a year full of love

This family has been through the wringer this year.

And this precious, beautiful baby has no idea. She was born in the summer to an incredible family full of crazy amounts of love.  

By the time she was having her sitting up session, this family had been through a car wreck and a fire in their home (yes, they were home, and yes, everyone was ok!).   And yet, would you LOOK at those smiles???!!!!!  Honestly, I would never have known any of these things just by looking at them.  They ALWAYS hold it together marvelously and with grace. Since their home, which was being repaired from the fire, was not an option for photographs in the winter, we went to play at Peapod Play Cafe and had a wonderful time!  They lived in a hotel for a couple of months during the repairs.  Little Miss learned how to crawl in that hotel, in a huge inflatable swimming pool (no water of course!) so she wouldn’t be crawling on the hotel floor.  And that was just fine with her!

By the time we went to Jeffrey Mansion and park for her standing up session, two of their dogs had undergone surgery, a pipe burst, the electrical repair on their house failed and they had to get the whole house rewired, and the kids had faced numerous challenges in the form of severe allergic reactions, physical challenges, and trauma from the fire.   And yet again, friends, would you just LOOK at those beautiful, beaming smiles?!?!?!!! Every single time I saw them this year, they would tell me about some terrible/tragic/rough thing that had happened.  And every single time, they would talk about it as if it was just no big deal at all.  They amaze me time and time again.    Caitlin wrote to me about the images of Andrew helping Eloise walk (shared with permission):

“It is a very cool feeling to actually see the love that has sustained us reflected back in photo. Brian and I had a good cry over the photo of Andrew helping Eloise walk. How do you get through all that? By doing literally what’s happening in that photo–holding each other up and one foot forward.” They know that life keeps moving despite the obstacles, so might as well make it awesome.  I truly love this family and I am beyond honored to know them and share in their lives.  They are an inspiration!

You can see big brother’s session when baby was still in the womb over here.  And if you’d like me to photograph your family’s love or your baby’s first year, I’d love to hear from you!  Head over here for more first year pictures!