Lowcountry Thoughts

It is time to start scheduling your Christmas photo shoots. I have several different designs to choose from. Email me at googephotography@gmail.com to schedule your session. Now through October 11th I am only charging $50.00 for the 30 minute session! Below are a few examples of designs we have available…

We often say in Gods timing but do we truly know what that means. I am going to tell you about my last week here in Haiti. Let me know what you think.

I was scheduled to bring Sammy back to Haiti Sept. 1. Unknown to his family so that we could get the reunion on tape with out them knowing he was coming.

4 weeks before this scheduled trip. I receive an email asking if I still worked in Haiti. There were these Christian bands and Rap artist who were going to raise money for AMH and some others working in Haiti. Would I be in the Miami area on Aug. 21.

Well I was not to be in the Miami area and I really did not want to miss the first days of school with my children. But if I were to fly to Miami on the 21^st. It only made since and saved funds to go on to Haiti early and return Sammy.

So we made plans to come to Miami for the concert and then fly onto Haiti with Sammy. I went to the Embassy where he was received as a Star (No one including me ever thought he would make it )

The next day I got tickets for me and Bill Nathan to go to Port de Paix to take Sammy back to his mother and father. We did not tell any of them. We went and were met at the airport by a driver. But Sammy’s bag did not make the trip. So we had to spend the entire day at the small airport waiting for the late flight to bring us his meds and formula all of his clothing.

It was almost to late to travel to Sammy’s home town (3) hours away Basin Bleu. But we went. Got there right before dark. Took Sammy to his Uncle then his parents house. The reunion was wonderful. We stayed at Missions of Love they were wonderful and did not even know we were coming. The next day I went back to Sammy’s house to see him before we started back to Port de paix. We were driving and the doctors said to me. Have you ever seen triplets survive in Haiti. I told him know, it is even rare for twins to make it. He pointed out a road and said that two months ago there were triplets born down that road. Do I want to go take a photo of them. Sure I was seeing the small village and people that would be great. So we went.

Well we got there and in a bed was 3 of the smallest human beings I have ever seen. They were all ill, running a fever and barely breathing. The mother said she had been praying for God to send an Angel to take them. And just that day I had worn my Angel Missions T-shirt. She said she thought he would send an angel to take them to heaven. She was so happy to see me. Mom is also ill. They showed me mom has NO milk, they had been given 3 cans of formula when the babies were born but they were empty. Showed me the empty cans. I was told for the last 8 days all they could give them was sugar water. (Not clean water but out of a dirty creek)

They asked me to take the babies. Please make them well like you did Sammy. How do you say No to that. I prayed and both the doctor and I thought that two of them would not make it through the night. The doctor even said maybe you should wait come back tomorrow to see if they are still alive. I looked at the parents told them that there were no promises that they would live even tonight but if they wanted I would take them to Port au Prince and try to get medical visas for them. I told them over and over that they may die.

The father, doctor and myself picked them up and headed out to the car. I do not think they wanted to give me time to change my mind. We looked all over the small village No formula or even powdered milk anywhere to be found. We went to Sammy’s parents and asked for a little bit of formula and a bottle. We got a dropper from the doctor and started to feed them back at Missions of Love, We got a few droppers in each baby. I threw all of my stuff in a bag and we headed to Port de Paix.

I knew of a Missionary there who had said we could stay with them anytime we were in town. So we went. 3 ½ hours later we arrived. Me, Bill and 3 babies. (Lashbrook Family Ministries) They took us in and helped me to do all necessary for the next 2 days to keep these little angels alive. They gave us formula, bottles, diapers, cloths, they stayed up with me and them and we fed them every 2 hours. Well sure enough they came around. I also got medication for them all as soon as we got into town. Called the US doctor and asked how much to give each of them. 1 cc because they are so small. We gave them on drop of cough meds and Tylenol around the clock all fevers broke.

Hanna, Vance, Audra, Julie, Keith, took such wonderful care of us and they already have 115 children depending on them.

On Sunday we returned to Port au Prince by air. Me Bill and 3 smaller than new born infants. (remember now that they are 2 months old).

Showed up at St. Josephs gave Michael the scare of his life. He is happy my clinic is next door. He also has been so very helpful and my boys are priceless as always.

We got Dr. Jack on Sunday to see all 3 babies he was amazed at how they look. How well they are doing and how small they are. The littlest has Pneumonia and the other have horrific colds. Fevers that come and go. But it has now been 5 days and all are still alive.

We are working on Medical visa’s for all three. We are praying for their recovery and the funds to come in for me to get them all to the US.

I started this out in Gods Timing. His timing is always perfect. If I had not listened to him and went to Miami and then on to Haiti. These 3 beautiful little girls would not be here now.

Please keep us in prayer. For all who live close in Virginia we are going to set up a volunteer sheet for people to come to the house and help us with the babies around the clock. Please consider signing up for a shift here and there. For anyone who feels led to help with the expense please send donations to Angel Missions Haiti (for Grace, Hope and Faith) I named them this so I could keep up with them. There given names are very close to the same name. Wayne, Waylande, Wayline. I am very sleep deprived and need to keep straight in my head who I am working with at all times. We are recording all intake and out take of formula. Had only a few vomiting spells.

Thank you to everyone who is helping and will help with these babies soon. Love V

4 days after getting them

Hope, Grace, Faith (Grace and Faith are identical)

These are preemie cloths that are way to big on them.

New born diapers cover them all the way to their chest

Vanessa A. Carpenter

I ♥ Faces

This Photo was taken at the beach of the 2 flower girls…someone or something was apparently waaaayy more interesting than I was ;-)

Kirstin and I took the kids to the SC Aquarium a couple of days ago. They all had a blast! Here are a few pics from the day:

We called these the “Singing Fish”

Getting 3 kids to smile and look in the same direction is impossible:

Logan and Cole rockin’ out on Guitar Hero to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”..

It’s “Boy’s Week” over at I ♥ Faces this week so in honor of that here is Cole. He was not happy with me when I took this shot ;-) I was trying to work out some off camera lighting and he was tired of being my muse…

Week 23 at I ♥ Faces with a theme of “Sepia.” 

Meet Aislynn…this is the little 18 month old girl we are in the process of adopting from Haiti. She came to the US to have surgery and while she was here her mom passed away back in Haiti. Her grandfather said he could not care for her and signed over legal guardianship to us. She has been a real blessing to our

This is our English Mastiff Hadley. She is about 140lbs and 6 years old. I look forward to seeing all the cool pets this week on www.iheartfaces.com!

I walked upstairs and found Cole jammin’ to his Kids’ Bop Cd. Of course he stopped singing when he saw me but he kept playing!

"I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb Book photo contest. I am granting I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites."

Today I got to spend a little time with someone I met on Twitter as Murphy24p. Steve is a videographer who does work at Seacoast Church at the Mount Pleasant campus. He is involved with some great ministries and needed a headshot or two for a conference he has coming up. These were some of my favorites:

I woke up this morning and started getting ready for work. Then out of no where the most excruciating pain I have ever felt hit my left side. It felt like a muscle was contracting so hard it was going to burst. Like a knife being jabbed into me. This pain brought me to my knees! Kirstin was up and took me to the Summerville Medical ER. Everyone there did a great job in diagnosing my kidney stone. I received wonderful pain medicine that took the edge off. The Doc said I may hurt like that some more as the stone travels my kidney…great!

I am so glad that Kirstin was there to drive me to the ER and comfort me. She was a huge help! The Summerville Medical ER staff also did a great job and I thank them for their compassion!

PS..Mike- I am sorry I made fun of you when you had one ;-)

Here are a few pictures from the 2009 Cooper River Bridge Run:

Come on Mr. President…that is not the proper protocol!

I just installed Windows Live Writer and must say I seem to like it so far. It lets you draft and publish blog entries with a bunch of different options. Good stuff…

Below is a picture of the Ravenel Bridge taken about a month ago. I have had several people ask about purchasing a copy so if you want one as well just email me at cgooge@gmail.com and let me know what size you want. We can print pretty much any size you want…even if you want it the size of your wall ;-)

At least for a week ;-) I am heading to Columbia for my firearms instructor re-certification and Kirstin will be left to fend for herself until Friday. It has been a long time....years in fact...since I have been away from her and the boys. Her health has never allowed for it but now she assures me she can handle it. I know she can and I just hope the boys don't drive her crazy ;-) Jim, fire up the wagons I'm heading out...Meet me where we discussed. Fake IDs are ready...(inside thing)

Anyways, pray for strength for Kirstin and good behavior for the boys and girl.

On a side note I wanted to say that today's service was really good today...Awesome job to Kimberly who kept going even after a power snafu! It was really moving! And how about that horn section: trumpet and 2 saxes...at least for a little bit ;-)

Kirstin and I have decided to begin the adoption process for Aislynn Hope! For those of you that do not know we have been a host family for several different children from Haiti who needed surgery here in the USA. While Aislynn was here her mother in Haiti passed away. She stayed with a host family for a bit before coming to us.

Now Kirstin had been very sick for a long time. We fought her illnesses for 4 years and then had an all out war for 2 really hard years. Then in October of 2008 Kirstin had a seizure and was hospitalized for a week. While there her medicines were adjusted and improvement was seen almost instantly. Since then I have seen a dramatic improvement in Kirstin's health as she has gone to being bed ridden for 25 days a month to being out of bed 25 days a month. There is usually a 5 day stretch each month that she feels the full effects from her illness but still not like it used to be.



I have heard whispers and clammering about "How can you take on a 16 month old after just dealing with all the medical garbage?" or "We are not sure it is a good idea for you to start this process with Kirstin the way she has been". Well, here is what I have as an answer for you. It is in parts so bare with me. One part of the answer is this: You must not know me as well as you think if you believe I would take this on with Kirstin in a medical conundrum. I have been through the roughest 2 years of my life up to October of 2008. I worked full time and cleaned my house full time and took care of Kirstin & the boys full time. That is a lot of full time jobs! Needless to say I became exhausted. Physically and emotionally. I would not add to my list of chores if Kirstin and I could not handle it!


Part II: Kirstin is better than she has been in a long time! I do not expect for people that are not involved in our lives on a constant basis to know this so I am letting you know now. She still gets tired, hurts on a daily basis, etc but not nearly like she has been in a long time! Rest assured; I have a handle on it! ;-)

Part III: When God places something or someone in your life to take care of you must say, "Yes sir! I will take care of it/them for you". This is not about my will or Kirstin's will. This is about God's will. I had some reservations in the beginning, doubts if you will. Then I began to pray about them and found that the reservations were my will. God's will was for us to take this little girl in and raise her the best we can. What kind of life would she have back in Haiti? If the government did not mark her for death due to having surgery she would be in the poorest country in the western hemisphere where they eat dirt mixed with oil as a cookie for meals. There is no food, no water and the government can make you disappear at will.

I think we as a society have become too selfish...worrying about one's self versus others. We do not walk down the Jericho road looking for others to help. We turn away and hope not to make eye contact with those in need for fear we may be inconvienenced on our travels. Self absorbed is a better term.


So as I conclude my rant and put my soap box back in the shed :-) I want you to ask you a couple of questions. Are there people or circumstances you could be helping but choose not to involve yourself for selfish reasons? Do you travel the Jericho road in search of the fallen or just pass by because you are too busy? Are you praying that God's will be done and not your own?

Now for my caveat: I know I am not perfect and there are areas in my life that I must improve upon. For those things I pray everyday. I am not trying to preach to anyone. I just want your eyes opened to my circumstances and feelings on the matter. This is a very exciting time for us and we hope you will join us on our adventure! That is all ;-)

Logan celebrated his actual birthday at home with a Harry Potter cake and then celebrated with his friends at the House of Bounce two weeks later. Thanks to Mike for taking pics while I operated the video camera at the House of Bounce

I did not realize how long it had been since I last blogged...just over a month! I guess I was just enjoying the rest since our last wedding. We have geared up and are in full swing this season as we have double the amount of bookings since last year!

I have also been busy with web pages over the last couple of months:

• Breathe Soy Candles
• Athletic Endeavors
• Mount Pleasant Internal Medicine

Kirstin and I are hosting Aislynn who is from Haiti. She came over here to have surgery and while here her mother passed away. She is 14 months old but only 15 pounds...she is small! If Kirstin's health stays as good as it has Aislynn may stay with us for a long time...

Cole got a neat little police helmet from Santa this year...

Even though Cole has been sick for a week we had a Spiderman cake to celebrate his birthday. He still is not feeling well but hopefully he will take a turn for the better after seeing the doctor today.

The last couple of weeks have been really busy and my blog has suffered for this. I have had several family shoots and weddings along with picking up 4 clients who need web pages. We have our last wedding of the year this Saturday then Kirstin, the boys and I will be heading to Florida for Christmas. Not to mention our youngest son has his birthday this Friday....whew...

Hopefully I will be able to get a few shots up before we head out...

Kirstin and I got to see McKenzie today and my has she grown so fast!! I got a couple of shots of her with Kirstin before she left:

Mike, Rach, and the kids came over for Thanksgiving yesterday. I had never seen Mike do any type of manual labor so I had to snap a few shots of him frying a turkey. I must say he did a great job!

Looking for just the right spots...

This year Logan had an Air Force themed pinewood care for the AWANA derby. This car was much faster than last year's car. While he did not place he is much closer and hopefully will have it down for next year!

Mommy and Cole...

Logan watching intently...

You have probably seen me blog about two local vendors here in Charleston that we use a bunch. One is Seaside Gift Baskets and the other is Breathe Soy Candles.

Seaside Gift Baskets just added their holiday section so swing by there to check out all the great things you can send to family and friends...most baskets have a Charleston flair to them which makes it even better!

Breathe Soy Candles just added new scents and new holders...My favorites are the Charleston Sweetgrass and CoCo.

Kirstin and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary on November 11th. Over the last 2 years or so Kirstin has been very hard on her iPod...it was thrown away accidentally, has been dropped, fell into water and kicked. I sent it off to be fixed and the estimate was not worth it. Instead of getting a regular iPod I decided to get her one of the new Nanos...Man this thing is small and light! It has 8 gigs of memory and comes in several new colors. Kirstin wanted purple. If you order one online they will engrave it for free..