Blake

This summer I was honored to meet the Stauffer family. I met Blake while on assignment for the Eric "Ricstar" Music Therapy Camp. I walked in - very sleepy - and sat in the corner of a room to observe for awhile. I was looking down, getting my camera out in preparation, when I see two skinny legs standing in front of me. I looked up, set my camera down, and met the eyes of a seven-year-old camp participant named Blake. He looked me dead in the eye for one moment, then flung his arms around my neck and collapsed into my lap. By and far, this was one of the most life-altering hugs I have ever recieved. And I love hugging. After embracing, he simply turned around, sitting crossed-legged on top of my crossed legs and seemed just content to sit in my lap and continue on with camp activities. Of course, counselors had to drag him off but that doesn't mean I didn't get to spend some quality time with him later on.

Basically, this family is amazing. Jennifer, Blake's mother, is a phenomenal, busy, beautiful lady. She and her husband home-school Blake themselves and are extremely active in the community, not to mention are also busy raising Sam, their foster (soon to be adopted) son who was born in November.

I did a audio slideshow story on the family which unfortunately due to time crunches and miscommunications didn't turn out as good as I would have liked, but I really liked the pictures themselves. Check it out at http://www.statenews.com/index.php
/multimedia/29028/5.

I think this post has more words in it than the rest of my entire blog combined, so here's some pictures.