Hi Mom!

Thanks so much! I couldn’t believe that I won.

Alex is actually not my husband…not yet, anyway! We have been dating for a year and three months, and we both knew from the start that we had found our other half. We met unexpectedly in the fall of 2008. My younger brother was in his first year at West Point (The United States Military Academy), and he was trying to set me up with a senior. He knew I’ve always wanted to marry a military man, probably because our dad is a marine, and we’ve been blessed to admire our parent’s rock-solid marriage for 23 years. It was risky business for my brother, since he wasn’t allowed to befriend upperclassmen as a “plebe.” Nevertheless, he told me to search for some people under West Point’s class of 2009 on Facebook, and lo and behold, Alex Sudyk was the first to pop up. We had a mutual friend – a girl I went to school with at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Since Moody is such a small school, I was very curious how they knew each other, so I sent him a message that introduced myself and inquired about my friend. Their connection was pretty uninteresting, but he wasn’t! We began messaging each other daily, over the course of three months. Finally, we met in person when I dropped my brother off at school after Thanksgiving break 2008. The next week we went on our first date, (which happened to be five hours after I had lasik eye surgery), which led to a second the next day at the 2008 Army/Navy game, and the rest is history. He graduated as a commissioned 2nd Lieutenant from West Point last May. Though long distance and life with the army is extremely hard, he makes it worth every single second. I’m counting down the days until we can be together forever.

Alex inspired the poem, which I composed in about 15 minutes. He used to be really into poetry, so I wanted it to be something special for him. The canvas turned out beautifully…we could not have imagined a nicer final product. It’s absolutely amazing, and was a wonderful Valentine’s Day gift to him! We plan on hanging it in our living room once we are married.

Thank you again!

Katie

My Soldier Has My Heart

I didn’t know what to expect

When I fell in love with a soldier.

Everything happened so fast and, suddenly,

With him I envisioned growing older.

The late-night calls, the beautiful cards,

He took my breath away.

His precious love swept me off my feet;

I know that it’s here to stay.

The Army brings many challenges,

But our love is the highest of pursuits.

Nothing will ever come between us:

Me and my hero in combat boots.

Even though, for now, we are apart,

And at night I long for his kiss

I count myself lucky, because in the end

I’m so glad I have someone to miss.

I’ve traded my pearls for his dog tags,

And from now until death do us part,

In good times and bad, through thick and thin,

My soldier has my heart.

Hi Mom:

I appreciate the huge compliment. My photography gives me great joy to share with people, but my poetry is much harder to share. It shocks me that is resonates so much with other people.

I am always taking pictures. even if I don’t have a camera in hand, my eyes and heart are seeing them. But the end result is thousands of images that get buried. I am glad that I dusted off this old one I love for the competition. I almost send the email to the spam filter from Ryan, not even remembering that I’d entered a contest, my expectations were so low!

My husband and I work together as owners of Elijah Park Photography. In spite of a inconvenient day job as a engineer for him, we really strive to savor life. This was taken during one of our frequent outings in Downtown Portland, Oregon’s waterfront. It was just taken with a little snapshot camera. Kathryn, who now is 7, has always been independent, and this is a great reminder to me of what joy we’ve always taken in her spirit. But when I saw this image on the tiny old LCD screen, and was driven to hunt a piece of scrap paper in the car and write down what I saw in it.

It’s always hard to communicate to your partner that you desperately need some paper when you’re trying not to show you’re crying over a silly picture you just took! After ten years of marriage, I can say that he really understands now when I hit a incoherent creative moment.

I am going to display it with a companion piece of her sister that I am working on. Our younger daughter spent her first month of life in the Neonatal ICU due to a very rare tumor on her liver, and I want to frame that into words, but it is very difficult to do. I believe the preserving how I felt then is important to my day to day life now, and this is a wonderful way to do it.

Ginger