AMAZING Life Manifesto: Document Your Journey

Amazing Life Manifesto, Dreaming  //  6th February 2013

It has been a bit crazy over the past few weeks. As much as we love love love traveling, it has left us feeling quite disconnected. Don’t get us wrong; disconnecting can be a very good thing!!! However, when it leaves us scrambling to put up blog posts because of lack of Internet connection, it has us definitely appreciating the interwebs when we do have them! ;) Thanks so much for being so patient with us and understanding when we have been a little less than consistent on getting our blog posts up! ;)

Today, for our delayed AMAZING Life Manifesto post, we wanted to share a little inspiration that we have been reminding ourselves over and over the past few weeks! Document Your Journey! It is so easy, especially as photographers (which is ironic, right?), to forget to take the time to capture our own personal moments. Sometimes carrying the camera around with us is just a hassle or other times we feel bad asking people to stop for a moment and capture a moment in time for us. But those excuses are just excuses, my friends! Crazy excuses that actually rob us of our own memories that we so want to remember!!!

Over the past few weeks, we have been all over the place and our minds have been trying desperately to keep up- but reality is, we cannot remember everything! Through this experience we have gained an even greater appreciation for taking the time to capture this very moment and document our journey along the way! Our cameras have been in our hands over the past few weeks and we have definitely been capturing the sites and sounds of our travels! We have so much to share with you all… but in the meantime (as we wrap our minds around everything), we thought we would share with you a very special video that our friend Jeremy (of Jeremy Mitchell Cinema) put together to help all of us remember the incredible journey that was the What’s Next Tour! Watching this video brings out so many emotions and is the perfect way of remembering this crazy journey we were just on! We are so excited and truly grateful for this gift and special documentation of our journey! Thanks Jeremy!!! And after watching this awesome video, be sure to check out our Instagram feed and hashtag #whatsnextcrew to see more of our fun adventures!

 

Justin and Mary What’s Next Tour from jeremy mitchell on Vimeo.

 

Ravens Win the Superbowl, A Crazy Morning, and Lots of Life Lessons

Celebrating the Everyday, Travel  //  4th February 2013

So, after that CRAZY, AWESOME, WAY TOO CLOSE, Ravens win last night, Ryan and I decided we would celebrate today on the blog with a special Raven’s post and delay our Amazing Life Manifesto post till tomorrow…

… However, this post has quickly become something a bit different! ;) Still a celebration, but the celebration has exploded a bit! Lol.

This morning started off a little bit like Home Alone. You know, when you wake up to your husband yelling words that we choose not to post on our blog and jumping out of bed faster than I have ever seen him move! “Liz, its 7:15! Hurry we are going to miss our flight.” Feeling the sense of urgency and actually waking up feeling pretty darn good because of the extra hours of sleep, I quickly respond, “Ryan, our flight left at 7:15 a.m.” Yes, that was the start of our morning. We were supposed to be on a 7:15 a.m. flight to Punta Cana to attend the What If Conference. Even though we knew in our minds that the flight we were supposed to be on was probably the last flight getting into Punta Cana today, we still got ready faster than we ever have before and literally within 5 minutes we were out the door and in the car to the airport. Ryan was driving safely, but fast… and I was searching my phone for other options! We had a layover in Atlanta so if we could get to Atlanta and still catch our flight- that would be AMAZING. Unfortunately, there were no flights into Atlanta early enough. So instead of freaking out and yelling at each other, we offered suggestions. We were on adrenaline and determined to make it to Punta Cana for the start of the conference!!

Somehow I came across a Punta Cana flight from Delta that could work. I called and with the help of a super sweet (Ravens fan at that!) lady we were booked on a new flight to get into Punta Cana today!!! Thank you God!

But wait- it get’s better!! Ryan dropped me off at the airport while he parked so that I could finish reserving the flight and get our bag checked. (The flight was scheduled to leave in less than 1 hour). As I am juggling my phone and two bags while looking for a pen to write down our confirmation number, I dropped my passport. I knew I dropped something, so I bent down and picked up what I thought I had dropped. I made my way to the check-in desk and all of a sudden, I could not find my passport! Somehow, in a matter of about 5 minutes and 20 feet, I lost my passport. I thought I was losing it. I thought it was one of those moments when I couldn’t find my belt but my belt was on! Lol. I asked the attendant if it was hanging off of me somewhere… and she didn’t see it either. She suggested that I ask the information desk to see if anyone turned it in. The nice gentleman at the desk said no one had turned anything in to him… but I could check the lost and found office that opened at 9:00 a.m. (9:00 AM… are you kidding me?! ;) My flight would have been half way to Atlanta by then!). By this point, we were coming close to the time where we wouldn’t be able to check any bags because it was getting to be too close to flight time. As soon as I started to panic, Ryan walked through the doors. I told him what was going on and he kind of smirked at me like I was crazy, but he knew it would work out. I gave him the bag so that he could check it and get our tickets. Meanwhile, a super sweet lady was sitting on the bench nearby watching this all go down. (Everything- from the very moment I walked in and had way too many things going on! Lol). She, so sweetly, said, “Ma’am, did you drop your passport? I saw a gentleman pick one up right here and he walked that way.” Ohh my goodness… at least I didn’t think I was losing my mind anymore. I knew someone in the airport had my passport- I just had to find them. (Keep in mind, this is around 7:30 a.m. and there weren’t many people in the airport at this time!) So I made my way back down to my new friend at the information desk. I was about to ask him to get on the intercom system and report a missing passport (In my head it would have been like a missing child report where everyone would stop what they were doing and someone would find that they had picked mine up by accident). Before I could even open my mouth to ask, he pointed to an older gentleman walking about 30 feet away from me with a passport in his hand. I took off running… seriously… lol. And I caught up to the gentleman. I said, is that a missing Passport… and with a huge smile on his face he said YES! He said he had picked it up and didn’t know what to do with it- so he was taking it back to where he found it! AHHHH! Once again, Thank You God!

Wow… so basically, this morning was CRAZY. But we are so thankful to say that we are now on a flight and will soon be joining our new friends in Punta Cana for what we are sure to be a week full of learning and growth! We are already well on our way… with many AMAZING life lessons that we will take away from this trip. #1 Always set two alarms… lol. No, but seriously, Never Panic and know that God will take care of you. #2 Be observant and never be afraid to speak up. #3 Be grateful for those incredible people that you unexpectedly meet along your journey through life who have a special way of turning your rough days into AMAZING ones! #4 And finally, no matter how bad something may seem, never ever give up!

With grateful hearts… we hope your day is pretty AMAZING! And for all of you Ravens fans… WAHOOOO! We are wearing our Raven’s pride extra proudly today!! Here is a glimpse of the scene in our neighborhood last night! Baltimore is happy!! ;)

It is the toughest moments that show us the most clarity

Dreaming, Our Dreams  //  31st January 2013

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!

 

Be Brave Enough to Say Your Dreams Out Loud

Dream Big, Dreaming  //  29th January 2013

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…

 

Amazing Life Manifesto with Kid President

Amazing Life Manifesto, Dreaming  //  28th January 2013

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! ;)