Just as I am...

Everyone wants to make a good impression...

We all want people to think the best of us...I think if we could control it, we could...we'd brainwash everyone into thinking we are the most incredible people on the face of the earth and it would behoove them to calls us best friends!

I wish I could say that I have "risen" above this mindset...but, to be honest, I still struggle with it...I WANT people to like me...and I want them to like my kids and my husband and my photography and my house...and not just like them, but think they are AWEsome!!!

I'm pathetic, I know...

I'm just being real...

and THAT, I think, is what slowly makes a difference...

(I'll try to explain, but hang on because my "splainin'" sometimes turns into a couple trips around the barn until I get to the conclusion...

I DO have that desire for people to like me...I really do...but, I have found that it means absolutely NOTHING if they have a FALSE sense of who we really are...

IF they like me because they think I'm a PERFECT photographer, or that my kids never argue, or that my husband and I never disagree, or that we have our lives planned out to the T for the next 30 years...

then they don't really like ME...they like the IDEA of me that I've managed to somehow present...and that's NOT REAL...

I want others to see my "messy" and give me grace and still "like" me...and I hope they would show their "messy" too and not try to hide it all under the pretense of having "arrived" at perfection...

We are all journeying through life...and we all have STUFF...and I've found that in the mess of it...in the failures and the mistakes...in the "I don't know what the heck I'm doing as a parent" mentalities...THAT is where we find common ground and strength in relationships...

I recently met this family at our church...I LOVE meeting new people...especially when they seem to be like-minded :)  Oh the fun we had on our session...

All those things I said above...about being REAL?...yep, they are like this...

Mom let the girls dress in a way that fit their personalities...they came as they were and that's how we were able to capture the moments...

It was SUCH a pleasure meeting you all..I hope I see more of you in the future! ~Colleen