I remember stumbling across the Heart Gallery of America six years ago, when we were in the thick of the emotional roller coaster that is international adoption. There was a reason I clicked on that site then, and two days ago I started to fulfill a dream that I've had for a long time, it was just packaged a little differently. But as the poem Desiderata says "the universe is unfolding as it should".
I posted this image last night on my facebook page. I had the pleasure of photographing this little at the Theater Bug last Saturday. I thought her beautiful spirit represented what I wanted to say about every kid. They all deserve a family..I don't think I'm allowed to show the images of the kids in the foster care system on my blog, although I will make certain, because the six kids that I took pictures of are all teenagers and all legally free for adoption. Their photos will be up at the bandshell in Centennial Park at The Walk for Adoption . Meeting them and talking with them and photographing them I was struck by several harsh realities. In a few years they will be on their own. ON. THEIR. OWN. They will age out of the system without a family to come home to, they will try to get out there and make something of themselves. Some of them will have the strength to come through everything that wasn't given to them the last eighteen years. And alot of them won't. Thinking about the support we give our kids and how it is a daily dose of "you can do it, brush your teeth, turn off the Tv, open the book " etc..
Another thing I realized photographing three very different boys on Monday. Each one of them needed something different, had different interests from football to art to horseback riding. Who was doing those things with them on the weekends? Who was their mentor? Where was their dad? Had they ever been to an art museum a play a high school football game?
When Shawn came home that night I told him all the funny things they said, how I connected with two kids in particular. Later that night I was editing and he walked up behind me and said "Who is that?" I told him it was a girl available for adoption and we both just sat there. There was nothing to say. We are leaving these kids behind, and they are all around us. Shawn and I decided that we would figure out how to offer respite care on the weekends, or volunteer to mentor the teenagers in the group homes, tutor or just be a friend. I'm convinced something this small can change the life of a child. I know some incredible parents. You know who you are. Let's make something happen. Here's a good place to start in Nashville.
The group that is facilitating this particular shoot is a group out of Cookeville. They are called the Middle Tennessee Heart Gallery. My dream is to start another Heart Gallery in Nashville with a standing gallery on Broadway, downtown where the kids photos will hang permanently.
good content thanks
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