It's been a whirlwind year so far and it's only March! I don't even know where to begin to say how incredibly grateful we are to have the love and support from our family, friends and photographers around the world. There are days I sit in my closet, I know weird but it's where I get the most quiet time, and pray to God for forgiveness because maybe I haven't used my words with Grace or that I got upset because I had to get up again and let the dog in and his paws were slathered in mud. I'm am not perfect, I have so many flaws.

But mostly, I'm thankful to God for all the blessings He has brought our way. We are truly fortunate to have found our God given talents and even more so that we can share them with others. I am forever indebted to Him. I praise Him like no other.

Our faith is by far most important to us. And our family, well, they are so incredibly special to us. Sometimes, I know I'm hardest on my family. So, I feel so blessed that they love me so much. I love them too. My mom is the most incredible woman I know. She is strong and stubborn, I'm much like her. We are both so blessed to have incredibly patient husbands. My dad, my hero, passed away in 1996. I know he knew I was in good hands with Bob. He also knew that my mom's husband, my stepdad, was the next best thing to a real dad to me. I am in good hands indeed.

I wanted to share some long over due photos from our Dude Ranch trip we took last Labor Day with my parents. My mom turned 75 that weekend and she was riding horses. Amen!!!

YOU CAN SEE A TON MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS TRIP ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE HERE.

Wishing everyone a beautiful weekend...!

xoxoxo

~ Dawn

Ps: Thanks to Pixel 2 Canvas, I sent my Mom and Dad a huge canvas for Christmas!

Many of you know that our children are adopted. They are biological siblings from Chisinau, Moldova. We've been a forever family for 9 years now. It's hard to believe it's gone by so fast.

Every year we take a photo of Bobby and Alli on the same day February 13. The first one was taken in 2002 at Casa de Copii, the orphanage they lived in. Every year on that same day, Bob takes the same photo of them with Papusheka (Alli's little doll). It was the first gift we ever gave her.

We have our adoption video on our website if you're interested...
https://bobanddawndavis.com/about-us/#adoption-video

No laughing at my clothes or my dancing! And bring tissues... don't say I didn't warn you!

Wishing you all a wonderfully happy 4th of July! Be safe. God bless!

~ Bob, Dawn, Bobby + Alli

Our trip to Switzerland started off pretty rough due to a pretty bad car accident within our first 6 hours of being there. Miraculously, none of us were seriously hurt. Bumps and bruises and a little whiplash, nothing to complain about. God was really watching over us big time. Someone said to me... "It's hard to believe you think God was watching over you when this accident happened. Don't you think if He was really watching over you this accident wouldn't have happened at all." It was a legitimate comment but I don't think that at all.

It continues to break my heart hearing about Haiti and the people who are hurting, dying, or buried alive. Our family doesn't watch TV, or much of it, so we're not always on top of the news. I get most of my news through feeds like CNN or Twitter. I know... crazy. Bob worked in the newspaper industry for a long time and when he left, we didn't want to hear all the sad news anymore. This doesn't mean that we turn our heads to sad news, we just don't want to be consumed by it daily. When something is hit so hard like Haiti, we want to know, we want to help. We chose to give to DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS for this cause. I have to be completely honest and say the reason why we chose them is because I had heard that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie gave a million dollars to them. I hope that is true, and my heart tells me it is. As many people speak negatively about them, I happen to love the things they have done is this world. I aspire to give as much as they have. They have provided a forever family to multiple children, we have for two. Needless to say, Doctors Without Borders is an amazing organization and I hope that the donation we provided, as miniscule as it may seem in this horrific devastation, helps a little bit.

If you can give one dollar or one million dollars, please do. Our brothers and sisters in Haiti need our help.

God bless us all...

~ Dawn

I LOVE THIS AND HAD TO SHARE IT AGAIN... { life is too short not to dance | you go matt }

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Christmas is a day to relish in the love and spirit of our dear Lord, and spend precious time with our family and friends. That we did. Although, our great niece, Delaney Lulu, was not well this week so our Christmas dinner will be celebrated tonight instead. We had a beautiful Christmas day, with my mom, dad and brother in town. For breakfast we had some yummy Williams-Sonoma croissants that were sent to us from the beautiful Benton family!!! We enjoyed them throughly... thank you Roxie, Curt, Bevan and April...!!! We love you all so much.

This year we sent out 275 Christmas cards, the list keeps growing. We are so blessed to have some wonderful friends who adore and of course a family we cherish. I wanted to share our card with everyone, so here it is. It was quite the project this year. They were die-cut in shape of a mitten. Printed on linen paper. I was going to hand tie them all together with ribbon and bow, but after I did the first few, I wanted to cry. It took forever and with 275 of them, I was a little freaked out that they wouldn't be done in time. So, I found these cute, blue, swirly, round paperclips to finish it off. It turned out so cute! Thank you Marathon Press for printing our card for us. What a fantastic job you did!!!! And lastly, thank you Kenny Kim for helping out with our family photos this year. You rock!

We hope that you all enjoyed the holidays!!! That you were warm and loved and surrounded by those you love and who love you. We pray for those who don't have families, or are struggling with the loss or health of a loved one. We keep you all close to our hearts.

May 2010 bring us all much happiness, good health, and prosperity!

All our love,

~ Bob, Dawn, Bobby and Alli, The Davis Family!

UPDATE 12/14/09: So excited to share this trailer that was just sent to us straight out of the cutting room from Anton Lorimer. He's incredibly talented and I'm so proud of of all the work he's created and the efforts we made in Tanzania for Thirst Relief International.

If you are looking for the perfect gift to give someone for the holidays, give a donation on their behalf. Make A Donation to Thirst Relief International. $5.00 goes a long way, $10.00 goes even further, etc... For the price of a Starbucks latte, you can make a huge difference in the lives of many people.

Stay tuned.... more to come!



ORIGINALLY POSTED: 12/02/09: Hey everyone, Bob here. First time I've blogged in a long time. Dawn is usually the blogger, when she's not busy multi-tasking everything else in our lives. I'm not sure how I would do this all without her. Thank you Lulu. I love you more than words could ever say!

The last couple of months have been a whirlwind for us. Dawn & I left for New York in the middle of October and I didn't make it back home until well into November. More than 3 weeks away from home is way too long. I think my beautiful kiddos grew 2 inches while I was gone. It was hard on us all for me to be away from my family like this, but the journey was very eventful.

After I left Dawn in New York, I headed to Tuscany, Italy to attend a workshop with Gene Higa and Jose Villa. It was an incredible experience and I met many wonderful photographers who inspired me deeply. Dawn blogged a few images in the last entry HERE on our blog.

From Italy I headed to Tanzania, Africa, with a pretty cool layover in Dubai. I met up with Kenny Kim, Anton Lorimer, and Jim Davis-Hicks, the President of Thirst Relief International. We were there to collaborate on a video documentary for Thirst Relief. Anton and I were there to shoot video footage with our Canon 5D MarkII cameras while Kenny Kim documented the behind the scenes with still pictures. Together, I think we captured everything we needed to make an incredible short film to help bring more awareness to Thirst Relief International.

I shot a few stills during our trip but my primary focus was making the video. I did want to share a few images here. Anton is busy editing the film and we all can't wait to share that with the world. He's incredibly talented and I know he will do this project justice. I believe God has big plans for Thirst Relief. Big plans! For a more in-depth, behind the scenes look at our trip, check out Kenny Kim's blog. I'd also like to send a huge thank you to Jim Collins, Simon Anderson, Scott Anderson & Deb Gerson at Pictage for your generous support in making this trip possible. And to end this post with the most special thank you to God for wrapping your arms around us all, guiding us through this journey, and bringing us home safely to our families. THANK YOU!

Blessings,

Bob

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For more information about making a donation or donating your time:

Thirst Relief International
Make A Donation

Any donation is appreciated, even with $5.00 you can make a difference in people's lives. Dawn & I believe the more you give, the more you have!