Last of the Colorado Provenance

Today I'll finish up the stories behind the rest of the Colorado pictures.





Almost all of the rest of the scenic pictures were taken on our descent. We were only on the mountain three days but in those three days the aspens turned from lime green to golden yellow. The window for seeing the aspen trees in their fall transition is a short probably 2 to 3 week gap and we were so lucky to get right in the middle of it. The forests we hiked through to get back to our car were all gold, the leaves were beginning to shed and our path was littered with yellow leaves (our very own yellow-brick-road). The sound through the leaves so a perfect shuffling and the light through the leaves were just as beautiful as you can imagine.

The picture called "Landon" was Landon's handiwork. He took that shot on our way down and I actually love the sun flare he got there at the bottom.



"Water Source" was literally our water source when we made camp. The stream was just a few yards and a small hill away from our tent. The oxogen was so thin that we were breathless just getting our nalgene bottles filled and coming back. The water was cold and tasted so good. The water really is better there :)



The descent off the Bells took us a little over 2 hours I think. It wasn't as hard as the climb up but it was still demanding. My feet felt heavy, my pack felt even heavier and I smelled terrible. It was totally worth it. I have never seen stars to bright and clear. It was actually scary to see so many billions of stars so clearly and see the fog of the milky way winding through our sky.

I felt like the trip to Colorado was an anniversary gift from God. Originally Landon and I were going to attend the Kings of Leon concert, then stay at a hotel and celebrate our anniversary in July. The concert was canceled (thanks Caleb) and I was really disappointed. And then we got to go all the way to Colorado. I loved it, every part, even the painful and gross ones were awesome. If you have a chance to do a trip like this do it!

Thanks for looking at the pictures and reading their provenance. Mexico pictures will start tomorrow! Remember everything is on sale on my website! And I just added a donate button to the blog! Thanks for the love, prayers and funds!

Much love,
L&L

Provenance 2

Today I want to feature the images taken at St. Elmo's Ghost Town.







We found out about this from the motel we stayed at in Buena Vista (which was an awesome, 50's style motel with the office in the center and the rooms in a horseshoe around the office). They said this was a great stop along with some natural hot springs in the area as we made our way back from the Bells to Salida.

St. Elmo was a old silver mining town deep in the mountains. So deep in fact that directions should read: "Drive a really long time down the same road, the pavement will stop and pick up again at several spots. You will pass neighborhoods, cabins and finally there will be no signs of any life for miles. You will think you have missed or passed it several times and want to turn around for fear you will be stranded with no gas on a mountain road. Finally, when you have moved past your fear and transitioned to anger and frustration- you're only about 5 more miles away."

Anyway, the St. Elmo town has switched hands several times, people trying to just level it and make it land for cabins or buildings for elk hunters. Currently its in the care of the Historical Society who is working to restore the buildings and make it a tourist site. There was an original school house with a giant wood burning furnace in the middle, a blacksmith building, an old general store and even an old saloon!

We walked the property, read the signs, smiled at other visitors who clearly were relieved that treacherous drive was over and watched as dozens (I mean DOZENS) of chipmunks swarmed some kiddos who had food.

Some of Landon and I's favorite pictures are from St. Elmo. He loves "Lace Drapes" and "Ghost Town" and I really like "Ghost Town" and "Seat for Two." I think a lot of people love "Seat for Two." Fun fact here, "Seat for Two" was shot next to the chipmunk feeding frenzy, I had to make sure I didn't step on any when I took that picture.

So, if you're near Buena Vista Colorado you might want to head out to St. Elmo (or just look at our pictures). But you WILL want to go to Mother's and Daughter's Restaurant in Buena Vista - it's wonderful!

Remember, prints are on sale for our adoption! www.lschottartistry.com, click "Clients" and enter the password: schottadoption.

Much Love!

L&L

A little bit of provenance...

Two years ago Landon and I took a weekend and went to Wimberly, Texas. There we went through junk shops and prayed we would find a special owl piece. After looking through some shops we slowly walked into the very last shop just minutes before closing time. We looked downstairs and then scowered the upstairs and started to give up on our quest for an owl and then suddenly I looked up and saw this:



(To see some back story on why we were looking for an owl piece click here

We loved it, took it off the wall and left the shop. As we stood on the steps leading to the parking lot Landon felt we should ask the owner if there was a story behind this piece and there was a beautiful story of a boy's fear of owls and a mother's desire to free him from that fear. She also informed us that the story behind any artistic piece is called its "provenance." So, in celebration of the pieces I have for sale to support our adoption I'll be featuring some stories behind the images.

So, let's start with Colorado...The Bells, Reflection and Intimidating






The Maroon Bells are the most photographed mountains of the Colorado Rockies and that is the main reason we found them at all. We basically went on the internet, Googled "Colorado Camping" and there they were - The Maroon Bells - craggy giants of beauty.

I was so excited to see these things that literally when we turned a corner on the street and saw them I ghasped and got a little teary-eyed (can't explain that).

We parked our car, said good bye to modern comfort, got our huge packs and hiked to the first scenic point at the beginning of the park which is where these pictures were taken. A somewhat shallow pond lies just beyond the parking lot and the sky opens up to the mountains. The Aspens were right in the midst of their transition to fall. We took lots of pictures and we asked someone to take a picture of us and luckily the person we asked was a photographer who then changed out my lens for his wide angle lens and we got this shot of us:



It's weird when you are looking at something so big - I felt like people talked more quietly. The stately beauty of the mountains was breathtaking and to see their perfect reflection in the water was just as impressive. It's good sometimes to feel small before such mountains and at that point I felt miniscule.

We hiked all the way to the base of those bells - 7 horizontal miles, 10,000 (yes, ten thousand) verticle miles. I've never been so physically challenged in all my life. I hit a wall and gave up before we even met the halfway point of our original goal but I was proud of myself.




We made a great home in this alpine valley just below that first, intimidating bell and every morning watched pink sunlight ignite those mountain faces and every night watched the shadow cover them.



Beautiful (overwhelmingly beautiful) and intimidating all at the same time. Meeting God will probably be like that, magnified of course but those mountains gave me a taste of the glory of a heavenly kingdom prepared for us.

Enjoy the pictures! Again, available on my website at www.lschottartistry.com, under "Clients" and the password "schottadoption". Thanks everyone!

~L&L

All prints are on sale now!

Alright everyone the prints are available online now!

Go to: www.lschottartistry.com

Click on the "Clients" tab and enter the password "schottadoption"

From there you can add images to your shopping cart, pick the size and pay via PayPal!

If you want to use cash or check use the shopping cart like normal and submit your order, just skip the PayPal step. If you want a size or have a question about a size not listed just shoot me an email at lindsay.schott@gmail.com and I will answer it for you.

Thanks everyone! I hope you like them!

~L&L

Prints for Sale Preview

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for all the support in response to my last post! So, I am still working on some prep to get pictures up for purchase so you can use PayPal through my website. So, while I still get the kinks worked out I thought I would give a preview of a lot of the pictures so maybe you can start thinking about what you want to buy!

Prices will probably start around $20 for an 8x10 and will range in size and price all the way up to large canvas prints that are about as big as you want and those run in the $200 - $300 range.

The pictures featured are from my trip to Puebla, Mexico; The Maroon Bells Park in Colorado and a few from Austin. There are also 3 special prints that I designed with Bible verses. So, enjoy! And if you already know what you want go ahead and message me but more info about ordering coming tomorrow!

Mexico:






Colorado:








Austin:






Adoption Designs:





Again, stay tunned for details about prices and ordering online!

~L&L

Important Update, Please read and pray with us!

Wow! It feels like things are moving and changing and this is going from imaginary to real!

Like I said in an earlier post we are attending the Gladney orientation on February 17th (that's just about 2 weeks!!) where we'll get a complete view of their program. They've already sent us a pretty extensive information packet about the steps to their program and the cost.

I will get down to the nitty, gritty financial details:

Sometime within the first 90 days of our orientation we will need to turn in our full application and 25% of the program fee which is $3,625. As soon as we get that funding our application is turned in and we start the Home Study (which is already funded, thank you Jesus!)

Once the Home Study is complete and all the paper work is in (probably about 4-6 weeks) we will need to turn in another 25% (another $3,625).

So, to sum up we will need to turn in about $7,250 in fees in the next 5-6 months. (Maybe even sooner if possible).

The rest of the balance is due 30 days before the placement of the child or if you have less than 30 days of notice (sooo fun!) the rest is due at your acceptance of the placement.

Friends and family please do 2 things for us:

1. Pray! I truly believe if God is leading us to adoption (which I really believe He is) He already has this funded. I have seen God give us money that felt like it came out of thin air but my human heart is a little freaked out by those numbers! So, pray for the money to come in. Pray that in this process we would trust God with all we have and be a light, encouragement and joy to people around us. And pray for the waiting (so much waiting) which can be maddening! And if God leads you - maybe even pray for the child that we're hoping will be ours someday and his or her birth parents.

2. Give! If you've already felt you wanted to help us financially, now's the time to do that. You can send us a check via mail or if you live close just come on by. Also, today and tomorrow I will be unveiling my prints that will be for sale and there will be a place for you to pay via PayPal.

Thank you for reading and thank you for being a part of our journey. I know that when God moves in our lives it's not just for our benefit but for everyone around us to see how incredible God is. So pray for us and stay tunned for any changes!

Much love to everyone,

L&L

New Agency?

Hello there!

There has been little to post because very little has been going on but there's some new things going on here!

Landon and I decided to check out a new agency for adoption! We still love the ministry of Loving Alternative but they only place somewhere between 3 to 10 children in a year. So, we decided to look at an agency who does a little more than that.

We were referred to Gladney Adoption Agency out of Fort Worth.

http://www.gladneyadoption.com/

They have been doing adoptions for over 100 years in Texas (isn't that crazy?!) And they place over 300 children in a year which is better odds for us. They do both domestic and international adoption as well.

We filled out initial information via their website for domestic adoption and they emailed us back in 4 days and we were approved! Now the next step is an orientation on February 17th. After the orientation if we want to move forward we turn in our official application for $150 and then we start the homestudy and we start paying fees...lots of fees!

So, please pray for the orientation in February that we would see the process clearly, that we would see where God is leading and follow and also that whatever path we need to be on and whatever things need to fall in place would fall in place.

As I know more I will post more but it seems as though things will move faster after that orientation if we still go with Gladney so please pray for us and thanks for the love and support!

~Lindsay and Landon