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While the other two were in school one morning, we let Ezra (4) cut class to go on a special date with us. Sadly, I think his train obsession is slowly taking second place to Super Mario Bros. on the Wii. However, this photo was taken at the height of his obsession, when we took him on the train that runs really close to our apartment. It was cold out and so we caught it to the main train station in downtown Torino, ate gelato together and found a bookstore that had dinosaur books. One-on-one time with our kids is priceless to me.

When I am stressed out, I often remember some advice a friend gave me long ago. She told me to find my "happy place" in the midst of chaos and to "go there in my mind." Right now, my "happy place" resides in Myrtle Beach with my family last summer. I lie on the beach with this great feeling of acceptance and love, knowing that this moment, with the sun and its warmth on my skin and the laughter of cousins playing in the distance and the sounds of my sisters and mom talking and the presence of my father close by, reading a magazine, can lighten any awful mood and brighten any bad day. This photo was taken one early one morning at our hotel. I loved how the light was hitting Elias' profile and whenever I look at this photo, I feel the ocean hitting my feet and the peace and the timelessness of those few moments with my family.

This photo is one of my favorite photos ever because it embodies my daughter's personality. She was 18 months-old and we were in Rwanda, Africa. We had just returned from a long walk down the dirt road to the house where we were staying and near our gate were some children who literally were in rags. My heart knew that while we hadn't brought much with us, surely there was something we could do. So we asked them to wait at the gate and I ran into the house and found some clothes that perhaps would fit them. While I was handing the clothes to them, Keziah slipped from our presence and made her way up three flights of stairs and came walking down the driveway with this tiny shirt in her chubby little hands (which is when I took this photo). I realized what she was up to and after my heart melted a little, I bent down and explained to her that the children had already left. She began crying because she so badly wanted to give her shirt away. That moment will forever be in my mind because I know that she was born with a deep sense of the needs around her and this photo just says it all.