We had this portrait made this summer. We had to cancel our travel plans because of major changes in the kids’ surgery schedules, so we enjoyed a week of local fun instead of a road trip. Looking back, I’m so thankful that we deliberately choose simple and family activities this summer, rather than filling up our schedule with lessons and teams and things that would fragment the family.

This portrait done of our family in November makes me both smile and cry. I think it is beautiful, and as one friend said, it is a graphic image of the truth we believe — that Elli is the only one of our family who now sees color as God intended it. But it is the last one of all six of us. And that hurts.

I highly recommend this photographer, but since I’m trying to maintain some semblance of anonymity here, I won’t link to them here. They take at least 100 shots, include at ten effects (playing with colors), and then give you a DVD with all the photos at high resolution so you can get as many prints in whatever sizes you want! If you are interested, please email me at grammar dot punctuation at yahoo dot com (use the real punctuation where I used the spelled-out words — writing it this way reduces the spam email I get!) and I would be delighted to send you their contact information.