form of hope for somebody else.

The purpose of my photography is to provide hope. It just so happens that each time I have provided hope and felt so great about what I did – it was for people involved in church and Christians. I am thinking that somehow I am to use the gift that God has given me to honor and provide hope for others who are less fortunate than I am…be it family situation, or health situation. I think I am to use my photography to further God’s Kingdom by providing hope for those who are struggling….at least this is the message I feel that I have received thus far!

Wow...6.9 cm made my day!

Today was an amazing day!

I had an appointment for an Ultra-Screen. It is a combination of blood work and an ultrasound to identify if the baby may have Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18 or Trisomy 13. In the ultrasound they are mainly concerned with the nuchal translucency which looks like a white spot behind your baby’s neck. Normal is anything under 3 mm. Our baby measured 1.3 mm! That was the first good news of the appointment. The little one was cooperating wonderfully.

We saw the brain, noted no extra fluid so that is a plus!
We noticed that the eyes have moved from the side of the head to the front of the face where they should be.
We saw the nasal bone fully formed.
All four chambers of the heart are just about complete.
The heart is already working, pumping blood through the little one.
We listened to the heart beat.
A heartbeat was recorded at 163 beats per minute.
The baby was opening and closing their mouth during the ultrasound.
We saw a full bladder on the little one - evidence that the esophagus has formed properly.
We saw the stomach cavity.
We saw the spine starting to develop.
From crown to rump the little one is measuring 13 weeks 1 day...or 6.9 cm...or about the size of a jumbo shrimp!
Can you believe that they can see everything I listed on something that is only 6.9cm long? That to me is absolutely amazing...it is soo incredible. The person doing the ultrasound said the baby was very good and very cooperative. She described it as a 'textbook picture'!

New Baby Van Deusen

Has anything ever happened to you that changed your life?

To be honest with you I don't know of anybody that could answer that question with a "no."

Be it attending school and making a best friend, or falling in love and getting married, or lending a helping hand to realize in the end how blessed you are. Or landing the perfect job.  Purchasing your first car.  If you are breathing then chances are you have eperienced some life changing event in your life. 

I am still walking around in the clouds after a day like today...

I had my first prenatal appointment...and despite the *yucky* part it was pretty amazing to see that little blob...Our little one is 6-7 weeks old right now.  I got to see a good strong heartbeat and it was like a sense of peace just fell over me.  It was amazing. 

My what a decade it has been!

January 1, 2010

Reflections on the last decade...

When I think back on all the change this past decade and what has happened in my life, it is nothing short of phenomenal.  For some reason, maybe I'm more reflective, or in a different mind set but this past decade seems to be a huge one in our books! 

This time ten years ago, I was a freshman in high school - the 1999/2000 schol year. 

I was attending Duncan U. Fletcher High School, the same school that my mom attended.

On September 11, 2001 I was a Junior in High School.  I sat in Mrs. Furnans Advanced Placement United States History class as we watched what was happening in New York City. I still have the quiz I took in that class, on that day - my grade was a 25%.  We were taken aback by what could happen on US soil.

I decided to do an oil painting, thought painting with oil would be different.  The results -

I also decided to take up writing on rice...yes you read that correctly! To date, the most I have written on a single grain of rice is the ten commandments, one commandment per grain.

We took a family vacation to Maryland...we have all changed so much since then!

Before I graduated from high school, I learned about how it felt to lose a techer who provided so much hope and inspiration during a difficult time in my life. She was an amazing lady. Sadly, she lost her battle with cancer.  I will always remember the hope she gave me.  For at the same time she was diagnosed with cancer, so was a close family friend.

I graduated from high school in 2003, with honors!  It was a happy time for my family.

Before graduating we signed our name on the rock in the courtyard at school-

I went on to pursue my education at the University of North Florida. I wanted to be a teacher. After a few semesters there, I re-met Dennis.  Dennis and I 'dated' in seventh grade - back when dating means nothing more than holding hands, maybe getting together on the weekend - but even that hardly ever happened.  So we were 'dating' in seventh grade, summer came and I never heard anything from him.  He will tell you to this day, that was the biggest mistake he made!  We started talking three days before Easter in 2004.  He came over for Easter dinner with the family, and I guess you could say the rest is history!  We got engaged in October of 2004 and told everybody on April 1, 2005 we were getting married on April 15, 2005!  Ok...so somewhere in that one year time frame of us meeting, I moved out of my house, moved away from my parents...the steps out that front door that night that 'things went down' are probably some of the hardest steps I've had to take my entire life....I also had to learn how to wash my own clothes...and of course I had to get a tatoo!

Dennis and I got married on April 15, 2005 at Jarboe Park in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.  Afterwards we set out to Orlando - for a weekend get away.  When we returned we began our search for our new home.  We ended up in Pine Barren Apartments, a studio apartment.  It was very small, but it was a place to call our own!  Shortly after moving in to the apartments we went to Dennis' brothers house, and somehow ended up taking his dog home with us.  That became our first 'baby' - his name is Buddy and he is a boxer mix. At this point we worked on rebuilding the relationship with my parents.

We also traded in Dennis' Hyundai Tiburon for a Toyota Corolla, lower monthly payment and a more family friendly car...

After about a year in a studio apartment with a dog, we decided to get a one bedroom apartment, nearly tripling the amount of living space.  We moved from apartment number 206 to apartment number 602...Three months after living there we ended up having to move out over an altercation with a fellow neighbor who insisted that we were telling buddy to get the cats...with no where to go we ended up moving in with my parents....Needless to say my parents helped us find a place to live, quick!  Their neighbors across the street had a house next door that nobody was living in. If we moved in, cleaned it out and painted it we could live their six months rent free.  We enjoyed living close to my parents and with the nice, three bedroom house and half acre back yard we decided to add another canine companion to our home.  Her name is Piper and she is a shepherd mix of some kind that we got from the Humane Society!  We took both dogs to the beach often, wore them out and they loved getting out!

My mom had continued school, when I quit school.  She graduated, with honors and was ready to teach...only problem - there was a hiring freeze, little did she know she would have to be really patient with waiting for a job. My dad was so proud of her!

November of 2006 we found out that we were pregnant.  Our baby was due on 07/07/07...he joined us a little early and was born on June 16, 2007. He weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. Seth Alan Van Deusen.  I think it is awesome that Dennis' birthday is in April, mine is in May and Seth's is in June.  Consequently, in the last decade we have not only celebrated his birthday but also his frist birthday and second birthday as well!  Adjusting to life with a new baby was different and tiring but really pretty awesome.  The first two weeks were the hardest, once he figured out the whole nursing thing, we were in there...granted now he doesn't want to quit nursing...It was nice to have my parents across the street for the one a.m. high fever 'oh my gosh what do i do' calls and also for those first few baths when he seemed so fragile and wobbly.  Seth loves Curious George!

Shortly after Seth being born we decided we wanted to start looking into a house that we could truly call our own.  Renting served its purpose but we were ready for something that we could be working towards owning.  We began searching.  To be honest, I think it troubled my parents.  At this point we had re-established a good relationship with them, and we had Seth and I don't think they wanted us to go too far.  Lucky for us, there was a foreclosed home three doors down, that was kept in near excellent conditon after having been remodeled two years prior.  That one seemed like the one for us. Now getting into this house was a grueling process, it was the biggest bet either one of us had ever made - putting out nearly $8000 of borrowed money on a house that we weren't even guaranteed was ours...God was on our side for this one, for sure....granted the amazing real estate agent definately helped keep the ball rolling.  She was committed to selling us our first home...

and 51 days after we signed the paper, the house was ours!

We love our new home...it feels soo good to be working towards owning our own home.

My sister donated blood for the first time.  I donated with her, and my mom found out that she can now donate!  She is pretty close to hitting the five gallon marker, I just reached the one gallon mark!

We got into a not so pretty car accident.  Thanks to the people at Arlington Toyota, they had our car fixed in no time!  It was just under $5000 in damage and took them less than a week to fix! We couldn't even open the passenger door all the way...

Dennis, Seth and I took to the beach, we were going a couple times a week...it was a lot of fun.

My mom FINALLY got her own classroom!  She is teaching fourth grade at Crown Point Elementary, and though it has been a challenging year so far she wouldn't trade it for the world. 

2009 also meant saying good bye to some dear ones.  We lost Ms. Jenneman in a boating accident almost a year ago.  And we lost Grandma Penn as well.  They will live on the lives they touched.  I think of Ms. Jennemann every morning as I look at the gong on the piano.  I think of Grandma Penn everytime I am sitting at my desk and I glance up to see the little mouse with the tassle that I gave her from my graduation (the day I graduated just so happened to be her birthday!)

While there was sad news this year, this was also good news - being able to witness a few miralces is unbelievable.  My mom has a bracelet that reads, "Have faith, expect miracles." It sums up these three people in my life. My grandfather having quad-druple bypass heart surgery and then having to go back in for a defibrelator and to go for a check up and see that his heart is getting stronger - a miracle:

Susan, our real-estate agent, her husband was diagnosed with a rare cancer...the odds weren't in his favor, he pulled through and is living cancer free - saving a husband and father and police officer - a miracle:

My cousins son, Jase...a romping, stomping five year old little boy full of energy one day and hospitalized the next.  The doctors not to sure exactly what caused it but was in a bad state...organs shutting down, he was on dialysis, expected to be in the hospital for quite some time, if he pulled through.  The little boy had an amazing faith, told everybody not to worry because God would take care of him.  Within two weeks he made a complete recovery - and to this day you would not even know that he almost lost his life - a miracle:

As a family we decided it would be fun to watch the sunrise over the ocean on Jacksonville Beach and then drive to the other side of Florida to Clearwater Beach to watch the sunset over the ocean.  It was a lot of fun and something that I have always wanted to do.

This past decade I have become a full-fledged facebooker!  I have used it to keep in touch with family members, old teachers, cousins, and even a few friends from kindergarden!

I decided to get back in school...I am close to completing my associates.  I have decided that at this point I want to work with the little people - 2-3 year olds are what I enjoy the most!  I went back this past semester and finished the class with a 97.9% average!  I was even given this award for my outstanding performance.

Christmas of 2009 I was blessed with the oppurtunity to provide hope for somebody, and to give the Christmas away.  I feel that I was successful in that endeavor, and look forward to being able to give back again...you can read the full story here.

I think that about wraps up the decade, I am sure that I am forgetting something....I figured I would end with some pictures I have taken - photography has become a new love for me!  I am so grateful that I can bless others with the blessing that God has given me!

I am looking forward to what the next decade brings my way...