We are truly blessed to live where we live and do what we do for a living. God has given us many great clients and  friends from around the globe.

On a sad note I want to mention that my friend and COO of my company Norvin has been affected by the recent typhoon in the Philippines. While his family all survived his step father was injured and Norvins parents also lost everything. The home where Norvin grew up was washed away. Norvins place is currently still knee high in water. Given my past experience (last year) with flooding most likely he will also have a total loss as well. Many of you know Norvin as he is the tech and email support as well as the one who puts up many of the websites.

My family and I are putting together a fund for Norvin and his family. Everyone has a cause to support and every time we turn around someone is asking for money.

So what we are doing is donating the sales of all of our products and services for the next couple weeks to Norvin. All of our print sales at timoneillstudio.com, and anything from digitalpaintmagazine.com as well as products from our cooking, gardening and homesteading sites which most of you here may not be familiar with. As our dollar is strong yet in his area even the few thousand dollars we might be able to raise will make a difference. Prices are reduced 50% on many items until January 7th to try and raise some funds for them. My seven-year old daughter Elise is giving some of her Christmas money to them, she loves Norvin and has chatted with him many times via skype.

Here is an excerpt from Norvin, note that while he is dealing with a major disaster that has affected him personally he is conscientious of his commitment to us.

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Hi Sir Tim,
Good morning! Sir Tim, thank GOD me and my immediate family are OK. But my step father has a lot of stitches because he was in Cagayan de Oro at that time and the water totally wiped off our house in there. Nothing was left. While here in Iligan (the one I lived in), the water was above knee level almost in the waist. Sadly, in some areas here in Iligan and there in Cagayan de Oro, the water was above a two-storey house. Houses that were not concrete was totally washed out leaving only a knee high mud. It happened really quick sir. The water was rushing and in a few minutes it raised way above the house. It happened Saturday between 1am to 2am where it was totally dark and almost everyone was asleep. I think that was also the reason why a lot of people died (children, females and old ones). Here in our place as 10,000+ families were already affected, 279 were dead and 230 were still missing. I am constantly listening to the radio news. It really was a horrible disaster sir. A lot of retrieved dead bodies were lying on the street.
Yesterday, we went to the evacuation center where there are 600+ families affected including two of my relatives. We gave some relief goods to them but wasn't able to give enough food because of lack of funds. We also went to the funeral home where some of my friends families were dead.
Due to the increasing number of dead people, all of the funeral homes surrendered to accept anymore bodies (due to lack of coffin and formaldehyde) and the local government just decided a 'Mass Grave'.
Unfortunately, my internet was gone due to the typhoon. I am now in muffet's (Editor's note: his fiance) house where there is an internet connection. Their place were not affected by the flood because its on a higher ground. I called my ISP and they said that it would take 1 week for them to restore the internet connection in my place.
Sir Tim, I hope you understand that in this week, its very difficult to work considering that our place is a mess and no internet connection for 1week. I really want to work soon sir because we need the money to help my family and the people here in my place . But I will still try to work this week despite my situation. I will find a way sir.
Sincerely yours,
Norvin
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If you don’t want any products or prints and still want to give you can send a paypal to me with Norvin in the subject line. All of the money donated (less incoming paypal fees will be sent) We will pay the fees to send it over via xoom. Even a $5 dollar donation will make a difference. If you choose not to send money please send your prayers or a short note of encouragement via comments here. Bless you for your help.

You can send a paypal to Tim [at] Digital Paint Magazine with "Norvin" in the subject line and we will get the fund to him. We will send a screen shot of the transaction to the emails of all who donate. We are acting as an intermediary for him. We have had employees from the Philippines for the last four years and it is really expensive to use Paypal direct to them. We pay them using a company called Xoom which is much less expensive, it also has a 50$ minimum. By collecting here and sending it once we can make sure more money gets directly to them.

Be Blessed this Christmas! The magazine is only a few days from release.

Following is one vid from you tube talking about the area.

News Article Link

This particular painting is near and dear to my heart. The story behind Grandma Rocks has many layers and really could fill a small book. I will present the Cliff Note version here.

Grandma Rocks!

All babies are miracles, some more than others. The bundle of joy in this painting is my youngest daughter, Elise.  Allison and I wanted children but like many couples had difficulty. We had Josh and Amber from my previous marriage and Noah who we were blessed with through the gift of adoption. (Cool story there also). Anyway the good Doctors told us we would not be able to have children, as you know in many cases a simple adoption will fix things in that area with a large success ratio. Anyway we adopted Noah and had been trying to move back home. Moving to a smalll community was a big bonus for us but most importantly we wanted to be around my parents and have the kids around Mom and Dad as well.

We moved from Colorado back home and immersed my older children in a whole new way of life. It took some getting used to.  Josh went from having a class of 1,200 kids in his 8th grade class to...35 the next year in 9th. Just a small adjustment. Kids are resilient though and he soon came to really enjoy his new school and friends. Josh is a really outgoing kid, big smile, positive and upbeat and a gifted athlete.  We really enjoyed going to his games and watching him play sports and just "be" in his element.

The community he went to school in is 12 miles from home. In Nebraska kids start driving early on school permits, in our case since he was 14 he drove himself to and from school. Josh had an out of town basketball game one evening. The evening of his game Josh got off the bus and hopped in his car to come home, it was his 16th birthday. It was after midnight as he began his 12 mile trek home. He made a brief stop at his best friends house to grab some of his clothes and then hit the highway. Between his school and our house he hit a Black Angus cow that was in the middle of the road. It was dark, no moon and the cow was turned sideways. He suffered only one injury. He broke his neck. No cuts, scratches or bruises to speak of just  a C-5 fracture that nipped the spinal cord.

The agonizing months that followed were almost unbearable as we watched our son teeter on the very brink of survival. We were certainly blessed in many ways during that ordeal,  Josh survived.  I saw a majestic resolve within him while in the hospital.  While there are many things I remember about our stay at Craig Hospital, one  marks a turning point for me as a parent. That was when I witnessed my 16 year old consoling a young (30 something) Doctor who broke his neck a few months after Josh.  I knew then Josh would be ok.

After months of being in the hospital Josh was released and we came home. Elise was born directly after that chaos, she bounced into the world and brought with her a beacon of hope and became the embodiment of all that is good and right within our little world.  She represented an emergence,  a special healing that said okay lets switch to the positive again, to life and  to living.

The impact and the timing of Elise's birth is hardly imaginable. This painting captures that whole story for me. Allison's mom is the Grandmother in the painting and I wonder as I study her face what communication is going on between them?

As for Josh, he got back in school right away and worked his fanny off to be able to graduate on time with his class. He went on to finish his first two years of college and is currently deciding if he is going back now to finish up or wait for a bit.  He has a special bond with his sister.