Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Volunteer Work

O.k. I know that I should be careful about how much volunteer work I do so as not to take away from my own family or from building my photography business. BUT.... I had to do this one. My Grandfather was in the Army, my parents were in the Air Force and my husband was in the Navy. Actually my Uncle let me know that I have at least 15 family members who served in either Army, Marines, Navy or Air Force. Wow! Anyway, on Memorial Day (perfect, right?) I signed up with Operation Love Reunited.




As a participating photographer, I will book FREE sessions to military members who have orders to deploy without their families for a long period of time. I can do sessions before they leave with their spouse and/or children OR I can be there to document the reunion OR I can book a special session with the newborns upon their return. How exciting is that?!

Now let me post a few pics before I continue...
WARNING Poor, low res images below. Yuck.
It's the content that matters in these, people!

This is my husband and our oldest son, who is now 10 years old! The bib reads "Sailor In Training"


These are some signs that one of the other wives and I worked on when our husbands were scheduled to return from a 6 month cruise. They were posted at the main gate on base.


This is the carrier that my husband called home for 6 months straight, along with many more months at other times!


This is the reunion for my husband and daughter. She was only 4 months old when he left so she wasn't quite sure who he was.


Yeah, I finally have my husband home! This was a very exciting day. If you have never been to a military homecoming, even if you don't know anyone coming home, you should go. There's nothing else like it. Incredibly emotional. One thing I loved, even though my husband wasn't one of them, was that they let all the "new daddy's" off the boat first! So sad that they weren't there for their babies births but what an incredible reunion.

This is just one month after my husband returned and he was leaving again. He was trying to have fun with our son so he wouldn't be so sad that he would be gone again.

Anyway, those are some of my experiences. Now I can be there for the families who are going through it now. I'm so excited to have signed up with them.

1 comment:

The Wades said...

I seriously just got tears in my eyes! LOVE LOVE those low res pix! They look priceless to me! You are smokin' not in that picture. :) This is something else I'd love to do when/if I get good enough. You're opening up a whole new world for me.

You'll have to tell me more about this time in your life. I had no idea your hubby was gone from you. Do me a favor--tell him thanks from our whole family for serving our country! Thanks to you, too, for sacrificing for all of us!