As the new year approaches, I am thinking that this little foundation has come into public awareness to such a degree that we may see as many as 100 new families in 2007. My heart breaks a little at this thought, and I wonder how it will all unfold. Even though I don't personally do all the shoots, I see and edit all the photos and usually have some kind of comunication with each new family, even if only through their social workers. But I am hoping that this lovely quote I recently read on a card sent to me by Hudson's family will help carry me through: "Nobody has ever measured...how much a heart can hold." I do know that I have another retreat planned in a couple of weeks to our cabin, which generally turns into a time for reflection and quiet. The kind of loving emails that arrive from so many caring people have been such a boost, and I thank you all who have supported this work for helping us to reach a new level of service.

I am going to Children's Hospital on Thursday to work with a new family. I hope to do updates for our dear Jess when she arrives for her second transplant. It will be great to see her with hair this time! I am waiting to do photos for a graduating senior and a grade school student in Gig Harbor. All this is possible through the loving support of so many amazing donors.

We are working with my friend in California who is doing some touch-up work on photos of a beautiful baby boy who was recently stillborn. I am thrilled with the results and am so thankful that my McKenzie introduced me to this talented artist, Karen, when she first enrolled at Cal Poly. This is the second time Karen has stepped in to work her magic on shots taken at such a devastating time. We should all be thrilled that Adobe has created a vehicle that allows such wonderful possibilities.

Blake's wonderful mom, Denise, has been hard at work learning to make the wonderful bracelets originally donated by Karen Trimble of Got Charm. Denise and Karen have gotten together and now the knowledge of how to create these lovely gifts has been passed into the safekeeping of Denise, and we are happy to be awaiting the first efforts. The bracelets will be done in honor of Blake, and his own savings are funding the parts that are not being donated by our wonderful benefactors at Outcast.

I received an email today from my wonderful friend Camari. She is the amazing firefighter I have been recording through her second bout with breast cancer. She is currently undergoing reconstruction on both breasts and relayed an amazing story of how a nurse friend showed the photos we have completed to a hesitant young cancer patient, and that she was able to move forward with a mastectomy after seeing the photographs of Camari. You really never know in life what amazing things can happen when you put your heart into your work.

I am sharing today a photo from a personal project that has delighted me for the past 21 years. I take photos yearly of my daughter Llewelyn with our wonderful friend Kiel, brother of angel baby Janus. Of course we include sibs McKenzie and Nash in the mix and it never fails to delight me to see my girls together with some of our best friends. We laugh and laugh and we come away with treasures for a lifetime of friendship.

I would like to close with a list of names of those who are now shooting for Soulumination or will shoot in the future. These heroic souls have given Soulumination the ability to reach out further into this community: Sarah, Sandra, Kurt, Tara, Jeremy, Michael, Susan, and Amy.

My heart is full of so many emotions and I hope the new year will show me that a human heart has endless capacity for growth, sorrow and joy. In love and peace, Lynette

Sometimes I realize how much grace surrounds this project. It's been an eventful few weeks and today brought us three new families. I will start back on the night the storm came through this region. I was heading to Olympia last Thursday to take our Llewelyn out to dinner, then was proceeding to our cabin on Hartstene Island for four days of rest and time to work on my Christmas gift projects. Rather than the usual hour and a half to get to Lew, this drive lasted over three hours and lightning struck a tree very close to my car. After a nice dinner with Lu I headed to Harstene through the storm and downed trees and power lines to arrive at our cabin, which of course had no electricity. I opted to stay the entire time as the quiet was magical and this silence seemed to be what was needed for me to move forward in the work of the project.

It had been very quiet here as we planned and pulled off the artist sale. No new families for a couple of weeks and now we are working with a new dad whose child was stillborn, plus I was alerted early this morning by a lovely friend and social worker at Children's that there were two new families with babies that would need our services today. After photographing two of my nieces and lovely baby Finnley, daughter of my wedding assistant, Dawnelle, I headed to the hospital and to work with these amazing families.

The first family's shoot went well but it was very brief, as the grief over the impending passing of their beautiful son hung so heavy in that room. I worked with the second family for over four hours, mostly waiting quietly for the doctors to finish removing this handsome little baby boy from an incredible piece of machinery that was essentially acting as both his heart and lungs. The wait was so long and nearly a dozen staff members were needed to accomplish this feat, which then led to the first time this mom had a chance to hold her son in his 30 days of life. The amazing thing was that it was assumed this little champ would not be able to hold his own, but he reminded us that nothing should be taken for granted, as when I left the hospital, his doctor had just explained that they wanted to give him a few more days to see if indeed he might be one of those survivor stories. Hold this baby in your heart and your prayers as I may never know how this all ends, but as I left the hospital, instead of sobbing, I had some peace and even slight delight as this little guy is writing his own medical story.

I want to thank my dear daughter McKenzie for being patient and supportive and gracefully giving up our Christmas shopping time together after flying home from California the night before. Time with this dear girl is precious to me but even more so when she was so kind when I had to leave her without transportation and rush to the hospital. Thanks also to my husband Doug for jumping right in to come to get McKenzie when his days are jammed with complications from the stormy weather.

I wish to thank the owners of Outcast for their amazing donation yesterday of the frames for the bracelets that Blake's mom will be making for the Soul families. This is an incredible gift with such power and meaning and I can't thank them enough for being a bright spot in a day that was otherwise looking to be filled with tension and sorrow. This is a Seattle company that does precious metal casting. One of the owners is a friend of our dear Soul child Charolette, so her gift is especially heartfelt. I also want to mention a beautiful young couple: theirs was our last wedding of a busy season and yesterday a lovely thank you note arrived with a generous donation to Soulumination. I am so touched by their thoughtfulness and by the efforts of my dear client Stasia and her daughter for sales of the Husky Nation cd. This kind of support makes this work possible and I head toward another day with a sense that the grace surrounding Soul will carry us into another year filled with growth and love and amazing families. I am posting updated photos of our new dear Emily. Her Santa hat shot melted me and I couldn't resist sharing it with all of you. In love and peace, Lynette

I just finished a shoot for a beautiful new Soul child named Emily. I met Emily weeks ago when she came for her first photos, but that evening she was having such a rough time that I invited her back now that she is more chipper. I will post shots from the first session as she has such a lovely face that it's nice to share her this holiday season. We will soon have her bio and more photos up on our gallery, so in a few weeks watch for her full story. She is in stage 4 neuroblastoma as well as having the rare condition called Joubert's syndrome.
The sale this weekend was a wonderful success. The quality of the work was so incredible and the artists themselves are so kind and supportive of the work. We will host this event again next year and it will coincide with the Ballard Art Walk again, so that will be the second Saturday in December 2007. We are looking for high-quality garden art to show and sell pieces from our courtyard next year. We had such a strong group of volunteers who handled all the sales and baked so many great holiday cookies for our guests. We are thankful to all and hope to see an even bigger turnout next year. We were blessed with the presence of two of our delightful Soul children, Emily B and Victor, as well as the families of a number of Soul families. A number of friends left wonderful donation checks in addition to purchasing items, and I am so thankful for their consideration
I attended a party on Saturday that was hosted by one of our champions, Mona Locke. At the party I was so thrilled to see 'our' cameraman from the first piece that was aired about Soulumination. Randy touched my heart with his amazing skill and really worked to capture the heart of the mission. I am happy to say that we are now finally emailing and I am hopeful that Randy will be able to do a follow-up to his first inspired piece. Thanks again to all the amazing reporters, cameramen, and photographers who have so lovingly shed light on a subject that in the past was so hidden. Each of them saw the beauty in the children and the love in the families and made it possible for Soulumination to start to broaden our scope. Blessings to all of you in this holiday season and always.
We are working out the details for a larger Husky Nation shoot as we are excited to hear that both basketball teams are on board and that at a recent football recruiting day the CD was playing as prospective players and their families entered the stadium. We sold more CDs at the sale and have seen a steady request for them from Paypal customers. We are so excited to expand and we are very hopeful of getting an intern from the U to help run this wonderful project. If you know of a student in business, marketing, or nonprofit fields that would be interested, please let him or her know that we are listed on Husky Jobs.
I have spoken to a number of social workers, nurses, and hopsice folks in the last few days and I know we will be hearing from new families soon. Keep these families and their precious little ones in your hearts. I close tearfully, waiting for our photographer and friend Jeremy, as my gratitude sometimes overwhelms me and in the beautiful sun of this December day I say to all of you that I couldn't be more thankful. In love and peace, Lynette

What an amazing thing to be here in my silent office with the beauty of the work of such amazing artists awaiting in the studio space and spilling into this room! I thank all the people who have worked so many hours to create such lovely things. I am so thankful for a staff that worked so hard to pull this off. Christine Garrigan is a blessing to Soulumination. She has not had a day off this week and has been gracious, efficient, and still has her wonderful sense of humor. My good friend Joan came over and helped so much with displays. Sarah found time to come help wrap things up after working her main job at Moonphoto. My sister-in-law Sally added her most welcome hard work to help us finalize the displays. Thanks also to the Safeway by UVillage for bag donation and to Passage Events, who works with Starbucks, and is providing coffee drinks for this fundraiser. Cookies started arriving yesterday and many more volunteers are delivering homemade cookies for today and tomorrow's guests.
Life is good here early in the morning as I can reflect on all the love that surrounds this project.
I heard from Jess' mom that they will be back in Seattle very soon for a second bone marrow transplant for our spunky girl. I am planning on visiting them with camera in hand to update shots of this amazingly strong person. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers this holiday season as they move forward.
I will see my new friend Emily again this coming week as she is doing so much better; last visit we couldn't get a smile out of her. Her grandma is kind enough to make the effort to return so we can round out her photo collection from Soul. Blake's mom is moving ahead with her project to make our moms the lovely jewelry once again.
I start to look toward the New Year and I see that I have some wonderful speaking opportunities coming up. I also reflect this time of year on all that has happened and all that will happen with this work. I am tearful often, as it's hard not to miss the little friends I have made, and more powerful is the fact that what I feel is sorrowful, but so small compared to what each family must face. I will most likely see many of our Soul families this weekend, and so many feelings that are held inside when so much is expected of me on my normal daily shooting schedule come tumbling out.
Since I don't shoot this month I am without my business clients to help me center and I find myself slipping into moments where loss overwhelms me and I fall in tears.
Both of my daughters are home and sleeping and even that sets me into a state of tearful pride. I salute my husband of 28 years as he has been so patient and so helpful throughout all of this emotional rollercoaster. So here's to tears that soften and heal the nicks on my soul. I am closing with one of my favorite shots that launched this ship. Joey will forever be our angel baby and today as people enter I will know that the stones of Jeruselum will be trod by many others that he helped show me how to serve, in peace and love, Lynette

It was an eventful day yesterday as we move toward the opening of the Artist Sale this weekend. I spoke at the Mercer Island Rotary Club about the work of Soulumination and was most impressed by the work done by this group of devoted citizens. I thank them for their food bank donation in my name...what a wonderful tradition! I was asked to speak by my long-term client/friend Stuart Scarff and was delighted to also see another client/friend, Ron Bayley, in the group. Thank you Stu for thinking of this foundation.
Our assistant met yesterday with a new mom to our foundation who lost her dear baby about six months ago. We will take the photos she has, as well as her ultrasound, and work to enhance them and make some gifts for her that will help her preserve the few images she has. Unfortunately, I was not called to do a shoot for them, so we are working with the images that some caring nurse took the love and time to produce.
We are also ready to deliver the photos that Michael Good created at a shoot in Everett with a new family whose child was stillborn just recently. Thank you Michael for your amazing abilities. He spent six hours with this family and the results are simply beautiful.
I went to Children's first thing today to meet up with our wonderful friend Andrew and his mom. Andrew is in for his regular scans and tests. I was priveleged to accompany them to his first few appointments and got to see firsthand what it's like to be a patient at Children's. I hope to go with them to his next series of tests with camera in hand. I had a little gift for him from the Husky Football team, thanks to our 'hero', Alex Mercier. Alex has gotten approval from the Husky basketball coaches to expand Husky Nation into their seasons. Once we get final approval, we will have t-shirts made with the Husky Nation and Soulumination logos. We are hoping that with this marketing, the Artist Show, our newsletter, local grants, and generous supporters, we can haveenough funds to answer each and every request as well as launch new showings of the Collection.
I am showing a photo of a piece of art today by Patti Bezzo who will be part of the festivities this weekend.
Last evening I received a photo from Taryn's parents. It was her birthday, and this charming photo shows the card I sent that our own intern Brenna makes for each child's birthday. It made me laugh to see Taryn's smiling face. Love that girl!
Hope to see you all this weekend for the sale, and I wish to thank Miller Pollard for donating bags for this sale. Many of our Soul families are planning on attending and I am very touched that I will get to see them at this holiday time.