an Ethiopian Christmas

I'm so blessed to have friends who've adopted kids from all over the world. A few of the families I've known for what seems like forever, and a lot are new friends. You don't know how neat it is to eat around a table with faces who are from different countries or see the adopted children meet their families for the first time. I've always been a lover of stories, but adoption stories really fascinate me.

A few weeks ago we were invited to an Ethiopian Christmas party and it was an experience I won't forget. I hung with friends, then even met lots of new faces. And since I brought my camera, they quickly put me in charge of the pictures for that night. Lots of fun, and I was planning on taking some shots anyway. I got called here to there to take requested photos, but my favorites are the ones I snap when no when is watching, when emotion is completely genuine and real. Even though the light wasn't the best, my flash didn't work the whole time, I didn't come prepared with everything I needed, as I went through these pictures I realized more and more that capturing life is what I want to do.

Here are the pictures from that night.

beware.

There's lots of them.