Tsunami’s. Signs, Wonders and Miracles.

I was in a rhythm when it came to my business goals. Each day I set aside time for growth, development and client relationships. My heart was fulfilled, and I still had that hunger for more, for greatness and growth.

Then it hit. A tsunami I knew was coming; I just didn’t know when. A project so big that I wondered how I would even find the time for the simple daily task of showering, let alone my photography business. I had a time limit to complete a project that really could have used weeks of dedication. I had to trust God every day and take breaks to pray the anxiety away. I needed grace from my family and take out for dinner, for days. I remember one day feeling like it was “moving day.” You know when you’re moving to a different home and there’s no plates and forks. You’re eating pizza out of the box and maybe it’s lunch and dinner that day. Maybe you have a paper plate or maybe your rushing for sustenance and just eating over the kitchen counter. That’s what it was like. That’s the time and focus I had to dedicate to the project. In the middle of this project, I knew at any minute, I could get a call to stop in my tracks and go to photograph a birth. I was a little panicked to say the least, so I stopped, let it all go and prayed. I prayed for God to PLEASE not let this baby come until I could finish this project. Please let me finish and get back to focusing on my family and career. Please let this baby have impeccable timing, your timing.

I remember the moment I finished. I felt like a conqueror. I felt like crying tears of relief. My best friend Danielle called me and I was probably unintelligible at the moment. It took a few minutes for me to be able to explain that I wasn’t upset but that I was overwhelmed and relieved. It was tears of relief and joy. I wanted to get back to my life and back to what I loved.

It was June 27th when I finished that project and June 28th when God answered my prayers. My client Melissa called to let me know she was going into labor. “Wow,” I thought to myself, God is so good. After nearly two weeks of this project, God put me back on the wave of joy immediately. It’s like when your child falls and you say “Get up!” You say it with a tone of “brush it off, keep going.” Keep going my child and keep growing! I felt it in my heart. God doesn’t want us to focus on the trials and tribulations. He wants us to get up, brush off and keep pressing forward. I thought how perfect it was that not even 24 hours had passed that I had completed my project, before God catapulted me right back into what I love so much, my work as a photographer.

The day Ares was born was amazing in every way. The sunrise was beautiful, his birth was quick. I was only at the hospital for about four hours that day. Everything went perfectly. I couldn’t have wished one single thing to have gone differently.

After I finished photographing the birth, I got in my car and took a moment to soak in all that I was feeling in that moment. I looked over in the passenger seat of my car and there sat this bag. It said Tsunami on it. I smiled and my heart overflowed with joy. Great tsunami’s of stress can come and try to sweep you under but even GREATER Tsunami’s of joy and answered prayer can just as beautifully come and sweep you up into a love and joy that words cannot describe. I needed Ares to be born that day. I needed that beautiful moment to bring me back into the reality of what God has for me. I’m back on track and ready to focus on what I love.