Ju Young and fam. {Oklahoma City, OK}

I had no idea that Ju Young, a former student of mine {from Irian Jaya, Indonesia days} lived in Oklahoma City, so you can imagine the fun it was to get her Facebook message saying she'd love to have family photos taken while I was in OKC this past weekend.

As you know, but I simply have to say again, I just LOVE my Irian connections. Every.Last.One.Of.Them.

I get nostalgic. I feel happy. It triggers all sorts of memories. I can smell clove cigarettes and I can hear roosters crowing at the crack of 4am and I can almost taste nasi goreng and jeruk bali.

My three years there will always, always, hold an extremely special spot in my heart.

Fast forward: April of 2011. Ju Young has a great husband, Kris, and a little 18-month old daughter Alaise and her little guy, Kai, is 5 months old in a week.

With their permission, I'm attaching a link to the miracles that have surrounded their little family. That fact that Ju Young is alive. Whoa. Anyway, check it out here if you'd like to know more. {And their blog is www.krisandju.blogspot.com}

And let's just say up front, this family was a-DORABLE. So fun to wander through the Martin Nature Preserve and talk and snap photos, and the whole time I kept thinking, the minute we get back to their house I can't wait to hold that 5 month old chunky little snugly guy. I mean, he was begging me to hold him.

Here are a few of my faves. Hard to pick there were so many.

Oh, and the fun thing about every photo shoot is the unexpected, unanticipated challenges. This one happened to be that little Alaise doesn't understand English. She understands Korean. And so, my usual little tricks didn't translate so well because, she just didn't know what my words meant. But Ju Young and Kris jumped in and translated and we'd eventually get her to look up or chase daddy or clap hands...

Ju Young, you are beautiful, as is your sweet family.