May 13, 2011

Dear Friends,

What is the Scoop?
Happy (belated) Mother's Day to all of the beautiful mothers out there, a wee bit late, but never-the-less very important! We hope that during this special time of transition between spring and summer that your days are filled with smiles and happy memories for you and your family members. We had a grand time this past weekend celebrating Christi's birthday, Jen and Greg's Anniversary, Christi's graduation from Cornerstone University as well as Mother's Day. Shelli's birthday is coming up this weekend as well as Ken and Nicole's first Wedding Anniversary. Lots of more fun family things coming up this month, that we are looking forward to as well!

On April 8th and 9th, we took a trip to Detroit to hear and see the very famous Sandy Puc and Gerry Ghionis speak on their "Power of Passion" tour. Jen and Nicole were so very inspired with everything that they covered that night. We even did a fun blog post with pictures of the weekend, we had such a lovely time. Please click here to read the blog post about our time there.

On April 9th, we drove back from Detroit to capture the PTC Spring Fling event in Byron Center, MI! It was a wonderful night of yummy food, dancing, games, portraits and fun! To see a little post about this night click here!

On April 18th, we had our monthly PPWM meeting. It was unfortunately cut short when our speaker was not feeling well. Jen & Nicole did however, enter the 8x10 print competition for "Beautiful Bokah" (meaning the background of the image, blurred by depth of field according to your lens and f-stop).

On April 29th and 30th, we were very privileged to have our vendor booth at the Spring Arbor University annual Arts Festival. We met many new faces and reconnected with some old friends. We still have several items left over from the sale, so if you would like information on the framed prints and photo coasters we still have available, please let us know asap! Many of the pieces we have for sale would be wonderful for Birthday gifts, Father's Day, Anniversary Gifts or any other special occasions.

In April, we were also able to capture some engagement sessions of two very lovely couples, to view a preview of the images visit our blog!

Two weekends in April, we also had our Parent Meeting with our 2012 BOSS Senior Representatives, as well as their mini sessions. We are having a wonderful time getting to know each of them and are very excited about the upcoming year working with them. To learn more about our BOSS Reps, keep up to date with the BOSS BUZZ on our blog! This past week we also launched an all new Senior Portrait website to help keep our clients informed, if you would like to view it click here! From there you can learn all about pricing, the BOSS program and really what makes Jenuine Creations, LLC - Photography Senior Portraits so unique!

With several other portrait sessions taking place in April, May and June, and being out of the state in July we will be very busy! We are very much looking forward to an "Alice and Wonderland" styled engagement session that will be taking place next month! We are already giddy with excitement to share the images with you all on the blog, and the session has not even taken place yet :)

Image of the Month: "The Beauty of Change" (PS - Ken and Nicole missed out on being in the photograph because they conveniently forgot about the family photo!)

Quote of the Month:
"The Key to Change, is to let go of fear."

~Rosanne Cash

Change. What one word, when used in the context of altering life, can conjure so many emotions; good and bad? Often times change brings the promise of good things, the long awaited end of Winter, a well earned promotion, a long desired for graduation, the promise of new life in the hope of an unborn child? However, what about the other side of the coin? What about when the changes, at first glance don't reveal joy, but pain, uncertainty, hopelessness and fear.

We have experienced all of the emotions on both sides of that coin in the past few weeks. The unmitigated pride and joy of a daughters graduation from College, congratulations Christi. The celebration of the life and birth of two daughters, Christi turning 20 and Shelli turning 15. The landmark of  27 years of marriage and the milestone of one year of marriage for Nicole and Ken.

The other side of that coin came a few weeks ago with Greg's decision to resign from his position of 20+ years of service at RBC Ministries. The myriad of emotion that follows a decision of this sort has run the gamut from bewilderment, to discouragement, to resolution. At this juncture we have no idea what the path ahead will look like for us.
The best solution is to take life one step at a time and place one foot in front of the other one minute at a time.

It is strange to find oneself where so very many others that we know have and are still walking. We are stepping into a whole new world. A world where security is not measured by what one does, where hope is not necessarily seen in the security of a job and where the strength of ones character and resolve is moment to moment.

It is certain that many of you have and are still walking in the middle of L.I.F.E. yourselves. Perhaps you have lost a job, perspective, passion, a relationship, a child or even hope. Know that you are not alone. There is great comfort in the sorority or fraternity of suffering, also known as, "I have walked where you are walking, let me walk with you." Also the added hope in the encouragement, "I have been there and I have made it to the other side".  Perhaps  the greatest encouragement, though it takes time to transcend from the  head to the heart is, "everything is going according to plan." Translation: nothing comes as a surprise to the Plan Maker and you may rest in the knowledge that He has it all under control.

Our prayer is that that knowledge will move from head to heart for all of us and that we might be found faithful in the process. May you find peace in the midst of your process, hope in the journey and purpose in the plan... as we pray for ourselves as well.

With much sincerity,

Jen & Nicole-

Special of the Month:
Book a Senior or Family portrait session for the month of June, 2011 and receive 1 extra digital negative on your personalized DVD! Questions? Call 616.693.2141 or email us to reserve your Session at: info@jenuine-creations.com