A Piece of My Heart Remains in China

Many of you have shared your favorite photos from 2010 and I thought about doing the same. I had planned to go back through my library of photos and pick a picture that was special to me to coordinate with each calendar month, but once I opened up Lightroom, I could not move past the photos that were still sitting there untouched from my recent trip to China.

In one of my last posts before returning home, I mentioned that I had more than a few photos that I did not have time to share and I thought I would be posting them once we got back to the US.

After arriving home, I was so overwhelmed and jetlagged, not to mention that I was really anxious to start sharing all of the new photos of Reagan with her sister, brother, and Daddy. I have been concentrating on posting the day to day and keeping up with all of her firsts and I just did not make the time to go back and look through those pictures.

This weekend, I finally went through and picked out some that I found special in one way or another.


The picture above and below were taken in Martyrs Park in Changsha. I have a similar bridge shot up there in my blog header, but this one is in color and taken at different angle. I loved that you could actually see people crossing the bridge in this one.




These flip flops were so bright and colorful! They were being made by hand at an arts festival that we attended in Changsha.


Day three we headed to Reagan's orphanage in Chenzhou. It would have taken us approximately 5 hours to get there by car, so we opted to take the highspeed bullet train and were able to get to Chenzhou in just 55 minutes. What an experience....WOW can those trains move! This was the view from the inside of the trainstation.


These two pictures were taken from inside the train, through the window, just before we took off.


This was the view of the street that led us up to the orphanage gates. I think it was the first picture I took when we exited the cab.


These sneakers were just sitting on this ledge inside the orphanage gates. If you look at the small picture to the right you can jut barely see the spot of red in the background. Those are the sneakers. Upon entering the gates, we were immediately struck by the sights and sounds and I remember looking at these sneakers and thinking that they looked so out of place there....... and I wondered who they belonged to.


More photos from the streets of Chenzhou.



This was and still is one of my most favorite photos from our trip. We were walking down the main street from the orphanage and this girl was just sitting on this pile of rubble eating her lunch. I think I posted it in color the last time, but I like it in black and white as well.


The first room that we entered within the orphanage was the toddler room. These children were all over the age of 12 months. A majority of the little ones were in their cribs, but there were also a few in baby chairs. They seemed a little upset at the time so I walked over to them first.




We saw so many children that day and we only visited two rooms; the toddler room and the baby room where Reagan had lived. Almost three months later I can still remember all of the faces and exactly where they were in those rooms. The little peanut on the right looked as though she was only a few weeks old at most. She was so tiny and so fragile looking.


I am sure you all remember this cute little guy in the orange and his beautiful little friend in the red who were eating their lunch when we arrived! This picture has been posted here on the blog a few times, but I had to include it again because it is this photo that has opened some new doors for me and really has given me my new focus for 2011.

Around Thanksgiving, I received an email from a woman who told me she was adopting that beautiful little girl in the red. I was so excited for her.....and for this child. My heart literally skips a beat each time I hear that another child will have a forever family whether they reside in Chenzhou or any other orphanage.

That same day, just a few hours later, I received another email from someone at Half the Sky Foundation. {If you are not familiar with Half the Sky, check them out HERE. They do some amazing things for the children of China. Reagan's orphanage was a Half the Sky orphanage and currently they are doing work in about 46 other orphanages. From what I understand, that number is rapidly increasing.} It was an incredible email that was a testament of how kind, compassionate, committed and unbelievable this China Adoption Community can be.

One of my blog readers{if you are out there, I would love to know who you are so I can thank you}was so taken by this little boy in the orange, that they actually contacted HTS(Half the sky) to see if they could sponsor him. {I don't think you can request to sponsor a specific child, only a specific age range and/or a specific orphanage. At this point, I am not sure if this little boy is still in Chenzhou. I pray he has already been matched with a family.}

When this person wrote to HTS, they said some very nice things about my blog and forwarded them the link. My blog address eventually got passed around to some of the staff and after they read our story, looked through my photos and posts, they decided to reach out to me to see if I would be interested in volunteering my photography and/or writing skills to benefit the children in China.

Within 30 seconds of reading the email, I was already writing my response to tell them that I was most definitely interested. After some correspondence back and forth, we eventually coordinated a phone conference that took place the second week in December.

During that call we spoke about a number of different things I could do and together we tried to come up with some creative ideas. Some of those ideas still need to be discussed further, but there was one thing that I offered to do that was a no brainer.

I am currently making plans for 2011 photography classes and workshops, but I have decided that a good portion of the proceeds from every class and workshop are going to be donated to Half the Sky Orphanages and their Children.

So this is what I am thinking. . . . .

Last year I ran photo editing classes online and I also held two different weekend workshops here in Pennsylvania. I had a great response, but I think I could do better if I tweaked my offering to accomodate those who can't hop on a plane or leave their families for the weekend.

I am in the process of taking my weekend workshop and turning it into a 4 week online course called "Get out of the Auto Zone" You will learn all the camera basics, photo editing and enhancements, and maybe even receive an extra something special for sigining up!!

The plan is to launch the first 4 week class around March and if there is enough interest I will run a second class!

For those looking for that weekened workshop getaway, you are in luck, because I am going to schedule two for this summer!

One beginner workshop, just as I did last year and one more advanced workshop. My good friend and might I add, extrmely talented photographer, Marla and I are going to team up and together we are going to offer the advanced workshop for those that are beyond the basics! We have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of the ladies that attended that first workshop will want to come back for the level two, so we anticipate a large group:)

If you have an interest in any of these offerings, please let me know. You can leave me a comment or send me an email (visionsbylisa at gmail dot com) so I can add you to my distribution list and when the details are all finalized and the classes are ready to be rolled out, you will be the first to know!

This was a little long I know, but I am very excited to be able to unite two things that I am so passionate about..... photography and adoption.

When I left China, I said that a piece of my heart would remain there and it has and always will. We have our sweet baby Reagan and feel incredibly blessed...... but there are so many left behind and it is hard not to think of those children. You hope that they will all find forever families, but the truth of the matter is that some may not.

My contribution through this particular venture may not be that large in the grand scheme of things, but even a small amount might make a difference for at least one child and to me, that is what it is all about.

I have another phone conference set up with HTS next week, so I hope to be able to share more details after that call.

Thanks for letting me share my excitement and my new focus for 2011.