no photo zone

I'm sorry for being so absent here. Not writing can become as much of a habit, and it doesn't take much for me to feel behind in telling you what's going on, so then it's a easy cycle of well, nothing. 

A week or so ago we went for a quick Valentine's visit to my my mom and dad's, which was lovely, except that I started feeling icky and sick on that trip. Cue a solid week of drinking OJ and Emergen C and smoothies and a croupy cough that would not quit. We came home to find that there had been a power surge and our external hard drive - with ALL of my PICTURES and MUSIC - was zapped. I can't express how depressed I got over this. I very nearly cried over it, thinking of my beautiful boy's baby pictures, but Beaux is still working on solutions. I have hope, still. He's been working really hard at work, lots of days and nights, and when he's been off we've been travelling. So, say a little prayer that we can recover our precious photos, especially. 

I was feeling so awful over it that I had to pray over it myself. I asked Jesus to come in and help these feelings of complete sadness, to shine light around the dark edges of my sorrow. I am grateful I believe in a God who cares about my burdens, even seemingly silly ones, like photos of my child. And believe it or not, my sadness lifted. I was able to breathe easier, and I made a concerted effort to cheer myself up. A visit to Target and some heavily discounted Valentine's coffee mugs did the trick. And maybe a soft pretzel, too. 

Still, for me, it's hard to blog without pictures. That's another thing that's made it hard to think of writing - I like pictures to punctuate the words. So I need to figure out a temporary solution for that, but I'm feeling tender. I am having trust issues with releasing ANY photos from my camera (for which I've never bought a memory stick, because why would you? when you are pretty good about transferring pictures in a timely manner). Who cares if I have 20 pictures of the back of Thomas' head taking up space, did I mention, PRESHUS PICTURES? 

The good news about not blogging for two weeks is that I have a stack of topics I'm gearing up to write about, so hopefully I'll be releasing a few posts to make up for my absence. Until then, send up your prayers to the saints of computer hardware. Don't you think the Vatican should get on determining that? And I'm not even Catholic. 

Comments

[Bethany]

As it turns out, St. Isidore of Seville is the one for the job -- patron saint of computer, computer users, programmers, and the Internet. I think horrific hard drive injuries would fall under that, don't you? I feel for you so much, but there are some amazing solutions for data recovery; I'm holding out hope right along with you.

P.S. - I think I told you I was venturing, albeit timidly, into the Old Testament? Well, the sentence about God clothing Adam and Eve after they realize they're naked bowled me over with its tenderness. I'm sure their nudity didn't matter to God; he made them that way, and they only felt embarrassed because they had done something he said not to do. Yet their emotions, however silly, mattered enough to God to make clothes and personally dress them. It was such a touching picture to me and told my heart that no hardship is too stupid for God to care about it. Not that mourning the loss of baby photos is stupid in any way... just that I absolutely agree God cares.

[Megsie]

How devastating! Remember when I was upset that I couldn't get the Santa picture off my camera? I can't even imagine losing all of those pictures. But...remember too that somehow I got the picture anyway? I just know that you will figure out a way. Prayers going to...who? St. Isidore of Seville? I am going to have to write that name down before I say my prayers. Maybe "God" will have to do.

P.S. Miss you too.

[lizardek]

Goodness, how terrible to have (hopefully not) lost all your photos and music! All that work, and all those memories. :( I hope the solutions turn out to be ones that work.

And I have to say, as much as I love your photos, Sam, it's your WORDS that keep me coming back. Well, that and your shining beautiful spirit :)

[carrie]

oh, I'm so sorry. I am going through a similar situation with my desk top. Luckily when my laptop crashed a few weeks ago, the geek squad was able to retrieve my data and do a transfer. Hope you are as lucky.

[rachelc]

hey sam! I haven't stopped by your blog in ages - but I did tonight and read this story. I had this exact same thing happen to me a few years ago- tons of pictures lost in a hard drive crash...with tears and fervent prayers following. Not all of my pictures were recovered, but it meant so much to me to think that God cared about my miniscule problems like pictures. Funny how the little things can serve to show us the tenderness of God!

It was good to check back in again! And wow, how Thomas has grown up since I last stopped by!