Soleil: 5 Weeks

Soleil, you are as beautiful and your sweet momma and 2 big sisters!  I was so happy to meet you yesterday for your newbie session.  

Madalyn Belle Birthday

Oh my gracious, I had the wonderful privilege of witnessing this sweet babe enter this world!  I was super nervous and had been a little apprehensive to say "yes" when my friends, Wayne & Amy, asked if I could photograph this little one's entrance.  I had never witnessed a birth - cesarean or otherwise!  But, I wanted to do this for them, and I wanted to stretch myself, so I accepted!  And I'm so glad I did.  Such an amazing, wonderful gift of new life!  This sweet girl made her way into the world as calm and perfectly as she could have, and she & mom are as healthy as can be.  

So happy to meet you, Madalyn!!

Cannon is here!

So many babies lately!  This is precious Cannon and her family.  I've never seen a big sister more proud than Miss Cora here.  She is a hoot, for sure, and I can't wait to see if Cannon grows up to share her outgoing personality.  These 2 will be best friends, I just know it!!

Willa Grace is here!

Well, this little chunk took her time getting here, but that cuteness is worth it!  You may remember Willa's gorgeous mom from a maternity session I did a while back.  Willa was quite the trooper for her newborn session - sleeping for most of it.  I just kept wanting to squeeze her cheeks!!  :)  And both her grandmothers got in on the photo action too!  Such a sweet family, and I know this little girl will grow up so very loved!!

Nate

It's a strange and wonderful thing - restoration.  We can be green and new and full of possibilities.  Hope seems infinite.  Life is laid out before us.  And in true form, life is life....it brings joy and excitement.  Some of that possibility becomes reality.  Some of those dreams become tangible, and hope strengthens.  And then, in true from, something that was waiting up around the bend, something we never hoped for or dreamed would ever be, happens.  Something hard.  Something crushing.  Dreams are shattered.  We mourn. We cry out to the Lord.  We do whatever we need to do to move past it, and then hope is there.  A little battered.  A little beaten.  A little less of a friend than before.  
We keep hope at arm's length, for a while - just dancing around it's edges, afraid of its wreckless abandon.  God waits patiently.  Each day, we notice a new green sprig shooting out of the dry, brittle ground.  It's Hope - springing up, no matter how hard we've tried to stifle it.  And God slowly begins to remind us that we are His, and He has a plan.  And that plan is for His glory and our good.  
Before we know it, everything is green, and Hope has crept back in despite all of our best efforts.  It's there, and we can't deny it, so we might as well lean into it.  God honors that.  Even the most broken heart, the most lost of sheep, the wanderer far from home - He honors even the smallest effort we put forth to find our way back to Him - our way back to wholeness.
Restoration is a strange and funny thing.  We are made new, but the memories of that past don't disappear.  The events of the past aren't wiped away like they never happened.  This process of making new actually reminds us even more of the hurt and the fire we've walked through - and reminds us even more of how sweet the new is.  How God has blessed us even more than we imagined.  How, the entire time we grieved and shook our fist at the sky, that He was there waiting patiently, working, restoring us.  Restoring our broken.  Mending our hearts to love again - scars and all.
Nate is so blessed to be a part of such an amazing story.  One mother who gave him life for 9 months and one who held him in her heart are now walking in the other woman's shoes.  The former will now carry him in her heart, while the latter will make a life for him.  Nate is already so loved by a mother whose sacrificial love made a choice that was best for him and a mom and dad who will love him fiercely, not in spite of the road they've walked, but because of it.    Three people who understand restoration more than most, and a child who is loved more than he will ever know.  And God gets all the glory. 

  

Harper: 8 days new

This little lovie belongs to some sweet dear friends of mine, and I was so excited to shoot her newborn session this evening.  This child!!  Her hair.  Those cheeks.  That sweet little mouth!  LOVE. HER!  She was a rock star for her session.  Enjoy some of my faves!!