Wanderlust.

Despite the 3 a.m. wake up call, we are excited today to be traveling together to the Domincan Republic. We're shooting a wedding on Wednesday (A Big Congrats to Melissa and Trevor), and we're excited to spend a few days before and after their special day simply relaxing, reading, being together and staying grateful.

This is Jonathan's 10th country; Layne's 25th (our 10th together) so we're crossing milestones all around.

(I looked up "vintage globes" in google and found this beauty from an old blog. Love it.)

We are grateful (so, so thankful) for these days to stop and breathe before the intensity of summer begins. We are amazed at the faithfulness of God in our lives and can't believe the beauty of our journey.

We love, love, love God, each other, travel, our friends, adventures, photography-we love that our lives are so entwined with all of the above.

So this little shout out is really just a mini "thank you" card to our Big Papa, saying we see His hands and overwhelming love in every inch of our lives. And we're full of JOY.

We've pre-posted some blogs for this week, just so you don't forget about us entirely.

xoxo-L + J

Daddy Dearest

Happy Birthday!

We hope your day is amazing and your upcoming year is even better. Boom, boom, boom.

Here are a few exclamation marks just for you because we know you love them so:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's your birthday and we weren't sure what to give you.

What do you get the man who has all the nice black shoes and golf balls he needs?

When we were younger we always gave you sock and underwear.

I'm just not sure that's as appropriate now. Unless we decided to get you and Jono some matching pairs...of socks.

We (Catherine, Jono and me) chatted and chatted about what to give this Pops o' our hearts.

And in the end, we decided we wanted to give you a treasure, a pirate's store of goodness. Boundless gold and some rubies too.

Then we looked into our wallets...and discovered...

that maybe we will have to wait on that gift.

But what we will give you is...

One last momento from our childhood? A childlike piece of art?

No, no-one plane ticket to see one of US, your earthly treasures. We hear relationships matter the most so we want to help further all of ours.

We know Hawaii is on your dream list so we hope you pick the Big Island; but we Grimey Canadians have some open arms too. (Don't worry; we shoo'd away all the snow.)

 We decided on a big blog birthday card instead of the traditional kind so the WHOLE WORLD can know just how much we love you!

p.s. You'll have to talk to us to get your plane ticket. You may have a few "special challenges" to overcome before you can hold your ticket...like a birthday obstacle course....

Word from our Peeps.

One of our teams is starting their book production this week, and our other team is leaving Peru for Thailand. Here is a brief update from the latter. We are so proud of them!

PhotogenX Goes to the Amazon!

Posted on March 28, 2013

 

WE SURVIVED THE AMAZON! One of the hardest weeks of outreach so for was also one of the best and most interesting.

For a week our team went out into the Amazon rain forest and worked on creating the new property for El Arca, an orphanage currently located just outside of Cusco. It’s home to around thirty-five orphans, who now get the chance to live healthy, fun lives in a family environment.

Bud Lenz and his wife Laura founded the orphanage in 2005, and ever since have been taking children into their family and raising them as their own, loving them and caring for them and teaching them how to live life. The Lenz family purchased land in the jungle five years ago and is now in the process of creating an oasis for the orphans of Cusco and Amazon communities.

After doing some research and discovering some really heartbreaking statics about children in Peru, we started to have a heart behind the project. The sad truth is if the children don’t get off the streets and into a loving environment, a lot of them end up involved in prostitution, gangs and drug use. It’s an awful reality.

We had the opportunity to help with the process of creating this new, fresh paradises. Our main job for the week was to weed around the 300 banana trees they have there. The bananas are used as a source of income for the orphanage as well as food. It was extremely hard work. We would go out daily and pull out weeds that in same cases were taller then the banana trees. We used a bucket instead of a toilet, got attacked by bugs, and took jungle showers in the fresh air behind a tarp. We got out of our boxes and worked hard for other people. And honestly, it was fantastic. Even if in the moment I, Cass, felt terrible and felt like my body was going to die, looking back on it now I wouldn’t change a bit. Yes, I had to step out of my comfort zone and get out of my box, but I did it for others in need, and that’s what’s important; that’s what we’re here to do. Currently, our team is working on a promotional video for El Arca. The Lenz family is still in need of long-term and short-term volunteers/staff, as well as financial support. Our video will be out shortly but in the meantime check out their website here.

You can follow their adventures here!