The Light & Liberation Project

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100% of proceeds from this online photography course go to efforts to rescue children from trafficking

I’ve been sharing about this on my social media, but so much of my heart has been in this project the past few years that I thought I should share a little bit on here too.)

A few years ago I was driving from our home in Houston to Austin, Texas for a job interview for my husband and I read an article that opened my eyes to the terrible reality of the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world–sex trafficking. My heart ached and I wept as I read about an estimated 2 million children being some of those victims. I was reading it out-loud to my husband and I could hardly get through it.

But the article also talked about one man’s effort to do something about it and the organization that has since grown into an incredible source of hope for these children. It’s backed by the support of local law enforcement and the hopes and hearts of hundreds of thousands around the world.

That organization is Operation Underground Railroad, made up of skilled former CIA, Navy SEALs, and Special Ops operatives that locate and rescue trafficked children and provide for their rehabilitation.

I wanted to be a part of that. I wanted to be a part of the effort to help them.

My mind raced with ideas. Over the next few months I created a photography presentation and shared a few hours of my knowledge in a few locations to raise money for the effort. But I wanted to be able to reach more, to help more. I prayed and prayed to know how.

While driving in my car one day, I had the idea to involve other photographers, to enable others to learn from their talent and experiences too. I spent the next few months praying, planning, emailing, and searching for top talent in the areas I felt would be of great value to learn.

And that was just the beginning. I clung to every bit of courage and inspiration and encouragement I felt as I was stormed by doubt amid the discouragments. The process was slow, but came together bit by bit with the courage of those who were willing to join me without ever having met me. These amazing photographers trusted me enough to give their time and share their knowledge to be a part of the rescuing too. That was powerful to me.

I feel I have been stretched in every way, but guided and strengthened through it as well.

It has been a project of patience, trust, and a whole lot of heart, from all of us. And it is finally ready to be shared with others and on its way to doing some good for these children in greatest need.

It’s an affordable, all-in-one course for anyone wanting to improve their pictures or learn how to use their SLR camera. Nine photographers teach the thirteen topics in this course, and they are amazing at what they do. It’s inspiring and easy to understand, just over two hours long (we know you’re busy), and downloadable so that you can watch it at any time and as many times as you’d like. It is a course that will get you excited about your photography and equipped with the tools to help you capture loved ones in beautiful, meaningful ways you’ve only hoped you could. You can read more about it and purchase it on the course page here: gum.co/ourlight.

ALL proceeds will go to Operation Underground Railroad. It’s the neatest thing. If you think you know someone who might be interested, please share it with them and join us in this great cause! I know this has the potential to do so much good — for the kids and for those that get to learn from this course.

-Tami

*Update: Thank you all so much for your support!! I am so grateful for this good we can do together. So many have shared or purchased the course and we thank you! LDSLiving also wrote a wonderful article about the Light and Liberation Project that had me all teary with gratitude. You can find it here.

Remember this week there is a discount of $30 off with code “ourlight” if you purchase by wednesday 11/14/18. (This course is at an incredible deal already and we intended it that way so that we can reach more people and do the most good. So if you have a camera you’ve been wanting to get or one you’ve been putting off learning how to use, this is the greatest way to learn–and do a lot of good!)

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart!

Can you See Mt. Rushmore?

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This time last year our girls were one month old, suffering from severe reflux and needing to be soothed around the clock. Summer had arrived and was entreating seemingly all but us to its pleasant reprieve and active adventures.

We were barely keeping our heads above water and rushed our tired bodies to bed each night as soon as the babies were soothed long enough for their first stretch of nighttime sleep. Free time was like the faint sighting of land while treading in a grey ocean. We weren’t discouraged or unhappy, we adored these babies with the biggest of grateful hearts! We were just tired, so tired.

I don’t remember what sparked the idea, perhaps some longing for a sense of normalcy, but we decided to take a trip to South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore in the midst of all this. I don’t know how we managed to pack for our weekend trip, but somehow we made it on the road for a six hour ride and the aid of the car to soothe our girls to sleep. We figured we’d just be at home soothing them, we might as well take a ride in the car somewhere.

I remember the peace in that drive, the waves of prairie grass and the different colored cows. I grew such a love for driving through open spaces while living out there.

We visited Mt. Rushmore, and I remember being more intrigued with it than I thought I’d be. I would’ve even stayed to watch the movie about it if the babies weren’t crying and Hyrum climbing over seats. My favorite part though was driving through the surrounding Black Hills. It was so beautiful there!

At one point we stopped to eat and hike around a bit, and when we got to the top of the rocks we discovered a stunning view of the hills with Mt. Rushmore tucked right in the middle of them! That was a highlight for me. And just before we left, a mountain goat leaped across the rocks a few yards away from us. I think that was a highlight for Jake.

I don’t think we have ever been more exhausted on a trip, hardly managing a solid hour’s sleep. We forgot the babies’ rock n plays— the beds they are so accustomed to, that help with their reflux.— So we improvised an inclined bed in the base of their stroller, and although they looked cozy, we were up with them almost constantly it seemed.

But it was a taste of normalcy, this trip, just being out somewhere, especially somewhere new. Jake took the kids to breakfast and a park so I could sleep, and the older two got to swim with him at the water park hotel. And despite the exhaustion, we loved it and are so glad we went!

And oh to think how far we’ve come! Our baby girls are now our best sleepers! We are taking picnics, running through sprinklers, visiting family, and going away on the weekends. It is such a glorious time with these four little ones.

The other day I was at Trader Joe’s as the temperatures were first starting to warm, and I walked past a barrel of watermelons and a group of people barbecuing by the doorway. I smiled from ear to ear walking through those doors! Summer had arrived and it felt so nostalgic to me, so wonderfully, joyfully nostalgic, as though it had been a long while since I had played in it. But it really hadn’t been that long! Last summer was just so different.

Now the fun we are all enjoying this summer—the swimming, the smells, and the whole laid back feel of it—is somehow conjuring up the sweetest of summer memories from years ago. I am loving summer like never before, or perhaps all the years before, and that has been such a gift. #mamanotes

This River

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Esther started walking this week! It’s so fun to see her toddle around, it’s the cutest thing. It’s hard to think that they will only be babies a little while longer. A few months maybe? Is there a moment of change? It seems they gradually grow into their toddling bodies with each new tooth, new word, and next step and we see it all and celebrate every one. But then they are walking and talking and eating just like us and we realize how quickly they left their babyness behind—how quickly their arms reach out instead of up and their bodies curl less in our arms. It’s like a river of childhood, where the baby months seem to pass most rapidly.

The rapids have been strong this year with two, and half the time I am so busy holding on that there has been little rest in the surroundings or the details. But calmer water is already steadying us, they are sleeping through the night and off playing with toys, and I am reminded that this time, this sweet baby time is so precious and fleeting! I can’t help but ache a little to leave behind the water that is passing so quickly, their sweet tinyness and greatest neediness, however rapidly it has tossed me.

So I am embracing it all and riding in the river too—cleaning their hands and kissing their cheeks, still holding them while they sleep and playing with them while they play, with the energy of my heart to keep me afloat. And I’ll still hold them close, for as long as I can.
#mamanotes

In the Sunshine

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We are in California now, living just an hour from the beach in beautiful spring weather while much of our family and friends are still sporting heavy coats and scraping ice from their windshields. We are taking walks in the sunshine, swimming on the weekends, and taking drives along the coast. I think about this and my nose gets all tingly and my eyes water because I longed for this so much. I wanted it so intensely at times, and here we are living in it!

At this very time last year when our days were hazy and our home was surrounded in mounds of snow for months on end with hardly a temperature above twenty, I laid on my couch with my growing belly under mounds of my own darkness. Pregnancy has a way of intensifying emotion, and I was struggling to get out from under it.

But I changed in those months. I grew, closer to Him. I reached up to the Savior and pleaded for His help, more than I ever had before. And He lifted me. In quiet moments I felt strengthened, inspired, and encouraged and I can’t even pinpoint exactly how, but I remember those feelings. They brought me closer to heaven and closer to Him.

So as much as I am heart swellingly grateful for this time in the sun, I am deeply grateful for the darker days that brought me here and brought me to Him too.

At the end of my pregnancy I updated my blog with some of these experiences from my journal and the crumbly feelings I was having. They were so raw at the time I first wrote them that I didn’t really care to share them. But ultimately I felt the desire to because I think there is value in sharing the struggles, and if it can help someone, the sweet strength I felt along the way too. You can find these under the category, “pregnancy,” which is on the right side on a computer or scroll all the way to the bottom on a phone.

When you cannot do what you have always done

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“When you cannot do what you have always done,

then you only do what matters most.” -Robert D. Hales

I have felt really exhausted lately. Rarely a good night’s rest, and so much to do on so little sleep. And free time, what’s that?

But two years ago a sweet sister missionary in our lds branch wrote this quote on a bookmark and gave it to me (before I even knew I was pregnant with twins). It’s from David A. Bednar’s conference talk a few years back, quoting Robert D. Hales. Little did she know how much I would entirely CLING to that comforting reminder two years down the road.

When I focus on the things that matter most, I can feel like I am doing enough. I am trying to remind myself that it IS enough, but what’s clear is that this is where my JOY is.

This morning I asked myself, “What is most important for me to do today?” My mind was full of a hundred things I needed to do, or wanted to do, but only a few were MOST important.

Pray. Read my scriptures. Love on my family and take care of them. THIS is my joy.

Having done these things by the end of the day I felt like I was doing alright, despite all the things I didn’t do. These are what matter most, and “what matters most lasts the longest.”

Even then, I still managed to shower, put a few loads of laundry through (through, not folded and put away 🙂 read to my kids, feed them, take them to the park, write a mamanote, make soup for dinner, wash some dishes (after the kids went to bed), and order more binkis online.

I DIDN’T pick up the clutter, wipe down the counters, finish the dishes, vacuum the floors, CLEAN THE BATHROOMS (been on my list for a while now ), go through those bills, research that baby rash, trim the kids’ nails, exercise, meal plan, edit pictures, order winter clothes for the kids and new sheets for us (completely ripped while I stood on them last week to get pictures of the twins,) update my blog, play with my kids more, make family videos, take a nap, among so many other things I needed or wanted to do. (This is still a HUGE improvement from a few months ago when I hardly had time to pour myself a bowl of cereal and eat it.)

But somehow, I feel ok with that. Those things will move over to tomorrow’s list, but today I filled with the most important things, and that is always enough.

#mamanotes