It was a fun morning at Kensington Church in Troy today! Great message and music and a lot of fun with a relay game during the service along with fun stuff for the kids out in the lobby.
I was amazed to hear about the studies that were done that talked about how people get sick less and heal quicker when they are living in community with others.

For those of you that may have been wondering why we stopped posting anything personal on our blog…it’s because we were in the process of adopting Kole and Reid and due to legalities, we couldn’t post about them until they were legally ours. Everything was finalized last Friday so Reid and Kole are officially Mukherjee’s.

Here’s a photo of The Brothers Muk
From left to right is Reid (3), Kole (4), and Mayz (3)

We’ve had these guys from sometime around May 2010 and it didn’t take long for them to fully integrate into our house. Mayz now has buddies to play with everyday. Each day is like a play-date. Having three little boys that are practically all the same age definitely leads to some frustrating days especially for Cheridy who spends all day with them. However, Reid has a smile that can light up a room, Kole is really affectionate and loves hugs, and Mayz never ceases to amaze us with how smart he his. We are incredibly blessed and grateful that these guys are officially part of our family.

Here’s a short fusion video that shows our trip to South Haven this past summer. My favorite is the video clip of them running down the beach together:

2010 was an amazing year for us and I put together a collection of images shot throughout the year that includes photos and paintings from weddings, landscapes, babies, high school seniors, etc.
These images were created through a lot of hard work, but we feel blessed to have been a part of all these things and hope you enjoy this video slideshow.

Fundraiser: Get Photos – Give Water – Give Life

Over the last few weeks, my heart has been heavy thinking about the over 1 BILLION people in the world that have unclean water and sanitation. It’s easy to think about them being so far away and forget them as we have our own problems to deal with here. But when we forget them, their suffering continues. Try to live just one day without water to drink, cook, wash, etc. with.

We decided to partner with an amazing organization called Charity: Water (www.charitywater.org) to do our part to help bring water to those that have none.

To do this, we will be having a fundraiser photo shoot promotion (details below) and 100% of the profits/donations will go towards digging wells to bring water to hundreds of people.
To hear more about this amazing organization, here is a link to a short video about how/why they started. When you watch this video, imagine that the people in the photos and videos are you and your kids:

If you are unable to take advantage of this photo shoot fundraiser, please consider donating at:
http://mycharitywater.org/arisingimages
and help us to reach our goal of providing water for 250 people.

The promotion that we will be running is something very different than we’ve ever done before. We will be doing fun winter photos of kids playing in the snow…except it’s actually a scene that we created indoors. We’re not big on sets and props so to do this, I wanted it to look real. We’ve worked hard to create a realistic snow scene and will work even harder to get amazing photos of your children while donating 100% of the profits to bring water to those that need it.

We’ve taken a lot of fun photos of our kids and even made some amazing pieces to hang on our walls which we can show you when you come for your shoot.
For now, here’s just a few pics of our son Mayz having a great time.

The Details:
On Saturday November 20, we will be booking shoots from 9:30-3:00..

We are not going to be charging for this photo session, however, we will be asking for a minimum $50 donation check made out to “charity: water”. Donations of any additional amount will be accepted. If you have more than 2 children, we will be asking for an additional minimum donation of $25 per child.
Please either bring a check or donate online (http://mycharitywater.org/arisingimages) and bring your donation receipt that is emailed to you within a few hours from making your donation.

The shoots will be for 20 minutes with a additional time when there are lots of kids and we will provide you with an order form that you can use that shows you creative things that you can do with your photos from prints and Christmas cards to framed or canvas wall hangings. All of the profits from this will also be donated to Charity: Water.

Shoots can be done on different days and times for an additional donation.

This set works best when photographing one child at a time, however, if you have small children, up to 3 can be photographed together. This promotion was designed for kids 10 and under but if they have an older sibling, they can be in the photos as well.

Please bring winter clothes for your kids. Hats, mittens, scarves, snow pants, etc. Feet will be hidden so shoes or boots don’t matter.

Contact the studio to book now (586-944-7736 or info@arisingimages.com)

All products from this shoot will be 30-60% off and you will receive an order form and be presented with all the options after your shoot.

100% of all profits will be donated to Charity: Water.

The last couple of days, Cheridy and I took the boys out to South Haven for a short getaway. We rented a house from some friends of our that live two blocks from the water. We had two days of spectacular weather to play in the sand, do a little wrestling, and Cheridy and I even got to toss a football around.
There are lots more pics (and videos) of the family on facebook.

Last week we went to visit Jonah, who is the 15 year old son of a woman Cheridy used to play soccer with. Jonah who is an all-star athlete was diagnosed with bone cancer about 3 years ago. He has since had his leg amputated and been going through rigorous treatments all of which did not cure him.
Jonah is currently at home on hospice care to live out his last days in comfort. Please pray that Jonah’s heart and mind can be at peace. Please pray for strength for his parents as they are losing a son. Please pray for Jonah’s brothers who are losing a brother.

I just wanted to give a quick thanks to some of the Detroit Lions players for coming out to cheer up Jonah. Nick Harris, Jason Hansen, Zack Follet, and Paul Pratt are all class acts.

It’s the season for lots of baby deer. We have three fawns that have been hanging around our yard a lot lately.
These two were relaxing in the shade yesterday.

We had our first weekend off in quite a while and we were ready to pack in all the fun. We started out the weekend by going to Springhill Camp in Evart, MI with our church (Kensington).
We had the whole camp taken over. Springhill is an AMAZING place. It is a non-profit christian camp and retreat and there is SO much stuff to do, it is amazing!!
As many of you know, we are in the process of adopting two boys, so we now have 3 young boys in the house!!
Unfortunately, since they are not legally ours yet, we can’t post any photos of them on our public blog so those of you that are facebook friends can see some of those.

Anyway…so Springhill is pretty crazy, they have zip lines, kayaking, “the blob” which is a giant airbag that you sit on while someone jumps on the other end to launch you in the water, they have skateparks, archery, high ropes courses, climbing walls, and tons of other fun stuff to do.

Actually those all would be fun things to do if you don’t have three little kids with you. We spent most of the time trying to get the corralled and wait for the tram to take us around. Pretty much all things I mentioned we didn’t get to do BUT…we still had fun just being together.
Overally things didn’t work out super smoothly so we ended up leaving early and heading to Cheridy’s parents house for a fun-filled Sunday of water sports. The boys all had a chance to swim and play together. Grandpa let them all sit on his lap and drive the boat which was fun. We also got to watch cousin Willow on the tube and I got a great photo of her catching some serious airtime…I’m not sure how she didn’t wipe out on the this one!

For photos of our family, you’ll have to checkout our facebook page!

James 1:27 tells us to care for orphans and widows. I’m proud to be part of a church that makes MAJOR impact all over the world. One of our partnership churches in India is run by a man named Jaya Sankar who gave up all his personal wealth to take care of children. He has personally adopted over 100 children.
This is a video about one of those children who’s life was changed because someone decided to live for others rather than himself. It was shot by a friend of mine from church (Seth Stark) and it’s one of the most beautiful pieces of video I’ve ever seen and I hope it wins some awards.
A team from our church went to visit partners in Kenya and India, interviewed and photographed all the kids and started a sponsorship program. For less than what it costs to take your family to lunch at Max and Erma’s, you could provide a child with food, water, shelter, medical care, and education for an entire month. Please consider sponsoring one of the beautiful children at the link below. I know many people are hesitant to sponsor children through the massive organizations because most of the money never makes it to the kids. This is different. Please help:
http://nochild.org

The Dancer from Kensington on Vimeo.

Shot on location in Dowlaiswaram, India, this short film explores the life of Kengava Satish Kumar, a young orphan in India.

At last week’s Ballroom Bliss event that we attended, there was an amazing table designed by the Linen Hero’s that followed the theme from the movie “UP”. There was a cute little house being lifted off by giant balloons provided by Crystal Balloons.
I had the brilliant idea that I would be a hero if I could bring those awesome balloons home for Mayz. After they event they let us bring home the balloons so we were super excited. Then we got out to the car and realized they were WAY too big to put in the car.
We had to have them hanging out the window and then drive home at 25 mph. On the way home we could occasionally hear a POP and knew that we were losing a few but there was nothing we could do.
When we got home, Mayz was still up and he saw the giant balloons and lit up. Problem is…they were too big to get inside the house. We had to basically jam them through the door. During this process, balloons started popping like a machine gun and Mayz got totally freaked out and started crying. By the time we got it inside, half of the small balloons were popped but the giant balloon in the middle was still intact so we decided to keep it around. However, at random times, a balloon would just pop for no apparent reason, further traumatizing Mayz.
We put him to bed and hoped when he woke up in the morning, he would have fun with it. I took the second pic below of him just looking at it but then he kept saying “balloons are scary” and running away. For the rest of the day, we realized that he was so freaked out by them that he wouldn’t even go in his play room.
So…I went from hero to zero pretty fast! What a bummer!!
Oh well…it’s a funny story to look back on!

This weekend we enjoyed a wonderful getaway with some friends. It was a chance to get away from kids and better yet, get to BE kids again.
From Friday night to Sunday morning, pretty much all we did was laugh. It was a great time and a refreshing few days.
We rented a house in Port Sanilac right on Lake Huron and got to enjoy the beautiful morning sun shining down on the lake.
We went for walks, played some games, and ate way too much junk food.
Thanks to everyone who made it a fantastic weekend!!

Here’s a painted image of the nearby lighthouse:

On Saturday May 22nd, there will be a soccer fundraiser for Jonah Chrisman, a 15 year old battling bone cancer. He was diagnosed in 2007, had to have an above-the-knee amputation in 2009 and continues to under go treatment to fight this disease. All proceeds will go to assist the Chrisman family with travel and medical expenses to help Jonah battle this disease.
Here’s a link with more information:

http://www.ayso190.org/Miscellaneous/Jonah%20Chrisman%20Flyer.pdf