Judah's Love Story: Part I

Nervousness.

Honored.

Blown away with emotion.

These were just a few of the emotions I was experiencing leading up to this very session just over one year ago today. Wonder why?

Just. Wait.

Around a year ago, this sweet mommy-to-be, Tiffany, contacted me with a very special request. After years of struggling with fertility, she and her husband, Dustin, were looking to adopt and found a beautiful young mommy that they instantly bonded with, and whom was looking into adoption as a possibility for her unborn child and felt that Tiffany and Dustin were just what she was looking for.

Tiffany's request to me? A maternity session that would be including the birth mommy.

 

Understand why I was feeling the emotions that were stated above? :) I was so nervous it wasn't even funny. What if I mess up. What if I don't do these pictures justice like they deserve.  There's not very many times I doubt myself, but for this session, it was one of those times. I knew what emotions were already invested in this relationship and I wanted to capture the emotions, capture the love, capture the gratitude.

Oh yeah, I forgot to inform you that Tiffany mentioned that no one in their family knew about the adoption yet and was hoping to wait until Thanksgiving to tell their families. They were hoping to use some of the pictures from the maternity session to suprise their families, and what a joyful suprise it would be. So not only was I a nervous wreck, I couldn't talk to anyone about it! Only to Tiffany, so she got quite a few emails from me to say the least :)

But once I got to the session, and snapped that first picture, I was back in my element again. This moment then turned into one of those "This is exactly what I need to be doing with my life" moments. I was so incredibly grateful that this amazing couple had enough confidence in my ability to capture such an emotional time in their life.

 

They shared with them their stories, we got emotional, they even let me here a personal song that they all would listen to, and I'm honestly not sure how I held it together. But when I looked into the birth mommy's eyes, I saw raw pain and emotion, but above it all, I saw love.

 

I feel that when I hear these stories, that have such meaning and emotion, that I want to share it with those that enjoy my photos, so that they can truly, truly enjoy the pictures like I do. But I'm going to switch it up a little bit this time around. I'm going to let the ones I captured on this sweet day, tell everyone about their love story, about a little boy named Judah.

But I first want to tell each of them thank you for being so willing to share their story, their emotions, their reality with all of you. I know they also fought tears and emotions while writing up their stories, as I did when I was reading them. But one day Judah himself will read these stories and I have a feeling he's going to see just how truly loved he really is, in so many more ways than one.

Be on the lookout Wednesday evening for Part II of Judah's Love Story...

A Mothers Love.