Category Archives: Portraits

dear abby : a letter to my daughter

By Rosina Waszaj | Published May 17, 2012

dear abby,

today you are four years old. i know how excited you are because you have been counting down the days since last month. though i am really happy for you and feel thankful that God has blessed me with another year with you, deep down i am crying. when i look into your big brown eyes, i am reminded what a big, graceful girl you have become. you are no longer that 6-lb baby i brought home from the hospital years ago.

dear abby, if only you know how much your daddy and i adore you. i often find myself staring at your perfect face for no reason at all–only because i want to admire you from the bottom of my heart. you are sensitive to others’ needs, you are intuitive to people’s feelings and you are emotional; you are observant and you are always eagar to help. i never hear you complain when you are asked to do something. you always tell me, ‘okay, mommy!’ as if you are so delighted to do what i ask. you always have that sweet smile on your face and when you ask me for something with that same grin, i melt every time. every time. you will never understand the love your daddy and i have for you. it is indescribeable.

dear abby, you always touch me in a special way every time you reach over with those little hands of yours. you make my heart full when you walk over quietly and just snuggle your little body in against mine. i wish i can embrace you and protect you with all that i am and all that i have–until the end of times–but i know a part of loving you is to slowly let you go and trust that the lord will guide you and walk with you. i will not be right by you forever.

dear abby, as you are starting another brand new year, i promise you i will be there for you. i will hold your hand when you want me to, pick you up when you are upset and laugh with you when you are happy. i will make sure there is no jelly in your peanut butter sandwiches and there is always plenty of mint and chocolate chip ice cream in the freezer. i will also make sure your hair is always combed but will not force you to tie your hair up. i promise we will paint your nails as often as we can, to whatever shades of red you’d like. i promise i will always love you, no matter what.

happy birthday, sweet girl.

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Also posted in Personal | Tagged abby, abby birthday, birthday, dear abby | 4 Comments

tamara + patrick : lake lanier | i still do

By Rosina Waszaj | Published April 11, 2012

as ben and i are about to celebrate our 9th year wedding anniversary in a few weeks, i can’t help but reflect back on the past nine years. as a young, single, naive girl, i used to think that once two people were married, they’d live a happily-ever-after kind of life. after all, you are marrying your best friend, whom you are deeply in love with; you have so many things in common and you dream of the same things for the future. what can possibly go wrong?

then i realized, we can live happily ever after. but only with hard work.

for me, the past nine years have been some of the most difficult yet rewarding time of my life. we moved across the country three times; the last time with three young children. as the years passed by, i have gotten to know my ben at a deeper level; he is more than i have ever prayed for in a spouse. yet, we still faced conflicts and dealt with struggles through the years. however, these very trials brought us closer. we are not perfect, but we are perfect for each other.

our dear friends tamara and patrick will be celebrating their 9th wedding anniversary this year as well. ben and i traveled to georgia a few weeks ago to see their precious new baby boy and i had an amazing opportunity photograph them. a year ago (while i was pregnant with jacob) ben and i had an incredible experience of being photographed to celebrate our anniversary; for tamara and patrick, this too was a beautiful oppurtunity for them to remember, reminisce and relive some of the most profound memories as husband and wife.

here’s tamara and patrick, i still do:

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Also posted in Couples, Weddings | Tagged GA, georga, husband, i still do, lake lanier, Patrick, Tamara, wife | 6 Comments

molly + family | the morning we stopped in south carolina

By Rosina Waszaj | Published March 13, 2012

whoa… a real blog post? yeah, i know. it has been so long since i blogged one of these, i’m pretty shocked myself. a year ago, i was able to blog a post 3 seconds after a session. then, things have been non-stop after jacob’s birth 9 months ago. in between the normal adjustments of having a 3rd child, we moved across the country. we have been trying so hard to normalize our life for the past seven months. blogging right after a session became harder than i remembered; so for all of you who follow my blog regularly, thank you so much for understanding!

a few weekends ago, ben and i drove 14 hours down to georgia to see our dear friends and their precious new baby boy. on our way down, we stopped to see molly flanagan and her adorable family. and i was lucky enough to document this visit.

here’s the story of how i met molly. i met molly through flickr. when i first began my photography journey, i stumbled upon this photo-sharing site. i had no idea what i was doing. i didn’t know there was a whole community out there where you can meet people and be supportive of one another. or talk about life and become good friends. one day i got a friendly ‘flickrmail’ from this person named pink.goldfish. at that time, i was new to flickr, but i had seen pink.goldfish’s work and it was more than amazing. therefore, receiving a flickrmail from her meant the world to me. i remember i loved the images of her little girl who at the time was still in diapers. in addition, her story-telling ability absolutely amazed me. i was in love with her work.

it turned out pink.goldfish was molly. i met molly for the first time two summers ago on our way down to georgia. she drove an hour and a half to the town where ben and i were staying and we had lunch together. from that day on, our friendship solidified. not only did we hit it off, we regularly kept in touch. as life went on, i realized we were living paralleled lives; her first born and second child are exactly caleb and abby’s age. then, my third (jacob) was born 2 days after her third baby, oliver. we are both stay-at-home moms and we both love sweet tea. molly became more than just a flickr contact. she became my friend.

which is why when molly asked me if i would be able to stop by her home in south carolina, i didn’t even think twice. i was so excited to see her again…and i was excited to finally meet the rest of her lovely family.

here’s a little bit of that memorable day. molly + family: