Shannon Holden Photography

A few of you asked the outcome of my recent post. What happened next?

Well, we bought our t-shirts. That was a no-brainer. My kids look so cute in theirs, and they love telling their friends what the shirts mean. They are very excited to share what Wiphan is up to on the other side of the world.

But more importantly, we welcomed a daughter into what I call our “God Family.” After I wrote my middle-of-the-night blog post that day, I went upstairs to wake my husband. I couldn’t wait to discuss this churning in my heart. My daughter was just waking up, so she jumped onto our bed where I was showing the Wiphan site to my husband. Then I clicked on the Sponsorship page. We have been sponsoring a little boy in Kenya named Makoka for about a year. We exchange letters with him, and we have his picture hanging in our kitchen. We pray for him every day and pray for God to provide for him, beyond the small check we send each month. My son says it best, with a simple prayer of “Please help Makoka have a good life.” Don’t all children deserve something that simple?

Have you ever imagine what God might say in a conversation with you? I have. “Lord, please help this child have a good life,” I pray. And I imagine his response to me … “Shannon, I want YOU to help this child have a good life.”

I told Chris that I wanted to sponsor another child. He agreed instantly. So we looked through the faces of those precious boys and girls on the website, and I invited my daughter to choose. She chose Fostina (whose bright yet soulful eyes had already reached me through her photograph), and that was that. Fostina is 11 years old, she likes cows and the color orange, and she wants to be a teacher. She is beautiful.

As I type this, there is a Wiphan team in Africa serving the women and children. One of the team members has an envelope tucked in his suitcase full of photographs and pictures drawn by my children, along with a letter we wrote to Fostina, which he will hand deliver to her this week. How awesome is that? How great is our God! My kids are already planning their next package of gifts for Fostina, to be carried by this summer’s Wiphan team. I’m very hopeful we might receive a letter back from her soon. I’m so anxious to know her better.

Now our nightly prayers include two “God-children”. Lord, please take good care of Makoka and Fostina. Provide their daily needs. Let them know we love them. Let them feel every day how much You love them.

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one.” – Mother Theresa

I’d love to hear if you’ve bought a t-shirt! And even more, I’d love to hear that your heart found a child to sponsor. It’s only $39 per month. That’s less than our family of 5 spends on a trip to the movies! There are 20 more children waiting on a sponsor through Wiphan. Can you help that number go down? Even if you don’t feel led to sponsor a child yourself, do you know someone who might? Please pass this link along to them! Share it on your blogs and Facebook pages.

You know what is amazing about things like this, when God leads us to an organization, a cause, or even just a single child that needs our help? It’s that our heart keeps growing, wanting to do more. At first I just clicked on Wiphan to buy a t-shirt. But my heart ached to go a step further, and Fostina’s eyes looked into mine, and my young daughter felt a connection with a little girl on the other side of the world, and that gave me the next answer I needed.

And now my heart is still yearning to do more … and it’s contemplating possibilities (one very far out of my comfort zone, I might add!!), waiting for God’s will for me to be unveiled. Waiting to see what he will lead me to next. Waiting anxiously.

Much love,
Shannon

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress …” James 1:27

Yesterday, as my husband and I drove to church, our kids playing happily in the back of our van, we talked about how life for us right now is just … just right. We do not have too much or too little. We talked about how we feel so blessed by the community we have surrounding us, doing life with some incredible friends from church, and having found “a village” of friends and teachers at our kids’ school to partner with us in raising our family. We even feel blessed by the smiling faces at our local Publix who know us by name. In a big city like Atlanta, we have found a small community around us that makes our home Home. We have abundant food on our table, a warm house to hold our memories and our future, a happy marriage, three healthy and vibrant children, too many beloved pets, and gainful employment. We can think of nothing else we need.

And here I am, awake at 4 a.m., surely not by accident, thinking … “We can’t take all that for granted. Too many people are suffering. Too many people need help.” You know how God just leads you to something? Only sometimes we get distracted by other things pulling us in different directions, and yet God has a way of diverting our attention back. He’s pretty good at getting us where he wants us to be, when we let him.

Wiphan is one of those things for me. It’s amazing to me how many ways in which God has connected this special ministry to my life. First was through my sweet friend, Andrea. I actually knew about Wiphan through her work as a photographer, long before I met her. When I did meet Andrea at last, by pure random circumstance at the park one afternoon, I felt like I’d known her forever. Now we are in a Bible study together and I feel so blessed to call her a dear friend. She and her husband pour their hearts into their ministry like nothing I’ve ever witnessed. They have heard God’s call and obeyed tirelessly.

After I started reading more about Wiphan, I learned that some of the fellow parents at our children’s school are also not just a part of Wiphan, but the founders of this grassroots ministry. They are a family I admire so much. And most recently my children came home from school, anxious to gather money for the coin drive that is being organized by their PE Teacher, raising funds for  …. you guessed it …. Wiphan. She is organizing a trip this summer, on which she will take a group of students to Africa to serve the widows and children in person, and my children have an opportunity to be a part of that journey simply by sharing the contents of their piggy bank.

And when I can’t sleep at 4 a.m., so I am surfing on Facebook instead, there it is again in another friend’s status update … Wiphan.

I keep getting led back here. I’m listening, Lord. I’m praying. The answer is yes, now just let me know what it is you want me to do.

While I wait for the answer, I’m buying a t-shirt. One t-shirt purchased can feed and educate an orphan for a month. A MONTH!!! Won’t you buy a shirt, too? Just click here. And while you are on the website, please read more about Wiphan, and the precious women and children they serve. Maybe God has a path for you, too …  one that leads you to help these radiant children of his as well.

Much love,
Shannon

“There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.”  ~Graham Greene

My daughter and I were listening to some music this morning. One of her favorite country songs came up on the iPod, and she ran to grab her guitar. She strummed and sang along just like she was on stage. It made me think of this quote which I have always loved. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to look back thirty years from now and remember the moment that her future began?

Much love,
Shannon

My family and I took a trip yesterday to the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, GA. With this weekend’s snow in Atlanta, we actually canceled some out of town plans we’d had, and we were in search of something new and different in the area for a fun day trip. My sons share two passions … reading and science. Astronomy, Paleontology, Geology, Meteorology … they are captivated by all of it. I discovered the Tellus Museum through a Google search looking for a local planetarium. What a find!

It is about a one hour drive from our home in Alpharetta, and well worth it. The museum was an adventure for all of us. They have done a wonderful job of making it fun and fascinating for kids and adults alike. My younger son has been talking a mile a minute this morning about panning for gems and the fossil dig. My oldest was enthralled with the Mineral Gallery. (Today is a school holiday and he already has our day planned with microscope experiments on the tiny rocks, minerals, and the dinosaur tooth we found.) Their planetarium is one of two digital planetariums in our state. This wasn’t the hazy slideshow that I remembered from my childhood field trips to another local planetarium. This was clear, vibrant, and exhilarating! The Big Backyard was also a Big Hit with all three of my kids – an hands-on exhibit for kids to explore and learn about things like sound waves, magnetism, weather, and electricity. It was difficult to tear them away when it was time to leave. Does your child love planes, trains and cars … yep, they have that too!

Check out the Tellus Science Museum for your next family outing! Here are some of our personal family snapshots from the day …

On a camera note: All pictures were taken with my beloved Panasonic Lumix ZS-3 pocket camera. Some days, I just want to be a mom and leave the big pro DSLR at home. I am incredibly picky when it comes to cameras, and I’ve been through 4 point-and-shoot cameras in the last few years. Each drove me crazy within a week and ended up in the junk drawer. But my Lumix is hands-down my most favorite point-and-shoot ever.

The photographs are bright and clear, the color is accurate, and the camera even handles low-light situations remarkably well. It boasts 10.1 megapixels, a 12X zoom, and Optical Image Stabilization. I also love that it doesn’t have that long and annoying shutter lag that so many pocket cameras have … you know, the reason you so often miss that great shot you were trying to capture?! And one of my favorite features is that it captures High Definition video!! I leave it in my purse most of the time, and I’ve caught so many great moments with my kids that I might have otherwise missed because my pro camera or my video camera was at home. Did I mention that I love this camera?

Much love,
Shannon