Monday, June 9, 2014
Monday, May 5, 2014
JHCC Mother's Day Sale 2014
She'll love you forever!! Show your wife or mom that you know what she loves! Give her the gift of "forever" with heirloom pictures of your family. Maybe she's been asking for some. Maybe you've overheard her in conversations with friends about how far behind she feels in getting pictures made. Maybe she'll never expect it! No matter what the reason, this gift will last forever and serves two purposes for her: captures her family that she loves so dear and decorates her home. She will treasure these forever! Don't drag your feet-just do it! Your story is being written every day-don't let it pass you by without documenting!
I have 8 gift certificates printed and ready to mail (or you can pick it up in Tomball)! These gift certificates are for a $300 session and I am offering them for $150 for Mother's Day. Only 8 lucky women will get their family session at 50% off! Gift certificates are good through December 2014. Don't hesitate or wait too long!
Option 1: Session only - $150 (min purchase of $600 in prints/products required at ordering session)
Option 2: Session and consultation - $200 - I come over and help mom plan colors, clothing, and location (min purchase of $600 in prints/products required at ordering session)
Option 3: Session, consultation, and portrait package - $650 - Best value. Package is valued at $620 and you save 20%. Includes 1-11x14 mounted print, 1-8x10, 4-5x7, and 6-4x6 prints. Total savings with session and prints = $270!
For more information:
Tomball, TX
jholub@ capturingcreations.com
832-372-6224
Monday, March 31, 2014
You Want Me To Do What? A Fostering Story
I am so blessed to know the people I know. My community of friends and acquaintances is like a breath of fresh air. They uplift and empower me. They are down to earth. My church family is where I find these amazing people.
You may remember my niece Gabby, who came to stay with us this summer and decided to stay through the school year. Well, it has been a journey getting to know her and she is really a great kid! She has decided she missed her mom and dad too much, however, and returned home last week. It has affected my daughter Rio a lot. She walked around with a grey cloud over her head for a few days. Thankfully, she is coming out of it, but I know she misses her "big sister".
Sometimes throughout that journey, I had doubts with what to do. I needed advice. I needed a shoulder to lean on, a place to vent my frustrations, and a place to feel understood. The most prominent friend that came to light through that was Julia. Julia had been fostering for many years and had the experience I needed most. She was able to tell me when to relax and when to be firm. I enjoyed being able to share notes and hear that although she had been doing this much longer, she still had difficulties. Please enjoy her story and pictures as my guest blogger.
Before Noah built his ark, or Abraham raised his knife, or Moses threw his staff on the ground, I’m sure they all asked the same question: “You want me to do what, Lord?”
Time and time again in scripture, God has called ordinary, unsuspecting people to become extraordinary on His behalf. In spite of their inadequacies, God equipped them with the tools they needed to fulfill the impossible. With God’s strength they were empowered and left us an example and a legacy.
Before my husband and I were married, we knew that we wanted children, both our own and others. We weren’t sure how that would work or when, but we knew that God had put that special desire in our hearts. Being young, dumb, and in love, we discarded the thought. How silly we were not to believe that God had a plan for us.
After 13 years of marriage and the birth of our three sons, God began to whisper again about raising children that were not biologically our own. Strangers, neighbors, and even our pastor were all offhandedly speaking to me about being a foster parent. I was surprised to learn that God was also whispering to my husband. I found myself screaming, “You want me to do what, Lord? I already have three children who take all of my time; my life is comfortable; I like my free time. You want me to do what?”
Jason and I decided that we would “check out” what was involved in becoming foster parents. What I thought might take a year or longer, took only months. Every time that I doubted God, He reaffirmed His plan for us through the words and actions of people around us. Even still, I was wrestling with God. I did not want to obey.
Several weeks after we were officially licensed to be foster parents, I gave it all to God. On that day, I was on my knees begging Him to show me that this was indeed His plan. I was doubting everything. I was scared. I was worried how I would protect my own children. I was worried how I could love someone else’s kids. I was broken. When I finished praying that day, I read a devotional in which God spoke these words to me: “Nowhere in the Bible are we promised a life free of trials, dangers and sorrows. Our joy is not based on a life that is comfortable, easy and effortless. Our joy is based on the fact that Jesus is with us in all we are called to endure. Faith involves not only trusting God when disappointments come but also believing that God will bless us with what is good.” Often when we least expect it, God invades our lives asking us to obey in ways that seem humanly impossible. That day, in that moment, I surrendered. God did indeed invade our lives. Six years later, we have had eleven foster children come in our home. Some of them have been adopted, some of them have gone home to their parents, and some of them are living with us today. God bombarded our quiet, easy, comfortable lives. God said, “Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you,” Josh 1:9. Through the Holy Spirit, our family responded in faith and trust in an almighty God, knowing that He has a great plan for me and my children, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, Jer. 29:11.
The last six years have been the hardest of my life. I have seen my children love others even when they didn’t want to (Luke 6). I have watched them accept new children into our family even though they are sacrificing time with their parents, their friends, their freedoms.
I have found the joy in nightly dinners for 8, a big car full of stinky children, and loads and loads of laundry. I have discovered the true joy of a full night’s rest. Finally, I have found that the joy of the Lord is truly my strength.
Luke says Christ is with us (Luke 1:28). He hears our prayers and answers them (Luke 1:13). He calms our fears (Luke 1:13, 30). He establishes our confidence in Him (Luke 1:37). I no longer question God, saying “You want me to do what?” because I see the faces of our biological children who will be forever changed.
They will know what it means to sacrifice for the good of another, they will see the benefits of loving the ungrateful and unloveable. And I see the faces of our fostered children, who do not have parents to show them God’s love. I hear them sing hymns and praises to God in the bath, and I see the worries of the world leave them, if only for a little while.
And I know that God is good.
You may remember my niece Gabby, who came to stay with us this summer and decided to stay through the school year. Well, it has been a journey getting to know her and she is really a great kid! She has decided she missed her mom and dad too much, however, and returned home last week. It has affected my daughter Rio a lot. She walked around with a grey cloud over her head for a few days. Thankfully, she is coming out of it, but I know she misses her "big sister".
Sometimes throughout that journey, I had doubts with what to do. I needed advice. I needed a shoulder to lean on, a place to vent my frustrations, and a place to feel understood. The most prominent friend that came to light through that was Julia. Julia had been fostering for many years and had the experience I needed most. She was able to tell me when to relax and when to be firm. I enjoyed being able to share notes and hear that although she had been doing this much longer, she still had difficulties. Please enjoy her story and pictures as my guest blogger.
You Want Me to Do What?
Before Noah built his ark, or Abraham raised his knife, or Moses threw his staff on the ground, I’m sure they all asked the same question: “You want me to do what, Lord?”
Time and time again in scripture, God has called ordinary, unsuspecting people to become extraordinary on His behalf. In spite of their inadequacies, God equipped them with the tools they needed to fulfill the impossible. With God’s strength they were empowered and left us an example and a legacy.
Before my husband and I were married, we knew that we wanted children, both our own and others. We weren’t sure how that would work or when, but we knew that God had put that special desire in our hearts. Being young, dumb, and in love, we discarded the thought. How silly we were not to believe that God had a plan for us.
After 13 years of marriage and the birth of our three sons, God began to whisper again about raising children that were not biologically our own. Strangers, neighbors, and even our pastor were all offhandedly speaking to me about being a foster parent. I was surprised to learn that God was also whispering to my husband. I found myself screaming, “You want me to do what, Lord? I already have three children who take all of my time; my life is comfortable; I like my free time. You want me to do what?”
Jason and I decided that we would “check out” what was involved in becoming foster parents. What I thought might take a year or longer, took only months. Every time that I doubted God, He reaffirmed His plan for us through the words and actions of people around us. Even still, I was wrestling with God. I did not want to obey.
Several weeks after we were officially licensed to be foster parents, I gave it all to God. On that day, I was on my knees begging Him to show me that this was indeed His plan. I was doubting everything. I was scared. I was worried how I would protect my own children. I was worried how I could love someone else’s kids. I was broken. When I finished praying that day, I read a devotional in which God spoke these words to me: “Nowhere in the Bible are we promised a life free of trials, dangers and sorrows. Our joy is not based on a life that is comfortable, easy and effortless. Our joy is based on the fact that Jesus is with us in all we are called to endure. Faith involves not only trusting God when disappointments come but also believing that God will bless us with what is good.” Often when we least expect it, God invades our lives asking us to obey in ways that seem humanly impossible. That day, in that moment, I surrendered. God did indeed invade our lives. Six years later, we have had eleven foster children come in our home. Some of them have been adopted, some of them have gone home to their parents, and some of them are living with us today. God bombarded our quiet, easy, comfortable lives. God said, “Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you,” Josh 1:9. Through the Holy Spirit, our family responded in faith and trust in an almighty God, knowing that He has a great plan for me and my children, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, Jer. 29:11.
The last six years have been the hardest of my life. I have seen my children love others even when they didn’t want to (Luke 6). I have watched them accept new children into our family even though they are sacrificing time with their parents, their friends, their freedoms.
They will know what it means to sacrifice for the good of another, they will see the benefits of loving the ungrateful and unloveable. And I see the faces of our fostered children, who do not have parents to show them God’s love. I hear them sing hymns and praises to God in the bath, and I see the worries of the world leave them, if only for a little while.
And I know that God is good.
Friday, March 21, 2014
2014 Easter Mini Sessions - Inspired Child
One of my favorite things to do is put scriptures on amazing images for families to cherish for generations. It's something I feel led and compelled to do to improve the lives of my clients and their little ones! They hang these 11x14 mounted scripture prints on the walls of their home-in the family room or in their bedroom-and are reminded of the promises of God with every glance. Their kids grow up with a promise made just for them. I love the life the word of God gives! I am now booking two sessions this Easter-on-location and in studio. On-location photos are in Spring, TX and will have a cross in the background (please book for directions to the location).
Scripture can be added to any image on either session at no additional cost and you will receive a professionally printed, mounted portrait as part of the on-location package. Here are the details! These are such amazing sessions and sell fast! Email to book today!
Scripture can be added to any image on either session at no additional cost and you will receive a professionally printed, mounted portrait as part of the on-location package. Here are the details! These are such amazing sessions and sell fast! Email to book today!
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Heart & Purple Jars
Been working on this website and I'll get it up soon! Accessible from everywhere-yay! It's the hardest work I've done. It's so hard to sum up a business like mine. Here's an excerpt from it that will go on a page called "HEART". Enjoy!
Some
things are inexplicable. Things like this passion and desire to take pictures.
Why? Why does that feeling exist in me? Other people have this same feeling too. Why
do I feel so passionate about standing out and shining bright? What is it about
me?
First,
let me just admit that when I think about what I do for a living, I teem over
with excitement of the possibilities. I relish the opportunity to love someone
through my camera and skills. I have the mindset that everyone I shoot is
someone I’m helping. I have a servant’s heart and I can’t wait to deliver an
amazing product. They’re always so glad they met me and hired me. Many clients come only wanting great pictures, but
their testimonies are such that they leave with confidence in a friend and
ultimately, their permanent family photographer. I see my job as a
ministry and a joy. This passion is not easily replicated.
I possess this thirst. It’s a thirst to help people feel valuable.
It is engrained in me from my younger days and the way I watched my parents
being ever so willing to feed and entertain their friends and family in our
very meager home. My father would immediately offer our guests food and drink.
My mother immediately went to the kitchen to make something (if she wasn’t
already there). They’d offer a place to sit, a coffee, a tour of the new
project in the backyard. And that warming, radiant, welcoming smile! My father
had an inviting countenance about him and a big “laughing” smile that could
make an iceberg feel at home in the desert. And let me not forget Jesus-the
source of the radiance in our family and in our ways. He wants me to help love
people. I do that in this job. I jump at the opportunity to show others what’s
in store in my mind. I want them to feel valuable through the images I take of them.
I truly have a passion for
adding promise to a person or a family’s life through pictures. I see
this as a significant trait-one that sets me apart from the crowd. I see my
love for stories and a person’s history as an excellent compliment to what I do.
My focus will continue to be on stories-big and small-and see where that leads
me. I believe that seeing a story coupled with pictures is not only a priceless
experience, but it gives the images themselves 1,000 times more depth.
The art of making pictures is an avenue for worship for me.
Whatever I create, I can’t deny it and I can’t stop it-will be a testament to
God’s glory. I. can’t. stop. it. I had a seasoned photographer once tell me if
I would just get rid of all the “spiritual stuff” on my website, that I would
get a lot more business. My website is driving prospective clients away. Maybe
he’s right, but what he didn’t realize is that what he was telling me to do was
to get rid of myself. If I followed what he said, I would lose my purpose and
the very reason I have this talent at all. My creativity and ability to see
beauty doesn’t exist without this spiritual element. The creativity I have is
because it is inspired through prayer and love for the Lord. I can’t deny it.
Consequently, I thanked the photographer for his advice but ignored it. I can’t
take Jesus out of my job. That recommendation was made in 2007. Since then, I
have left my full time job for my photography business and God has been sending
me clients every single month. My last sales quarter was the highest it has
ever been and since leaving my reliable job, my business has been growing by
leaps and bounds. God delivered a promise in a dream. People are spreading the
word about me. I’ve done very little marketing and have owned an old
flash-based website for the longest time (that I’m finally updating), and my
business has still grown at a rapid pace. How has all this happened? God is
faithful-that’s how!
My largest desire is to put scripture on people’s walls. I’ve
gifted photo prints to clients through the years and I love doing it. Sometimes
they call me about a mistake in their order and that’s when I tell them it’s my
gift to them. They thank me and tell me how much they love it and hang it
proudly on their walls. I don’t plan to stop surprising people with scripture
prints. Why? Because I know that scripture is alive, truth is unchanging, and love
is always knocking at the door. I want a child or person to see a scripture
next to their face and realize how valuable they are to God. The thought that I
can be a person that God uses to accomplish this communication fills my heart
and feed the purpose for which I believe I was born.
I’m preparing. God put it on my heart to work for Compassion International
as a photographer a little more than a year ago during a prayer walk. Since
then, I have found that they don’t hire photographers on a permanent basis;
they use freelancers. I have kept an eye out on their job postings and it looks
like in order to work for them, I need to acquire a lot of new skills. Through
prayer, I have found that I have one more option and that is to minister to
people right now in the same capacity that I would if I worked for Compassion.
While I do this, I am sharpening my skills. I want to make my work so
significant that Compassion notices me. I’ll add on new skills as I go and have
a keen eye out for openings that fit me. If the call never comes, then my time was
not wasted. My photography will have ministered to thousands anyway. I see this
work as a legacy to leave my kids, whether they pick up the camera or not. I
want them to always know that the root of my business is love. The
purpose will be etched in their hearts by watching me work and they will say,
"My mom loved people with her camera", not just "my mom was a
photographer". They will see God's faithfulness in our finances and our
conviction to share our resources with others. These are my goals and God can
search for anything selfish in me, I will examine it, and with His help, purge
it. I am in prayer daily over my heart and intentions.
I want to start a nonprofit called Purple Jars. There
is a Facebook page dedicated to it already, although none of the paperwork has
even started. Photography like mine is a luxury. It can’t be afforded by
everyone. I can’t cut my costs, reduce my bills, or create more time than there
is in a day, but I love to give of it all. I want to be like Jesus who, in his
time of mourning John the Baptist, gave of himself and had compassion on a
crowd of people needing to hear his message of hope, love, and healing.
Unfortunately, though, my food pantry and my mortgage payments have suffered
from doing this. Don’t you wish living were free? Consequently, I am putting
away a percentage of each sale to help with the costs of gifting a photo
session and a few prints to a needy family. Who are the “needy” when it comes
to photography? People that want to heal. They have gone through God-sized
stories and they want to document the outcome beautifully. I want to do that
for them. I want to make them and their situation feel valuable. I desire to place
scriptures on gorgeous images I create in their home to help them remember
God’s faithfulness. Perhaps their child survived, their son passed away
but left a newborn daughter behind, or they have felt great loss
and are still in the darkness. They deserve a chance to
heal. Beautifully inspired images can do that. If you are wondering, you can give
towards this fund, but at this time it is
not an official charity. Although my business is growing, it is not at a stage or have the right personnel to support a full-fledged non-profit. Your donation would just be a gift to me personally, and yes, these sessions are really happening and will continue to happen. I keep an
account of the donations and what it mainly offsets is my travel and cost of
printing. Each family gets a custom session, an 8x10, and 2-5x7 prints along with
the digital files for documentation. Their stories are shared on the Purple Jars page. This
work is sacred ground. If you have someone you’d like to nominate for this
service, please send me their story through email.
Thank you
for reading about my heart. If you’re still here, then you must be wondering
some things. Please feel free to comment below or send me a message through my
Facebook page, Twitter, or email (jholub @capturingcreations.com). I’d love to hear from you!
Blessings,
Julizza
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Friday, January 17, 2014
Letter To My Future Clients from Ashley
When we brought our adopted daughter home from Ethiopia, we
felt like we needed a special photographer to help commemorate the unbelievable
pride and joy we were experiencing. Because we were in the midst of such
an extraordinary time in our family’s history, we really wanted a photographer
to capture at least a small glimpse of what we were feeling, which I thought
could be impossible. Our family was not hoping for just another nice
family portrait to keep in a frame, but rather a unique treasure---a photograph
that told our story and reached into the center of our hearts.
Julizza met with our family before our session to listen and
hear more about our journey of becoming a family of five. She
incorporated our ideas and asked just the right questions to help us have a
warm, calm experience. We felt so blessed to find a photographer who
cared about capturing the story we were living right at that moment. Any
client of Capturing Creations will quickly learn that Julizza will invest in
your family and in what matters to you. As a Christian photographer, she
knows that her creator cherishes His people, and just like her creator, she
finds beauty in the life stories that are being written in her clients.
Through her photos, she desires to celebrate the diversity and uniqueness of
God’s people. Her passion is to love God and to pour into others through
her gift of photography.
I love being surrounded by our
portraits. They are a continual reminder of God's faithfulness in guiding
and equipping us through every step of our adoption journey. God has
written such a beautiful story in our lives, and we are thankful to have images
that remind us of God's everlasting presence. Our first family picture
including our Amara hangs above my mantle and makes me smile every day.
Julizza has truly given our family such a great gift. After working
with a photographer who is passionate about bringing stories to life, I know
this is what I continually desire in my photographs in the future.
Wherever you are in your story, it has tremendous value to
God and to Julizza. Whether your journey brings you to a life milestone or just
a simple day at the park, she will use her passion for story to help create a
photograph that mirrors the very things that are important to you. For
us, she helped us frame a little girl who came all across the world to join our
family. I’m confident God can help her frame your story as well. We are
so grateful for Julizza, her faith, and her willingness to share her gifts with
us.
~Ashley Atnip
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