Robin Dodd Photography

Today I was looking through some photos and came across some of the first pictures I ever saw of the girls in Ghana. I love this picture of Grace. She's got the"weird mouth" face. When she first came home and was over-stimulated, or didn't understand something, she would make this face. This is face I see today! The "mom, are you crazy?" face. It just amazes me how far the girls have come in almost nine months. I remember at the beginning Grace probably understood half of what we said and Mariama would translate for her. After you receive your referral you get to send welcome bags to your kids letting them know about their future family and these pics were taken by another mom who was there when our girls received theirs! I just love their faces.. especially Mariama!! This is me with a friend of the girls, she and her family are amazing and really added to my experience there. It's funny because I really miss the SMELL of Ghana.. the burning trash smel...

What is your deeply buried gift? Don’t think it’s not down there. It is. Something is going to help it rise to the surface. When I was a child, I dreamt of going to Hollywood and making movies. I remember specifically knowing what it must feel like to do that very thing, although I was in the middle of a rural ranchette in Texas. I carried around a video recorder the size of carry on luggage, which attached to a giant news station style camera, and I made movies. I can think of three or four different films that were lost forever in the 80’s. I remember shooting portraits of my cats sitting alongside cowboy hats, with a little 110 camera, and writing story after story and reading book after book. Talking into an old recorder with an English accent, singing at the top of my lungs as I played the piano. These are the snapshots of my childhood forty years ago. When I graduated from the theatre department at Baylor University, I was not ready emotionally and did...

Remember the simplicity of going on a road trip. You sat in the back seat and looked out the window. You had the copy of Flowers in the Attic, that you "borrowed" from your cousin, the last time you were over there, for when your dad took over the radio and made you listen to the Willie Nelson Red Headed Stranger cassette the whole way. You rolled down the window because it was Texas in the spring time and the air was already warm. Your mom packed ranch Doritos and  Dr. Pepper, and your dad said "Don't drink it too fast" , I'm not stopping every five minutes. Sometimes you played slug bug, or I spy. Eventually you got where you were going in one piece and the pretend misery was over, because deep down it brought a special thrill to be going on an adventure, even if it was just to your grandmother's house.

Once upon a time there lived three girls. All were beautiful and  all possessed different gifts. The Kingdom was all aglow with laughter and giggles for many years until one day the King stepped into the cavernous hall and heard nothing.   "Wife!" he yelled."What has happened? Did everyone go into the village?"   "Oh Honey" said the Queen stepping outside of her chamber wearing a bathrobe and her hair on top of her head.  "They're not gone. They're teenagers."   "What in God's name is a teenager?" shouted the King.  "Oh dear." The queen remarked turning up her chalice of wine. "What isn't a teenager?"

This is the goal... isn't it? for our kids to think this right up here. This beautiful phrase. Because God knows we're all broken, and even though sometimes we feel like Roseanne Conner, we are ALL as cool as Lorelai Gilmore,  as gorgeous as Tami Taylor,  and my GOD as fierce as Kristina Braverman so DO NOT sell yourself short ladies. Just take one day at a time.

Competition fuels us in every aspect of our lives, but I believe that transformation is ours if we want it. Look inside yourself, meditate, walk, read and most importantly, write.  Tell yourself what you want to happen. Faith is everything.

Ms. Idgie Threadgood Dodd has a permanent heart on her chest.  Shawn has been talking about it, and I thought I noticed it, but I can really see it in this pic. I have no idea how it got there, maybe the fact she is kissed about seven hundred times a day by me, Grace and Shawn. Mariama and Holly don't kiss as much.. LOL its so fascinating. How DID it get there? Magic. In this pic she is watching well, everything in the park. Such a good girl.

Put one foot in front of the other and soon you'll be walking out the doorr..orrr.  A couple of  things. This week I have been missing the water. Soon it will be 4 years.. Wow.  The months ahead for the Dodds will be full of celebrations, college adventures and hopefully some potatoes and pubs.  Hey that's why I ran half a mile on the treadmill yesterday..  Austin, Ireland, Columbus, Boston, Chicago. I'm writing this down because I want to manifest a NICE LONG BEACH trip in there before school starts. We are land locked in a major way up here in Cincinnati, I'm dreaming of the keys but I would sell for North Carolina.. I think.

Because you can't hand down a CD to the next generation. - Sue Bryce Ain't that the truth...