Jen and Jeff were expecting their first baby due in February 2011,
so I was extremely excited when they contacted me back in 2010,
asking if I would be willing to document this special time in their lives!
This was my first maternity session!!
We had an amazing fall evening together,
then the leaves withered away,
the cold crept upon the Upper Peninsula
and the winter months arrived.
I moved to Sweden for a short time,
and while an ocean away,
I received news that Jen and Jeff lost their precious baby boy Carson
when he was due to be born.
I know the sadness and heartache I experienced
was not even 1% of the depth of grief Jen and Jeff were feeling,
so no matter how many words or prayers,
me, or anyone else, weren’t capable of taking their pain away.
But then I remembered their maternity session.
I realized my photographs could perhaps comfort their hearts
after a rough day, night, month,
or year.
Because grief never goes away,
it just becomes a little easier to manage.
In 2010, I had 60 photo sessions,
only one of which was a maternity session,
Jen and Jeff’s.
Because they took the time out of their busy lives
to contact me, set up a date and time to document their first pregnancy,
they now have these photographs forever.
Babies grow inside their mother’s once,
they are born once,
and they turn 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and so on
only once.
“We have so few photos from when Carson was born,
that it’s such a treasure to have the pregnancy images,
as that’s when we had our bonding time as mother and child.”
-Jen
