It’s crazy sometimes how in an instant, your world can change. How in an instant, your fears and worries seem like a small pittance to pay in this journey through life. The worries we have become so clearly minor compared to the worries that SO MANY people in this world have. But in one instant, that all can change…

Yesterday was one of those days… a day that kicked us in the stomach…hard. And then once we got up, we were shoved back down. Pushed to our limit and asked how much we can take. I kept telling myself, be strong, there are others that need your strength now more than you need it yourself. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and prayed for strength. I asked for courage as I put the burdens of what seemed like the world on my shoulders. It is in these moments, the moments that test our resolve, the moments that are the toughest in our lives that show us clarity. It’s these moments that show us how strong we can truly be.

It’s in an instance like this that we might cry out to God… “Why has this happened?” We might cast blame and wonder how a God of glory, a God of all power, could allow this to happen. God could prevent this pain that we feel, this pain that he feels, but he doesn’t. But the thing is, although God could prevent the things that cause us pain, he wants to use us, his servants, to share in His glory. He wants us to look back on the moments that define us and be able to say look how much I accomplished in your glory.

I read the following words in Live to Give (by Austin Gutwein) just a few short days ago and I didn’t realize how true they were until today.

“God has made a plan to use you to accomplish eternal, life-giving, miraculous things!” – Austin Gutwein

I continued to read further.

“The thing we can know is that when we live to give, we get to partner with a God whose love has no end, and we get to play a part in His incredible plan – a plan that will last for eternity.”

In life, we are only given one chance. Don’t waste it. And when God does call on you, follow His plan.

On Tuesday, we shared the What’s Next of 10 AMAZINGLY brave individuals and we promised to share our What’s Next too.

At this moment, at this time, after one of the hardest most trying days of our lives, we know EXACTLY what we are called to do. Our What’s Next is based fully off of this:

We serve to help everyone live a more AMAZING life. To help everyone know a life of Unconditional Love; to help everyone experience a life of Joyful Happiness; and to help everyone serve gracefully with heartfelt authentic gratitude. It is our mission to help every couple we photograph grow stronger in love and to have a marriage that will last for all eternity. It is our mission to help people find more happiness in their lives through the simple moments. It is our mission to Live to Give and serve with full and heartfelt authentic gratitude. It’s our mission to choose LOVE over hate. It is our mission, to show that no dream is too small. It is our mission to show that this one wild and crazy life is one worth living fully. It is our mission responsibility to make this world AMAZING.

And to start, we will be digging in right to the core. In February, we will be speaking our hearts to an incredible group of people (so much more on that to come! ;) ). And we will be following shortly thereafter with a webinar and other exciting AMAZING Life Experiences. If you are interested in joining us, head on over to http://amazing.lizandryan.com and click learn more to be notified of more information and have the first opportunity to sign up.

For those of you who pray and/or might be wondering what is going on, we have a family member that is going through some really difficult stuff. We would absolutely appreciate any prayers and positive thoughts you could send our family! They will mean more than you know! Thank you!

Leading up to this crazy adventure we just completed, we could not wait to be a part of something that was definitely going to change people’s lives. We knew that Justin and Mary had AMAZINGNESS in store and we were sure that all of the attendees of the What’s Next Tour would walk away with their hearts in a magical place. We knew that they would be touched in a special way and soon those dreams would become a reality.

We could not wait to embark on the crazy adventure for many reasons, but mostly because we wanted to be a part of this life changing experience! As we prepared for the trip, I decided to give myself a challenge to make sure that I did not miss anything. I challenged myself to strike up conversations with new friends (which is actually really hard for my introverted self) and find someone who would allow me to document this life changing experience for them. With a simple Instagram picture, it was my goal to capture a photo of an attendee at each stop holding my journal with their What’s Next written down within.

“Something really big happens when you are brave enough to say out loud, this what I want for my life.” These are just a few of the words that Mary spoke out loud at each and every stop. Everyone had the opportunity to share their What’s Next. To write it down and say it out loud. For these AMAZING new (and old) friends… they were brave enough to share it out load in my journal and through my iphone lens knowing that we will not let them back down on their dreams! It is our goal to hold our friends accountable and do everything that we can to help them make their dreams a reality!

We could not be more excited and more honored to be able to share just a small snippet of the dreams that are going to happen! Sooner rather than later! ;)

Thank you to all of these brave friends who helped me complete my very own challenge while we all grew together on this AMAZING adventure of The What’s Next Tour.

Samantha and Graham Terhune
www.grahamterhune.com
twitter.com/grahamterhune

Natalie Franke
www.nataliefrankephotography.com 
twitter.com/nataliefranke

Melissa Rieke
www.melissariekephotography.com
www.twitter.com/melissarieke

Lara Kimmerer
www.larakimmerer.com 
twitter.com/larakimmerer

Kellie Penn
www.acrossthemilesphotography.com
twitter.com/kelliepenn

Jessica McIntosh
jessicaraiphotography.showitsite.com
twitter.com/JessicaRaiPhoto

Jenn Berelowitz
www.jennslensphotography.com

Gina Zeidler
www.ginazeidler.com
twitter.com/ginazeidler

Chris Wojdak
www.chriswojdakphotography.com 
twitter.com/chriswojdak

Amanda Watson
www.amandawatsonphoto.com
https://twitter.com/amandawphoto

For our brave readers…. We would love to hear what your What’s Next is. Leave it in the comments and we would be honored to help you with your journey by being your accountability partners! ;)

More on our own What’s Next tomorrow…

We were all sitting on the bus gathered around the laptop. The voice of a little boy giving a life changing peptalk stole our attention. Soon, everyone on the bus was gathered around one computer watching Kid President tell us everything we needed to hear. A pep talk as he calls it! ;)

We have seen this video all over our Facebook feeds, but we couldn’t resist sharing it again with you all! If you have not taken a moment to watch this video (or even if you have) please watch it and get to work on giving the world something to dance about! ;) Please.

Thank you Kid President for being AMAZING and for changing the world. We appreciate you! ;)

Today is the day. Today is the 10th and last stop on The What’s Next Tour. We are not sure how this day is already here, but it is. Today we are reminded to soak this in. To soak in every special moment that you may or may not even recognize as “special” on a daily basis!

Today, we are slowing down. If we had magical powers, we may even go through this day in slow motion just so that we can soak in every single moment that we have. ;) We are soaking in the AMAZING words that God is sharing with us through Justin and Mary’s voices… we are soaking in the emotions and the energy and the passion that fills the room. We are soaking in the open hearts and warm hugs. The What’s Next Cafe and the details that are so inviting… we are soaking them in! And we are even soaking in the effort it takes to load in and load out… in hopes that we never forget the hard work and love that fills this tour!

This What’s Next Tour experience has been filled with moments that we will never forget.  These moments make up the past 3 weeks of our lives. These moments we are so happy for. So grateful!

We are so excited to share more with you about the Tour! So much more to come! But in the meantime… soak in this moment and enjoy today! Happy weekend friends!

Yesterday we started our day off in a way that seriously could not have been better! Before the tour even began, we were super excited about visiting a few of the cities either because we have never been there before or because there are special people in our lives that call that city home! One of those cities that meets both of those reasons is Indianapolis and we were there yesterday!! ;) Wahoo!

It was crazy cold (about 10 degrees when we got in) and we didn’t get much sleep the night before, but there could never be an excuse good enough to miss a 7:30 a.m. breakfast with Carly and Bobby!!! We photographed Carly and Bobby’s wedding in August of 2011… (that seems like forever ago!!!)… and they are AMAZING! Seriously, we love them!

As we sat at breakfast catching up on their lives and hearing all about their house-hunting adventures, we were quickly reminded of how blessed we are to have such incredible couples in our lives! When we started our business we were thinking it would be fun to meet a few couples here and there who would maybe become friends. Haha… that is one of the aspects of starting our business that we are so excited to have been proven wrong about! ;) Elizabeth Ryan Photography and now Liz and Ryan has brought so many incredible people into our lives! We are so grateful for the love that surrounds us… for the people who walk into our lives as strangers and put their trust in us to capture an incredibly special time of their lives who quickly become not only friends but family!

It makes our hearts sing knowing that we get to see Carly and Bobby two more times this year!!! at two of their friends/family weddings (Sarah and Joe and Susan and Brad!! Whoop Whoop!) ;) YAY! Couldn’t be more excited and grateful that the Liz and Ryan Family is growing with couples who are AMAZING… just like Carly and Bobby! ;)

Please forgive the iphone pic! ;)