They Didn't Know Their Smiles Took My Breath Away.

The best part of my job is seeing kids smile. Like genuinely smile. Not the posed-for-facebook type smiles but real smiles that are often followed by a hearty belly laugh.

I just love serving the kiddos at the special needs orphanages here.

This often means changing dirty diapers or clipping the nails of combative kids, but it also means getting to play without a care in the world.

I love all of it. But I really love that part.

This week I got to photograph some of our kid's for a fund-raiser for our non-profit Baja Love Outreach. These girls had no idea what I was photographing them for, but they sure did decide that this was fun, and that they were this year's up and coming super models!

The smiles were so genuine, and I could tell that they felt so beautiful.

I also got to catch the smiles of some kids that , well, despite being absolutely precious and amazing, don't exactly photograph well. Special needs kids are beautiful, but our standard of beauty in America doesn't exactly appreciate the value of a good stim or boisterous scream in photographs. But to a kid with special needs, this is the way that they express joy.

I love these kiddos. It's so fun to watch them come alive when they see someone is valuing their beauty.

And I really do. Don't you?