Shelly and Todd Make a Video

So, here’s the story.

About a month ago we were asked to participate in a school project on adoption for one of our family members.  We weren’t really sure what the nature of our participation would be, but we were up for just about anything.

Then, she asked us to make a video. 

Oh, dear.

We don’t actually have a digital (or any other) video camera.  We have a camera in our point & shoot Canon, and a webcam on our laptop – that’s it.  I also have an aversion to video cameras.  I am far FAR more comfortable being behind the camera rather than in front of it.

So, of course we procrastinated.  A lot.

In our defense, we’ve had a really busy month.  It was pretty easy to procrastinate.

Until, of course, there was a deadline.  And that deadline was – the next day. 

And we REALLY REALLY wanted to be involved in this.  We want to share our experience.  We love talking about adoption and how it’s affected us and how we anticipate it affecting us in the future, and all the wonderful positive things that we see in adoption.  We absolutely, 1000% wanted to participate in this project.

On Monday night, after a long, stressful, kind of awful day at work – we decided to do it. 

We had to do it quickly – the deadline was fast approaching and we had literally waited until the very last minute.  We also had, as I mentioned, only our limited tools available to us.  I spent about 20 minutes getting the camera propped up on our laptop, an empty box and three books, so that it would be just the right height.  I babbled senselessly into the camera for a few “practice” takes.  Then, it was “go” time.

What you see is what you get.  We look…kind of terrible.  I am struggling with that.  Of course we want to only present the very best sides of ourselves and this is hopelessly unflattering of both of us, however, it’s very real.  It is what it is.  This is us, at the end of a long, kind of terrible Monday, talking about something that we feel very passionately about, and booting cats off the couch.  This is our life.

The idea behind the creation of this video was that it would just be used for a project and would probably not have much of an impact on us personally.  Then Todd uploaded it to his personal Facebook page and suddenly people were commenting on it, and they apparently loved it.  It’s taken me almost 24 hours to agree to show the rest of the world, but I guess we can’t do this outreach thing halfway, right?

The lighting is bad, we look pretty dorky, and Miss Shadow gives a brief cameo.  I’m not sure you’re ready for this, but here it is anyway….