For most people, no matter who you are, there is  always someone smarter, richer, or better looking. Someone in the neighborhood has smarter kids, a larger house, or a better job.  The list goes on and I've felt it. But by the same token there are plenty of people on the opposite side of things, maybe not as handsom, a family with a troubled child, an unhappy  marriage, etc. That's how I look at children in foster care. I rarely know the details of their background as they walk into my studio, but I do know they are or have had struggles in the past. I wonder if they have suffered abuse, or were born to parents not capable of taking care of them.  Who knows?  What I do know is I have met many of them who are upbeat and working to make lemonade our of the lemons that have been dealt to them in life. There in lies the reason I have stuck to this endeavor, shooting for the Heart Gallery. I've done photography for various charities over the years and found I get the most satisfaction out of photographing foster children. I can't tell you the feeling I have had presenting a framed portrait to the new parents of children they just adopted.  Unfortunately it doesn't come often enough. Getting these older kids into new, permanent homes seems to be very difficult. I'm trying to help by creating portraits of these guys and gals that somehow expresses the beauty they have inside. Hoping my photography might attract someone who is willing to accept a foster child's struggle and love and teach them keys to success. As I talked to the older of the two boys I was impressed by his goals and desires to attend college.  His goals included becoming a psychologist and a motivational speaker - I assume so he could help others. We had a great time together as I showed him some of the images I created. I was worried about what challenged the younger boy would bring as he had a difficult time concentrating on one thing. But as I began to shoot I realized he had a beautiful face for classic images. I showed him some images and he suddenly seemed willing to sit for me and actually hold a pose. It didn't take long to reel him in, get the shots I needed for the gallery, and get him onto the next thing he wanted to do - in this case, look at the flowers and wildlife in our garden. As they drove off I could not help thinking about the great time we had and what a pleasure it was to get to know them.   (For those who might be interested in looking into adopting either of these two young men you can check out the following links: 

https://www.utahadopt.org/building-your-family/child-search/robert

https://www.utahadopt.org/building-your-family/child-search/thomas-1