Mia Baker

In January of 2011 I had the privilege of visiting House of Hope Orphanage {Previous visit}. I hold this orphanage close to my heart after interacting with the kids. They are amazing kids that have overcome so much in their young lives. They have been through unimaginable things that kids in America have never seen. Many of their parents have been killed by Burma soldiers in the jungle. Some of them traveled 4 days on foot after hearing about House of Hope and safety. I take many things for granted in life and these amazing kids always wake me up. They always have smiles on their adorable faces…and so ready to play!

We traveled 8 hours through the mountains and thick jungles to a small village area called Sangkhla Buri. Like last years visit we brought food and supplies. Ryan and I brought as several pounds of meat as gifts because they only get it for Christmas.

I know my former animal fan base is missing my dog photography, so here we go. Most of the time I pass over the opportunity to take pictures of the dogs in 3rd world countries. It’s never a pretty site. They are always mange infested and starving. The kids at the orphanage said this is a wandering dog that they’ve named Indie. Despite her mange infested body she was the sweetest jungle dog I’ve ever met. I was busy taking pictures of the kids when I felt something wet on my leg. I jumped and freaked out because I thought it was a snake or something worse…I looked down and it was Indie. All day she followed me around and licked my legs whenever she could. I couldn’t find a single safe spot on her body to pet so I spent a few minute scratching her head anyway and immediately anti-bacterialed up my hands.  My heart always goes out to each dog I pass along my journey, but my path of saving animals has changed to saving kids. I know when Ryan and I get settled we will be helping lost critters along the way again.

I have the cutest, sweetest, most amazing husband in the world. You cant deny it after seeing these pictures. He has a gift with kids that I will never have or understand. I’m use to being forgotten and in the background taking pictures…That’s my job. I capture what others don’t see so they can be told to the world. I don’t mean to get mushie but I fall in love with my husband all over again when I see him with kids. He knows what they need and how to show them he loves each one.

Could you imagine this is how you bathe each day? I couldn’t.

Not your ordinary American school bus around here!

I might need new shoes, yes?  We are working on raising funds for shoes for House of Hope Orphanage in the jungles of Thailand. A pair of shoes costs around $15.  How to donate: Click the link, Go to Sponsor an Orphanage, and find Thailand (Sangka Buri), House of Hope. You can then email COTW {info@childrenoftheworldministries.com} and tell them you just donated $15 and you would like the money to go towards shoes for House of Hope. Thank you!

Before we left the kids we prayed for them. The cutest thing I’ve ever seen is baby Zoe praying for all the kids.

The image below is of a girl that had a large scar that ran across her cheek. I don’t know her story other than she is new to the orphanage and walked several days to get to the safety of House of Hope. There were many killings in her village. She is still very shy and doesn’t trust many people yet. I wanted to take her picture to show her how beautiful she is, but she didn’t want to because of her scar. She tried to hide from my camera every time I got near her. When I return I’m going to bring her a printed copy of her scar edited out of the picture.

The image below was a quick and easy touch up. I brightened the exposure in Lightroom. Bumped up the contrast and color. Next brought it into Photoshop and did more selective dodging, saturation, and burning.

In Lightroom I adjusted the white-balance, contrast, exposure, sharpened and boosted the color.  In photoshop I did more selected dodging, burning, and color boost.