Give Thanks to the LORD, for He is good!

"Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,

for his steadfast love endures forever! -Psalm 106:1

I couldn't let today pass without giving thanks to our Father for his goodness!  We are truly blessed beyond measure.  Our LORD has provided us amazing friends that have helped me clean and prepare our home for our home study, friends and family that helped with the boys and MANY brothers and sisters in Christ that faithfully lifted our family up in prayer.  And then today we had a wonderful home visit- better than we could have imagined!  So many of our fears were laid to rest during our visit.  For 3 hours our social worker answered our questions and gave us opportunities to share the things the Lord has been teaching us over the last several months.  Then she did a brief walk-through of our home- and that was it!  When she left we felt informed and all the more sure that the Lord is going before us in the path to bring home our baby girl.

For you shall not go out in haste,
and you shall not go in flight,
for the LORD will go before you,
and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

 -Isaiah 52:12

And then, as icing on the most perfect of cakes, the Lord gave us a chance to hang out in his creation as a family of 4.  Here are a few of the shots we got with our tripod and self-timer :)

Thank you, Father, for your steadfast love.

Please continue to watch over our Ruthie B & her birthmom.

PS- The next steps: a second home visit where our social worker will review our typed home study with us, then a meeting with the director of our agency.  After that we'll be "Paper Pregnant!" and waiting for our baby girl to come home!

SUPER quick update!

Good morning!!

Super quick update- our first of 2 home visits with our social worker is THIS SATURDAY morning, November 5th! Please join us in prayer as we prepare our home and our minds for this next big step. Thank you to my amazing parents for watching our fellas overnight Friday and to my sweet friend Anna that will watch them for a bit on Friday morning for me to clean. God has blessed us greatly!

More details to come- please pray!

PS- I've begun booking November but have some slots available for some additional shoots!  Please email me at Fergusonadoption@gmal.com if you're interested!

Meet the Hagmans!

The Lord has been full of surprises for me along this adoption journey.  One of those surprises came the day one of my high school friends contacted me to say that she would like to contribute to our adoption fundraising and she was interested in a photo shoot.  It has been over  11 years since I saw this sweet friend and here she is praying alongside us as we work to bring our baby home!  One of my favorite surprises so far.

So now I can introduce you all to the Hagmans!

Lindsey, it was a pleasure to meet you as a grown-up and to meet your hubby Joe!  It’s such blessing to spend time with you so many years later and to know that you are praying for us.   I am exceedingly grateful for your support and of course for a chance to hang out with your nutty dogs :)    

Speaking of which, a HUGE thank you to my lovely assistant, Diana, whom I couldn’t have done this shoot without!  It takes extreme talent to squeak  a dog toy to get the dogs to “smile” AND hold a reflector at the same time. 

Davies & Russo- Engagement Favorites

  I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine
- Song of Solomon

What a JOY it was for me to photograph the future Mr. and Mrs. Russo!  Just watching the way they look at one another makes me smile!  Below are my top 13 favorites from our shoot- they're such beautiful people (both inside and out) that it was hard to choose.

Now onto the photos!

I mean, with these 2 how could I not post a silly shot?

Just 1 kissing shot so I don't embarrass Danielle too much...

BLING!

No doubt, these are two seriously in-love people.

Danielle and Darren, thank you for sharing the afternoon with us. I pray that the Lord's beautiful face continues to shine upon you both as you plan your wedding and as you begin your happily ever after.
I love you both!
-Maria

Meet the Titler Family!

The Titler Family has a very special place in my heart.  They are not only a precious family I have know and shared life with for several years, but they are also the first family to let me photograph them!  Just weeks after their youngest child was born I had the pleasure of photographing them at the the Springs stables.  Ever since- I've been hooked! 

The shoot this time was hilarious!  The family is so active and happy it was virtually impossible to have everyone looking at the camera at once.  I loved it! 

Thank you, Titler family. for the opportunity then and now to spend time with your precious family.

Meet theTitlers

Such beautiful eyes on this sweet girl.

And this one, beautiful eyes too- and the brightest personality I've ever experienced!

Sweet baby boy blues.

This gorgeous woman is beautiful on the outside, but just half as beautiful as she is on the inside :) 

The fellas- surely these 2 will  spend many years in the wilderness hunting and causing all sorts of trouble together!

Post jump shot

I also had the pleasure of meeting April's Mom and Sister during our shoot. So of course we had to get a shot of these 3 beautiful women as well!

A few of my favorite Black/White photos to wrap up

I told you they were fun!

Ruthie B Photography- debut!

I recently posted  a fundraising idea I had to photograph families for donations.  Well, the Lord, being the amazing God that he is, brought that post to a beautiful family in Tega Cay that I had never met, the Voorbergs.  This family was relatively new to the area and they "just happened" to be in need of some individual and family portraits the day they came across my blog.  But that's not the crazy part, the crazy-God part is the Voorbergs have only had one other family shoot done before now- and it was done by another family in Florida that was also fundraising for an adoption!  The Lord makes me smile when he shows off like that :). 

On a quick details note-  I've decided to name this project 

Ruthie B Photography

after the sweet baby girl we are working to bring home. Also my AMAZING sister, Diana, has agreed to assist me in most of my shoots. I still have spots available in October and November so feel free to contact me if you're interested.

Ok now onto the first "favorites" of many fall shoots to come! 

Meet the Voorbergs!

With a mom this beautiful no wonder the kids are so cute!

Voorbergs, it was such a sweet pleasure to get to know your family!  I loved watching your family interact and your kids love on each other.  I genuinely enjoyed myself.  Thank you again for your support and prayers.

And finally- the  funny face montage! 

Love it! 


To book a fall, family photo shoot please email FergusonAdoption@Gmail.com. Thanks!
 

Quick details update!

Hello!  Please forgive me for not updating prior to now.

I have taken this week off of my job at Eternal to spend some focused time on our next round of adoption paperwork.  I had absolutely NO IDEA I'd be thinking this introspectively and critically as I filled out form after form and I certainly had no idea that Niles and I would both be writing autobiographies!

Just when I thought it would be ok to complain about the workload I received this kind reminder from a friend:

Your autobiography is probably a wonderful testimony. And what a blessing to this baby one day. S/he'll see how much his mom and dad thought through before having them. All my parents could ever say sometimes when looking at me was, "What WERE we THINKING?!?!?!" -Tom Harvey  

We can always count on Tom for a great perspective and a good laugh :).

So please continue to pray for us as we work through the pile of paper.  As another friend put it "just like each contraction brings you closer to your baby, so does each line you write in the application process."

I'll close with the last section of our autobiography:

We are a family that above all else wants to love God and his people in obedience to the scriptures.   We want to practically live the faith we have been given by the Holy Spirit and believe that adopting a baby girl is such an opportunity.  The Lord has specifically placed this desire on our heart and we pray that as we “delight in the LORD, he will give [us] the desires of [our] heart.”  We look forward with joyful anticipation to the day we will be a family of five.