The timing of this blog post could not have been more perfect. Today, I celebrate these precious boys and their awesome mom and dad, by saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY Hart & Mills! One year ago today I watched your momma labor over 24 hours, I watched her fight for 9 months to get the birth she wanted, and I’ve watched her and your dad fall in love with you over and over again for the last 365 days. (If you’re feeling so inclined, you can view her birth story HERE)
Eliza and I have so many overlaps in our friendship and personal career, I’m certain she’s taken as many photos of my family as I have of hers. She’s my go to gal when I need to cry, vent, laugh, tell an inappropriate joke, or take a mom break. She keeps me grounded and helps keep my compass pointed North when life gets crazy. I think, if any of you who have a friend that sounds like what I just described, then count yourself blessed. People like her don’t come around very often.
Aside from adoring her. I adore her family. She and Mike have excelled at parenting these sweet boys. It hasn’t always been easy. As they say the days are long but the years are short. I know she is feeling the weight of that reality today as her babies turn 1.
Let this next part be a cautionary tale from this mother’s heart, rather than a sales pitch. Life happens. It happens in the minutes and seconds of each day. It happens even when you aren’t paying attention. It’s one of the simultaneously cruel and beautiful things about life… that we are only moving forward. While our hearts ache to slow life down, we rejoice in each milestone. The dichotomy of dreading the fact that they will need you less and less, yet that is exactly what our goal is, to raise these little humans to succeed without us. What we captured for Eliza and Mike during this session, is Life. Their beautiful life, wrapped up in those seconds and minutes that most days go unnoticed for the treasures that they are.
Aside from birth photography I’ve never felt so compelled to tell people about the power of family photojournalism. They are only this age once, you may move away from the house you brought them home from the hospital. Life happens. You may not be able to freeze time, but I can bottle up these handful of moments for you to relive forever.
