Newborn Baby Evan

Meet Baby Evan and his mom, Alison.   This was a special session for me for a couple of reasons. First of all, Evan’s mom is important to our family, but I’ll explain that in just a minute. The other really neat thing that made this session unique was how it all came to be. Last winter, I got a Facebook message from Alison that began, “I’m working on getting you another client. Me!” In her message, she told me she’d always wanted to be a mom and had decided she wanted to adopt a baby. A newborn. How wonderful, how exciting! I have a handful of friends who have been praying recently for children to adopt and bring into their families, so I’ve been hearing a little bit about what generally goes into that process. But Alison’s story about waiting for a precious newborn was different. Most of my friends are hoping and planning for older children. I had never had the privilege to hear a story from a mom who was searching for a newborn baby to call her own. It was really amazing and quite touching to hear Alison and her mom, Evan’s grandma, tell me a little about the process of how sweet little Evan made his way into Alison’s arms. He is definitely a well-loved little boy. And getting to chat with Alison’s mom for awhile, it was evident how very proud she is of her daughter and her new grandson. It’s also hard not to think of Evan’s birth mother and her selfless acts to choose the gift of adoption for him. Her choice to make an adoption plan for Evan resulted in one of Alison’s dreams coming true. I truly feel pretty lucky to have been able to help Alison and her family preserve these early days of Evan’s life and his welcome into the family.

Alison is important to our family because she’s the doctor who was in charge of my prenatal care during my pregnancies. She delivered our son in 2010 (almost delivered our daughter back in 2008 but our timing was off and we went into labor the day after she left for vacation, unfortunately). My husband and I have always felt blessed to have her as our doctor. I have a tendency to overreact sometimes (I know way too many of you are thinking, “No! Not you!”). Alison answers my many questions with simple, encouraging statements (usually with a touch of humor) and somehow keeps me from freaking out (for the most part) about the crazy things that can happen during pregnancy. I know James appreciates her wit and her confidence, too. We always felt welcome on our visits and like we, as her patients, were important to her. And she often cracks me up with some of the things she says. I think that’s pretty cool.

Also, I’ve been lucky to have been able to shoot several births in the past couple of years. Four of them were at the same hospital where I delivered my own babies. So, when I return to “my” hospital as a photographer and not as a patient, camera in tow and ready to photograph the births of my clients’ children, it’s pretty cool when some of the nurses on duty learn who my doctor is and they say things like,”Lucky girl! She’s the best!” and “Oh, we love her. I wish she had delivered my babies, too!” That definitely made me proud to be Alison’s patient and grateful for being connected with a cool, widely-admired, pretty-darn-neat doctor. That happened to me not once, not twice, not even three but FOUR separate times.

Evan was so good for us during his session. He fell asleep easily and napped while I snapped away. I’m excited to see how much he’s grown when I go back in July to take his 3-month pictures. I love when moms sign their babies up for a baby plan because it’s so fun for me to be able to watch the changes in these little clients of mine. I have four families right now that have just signed up for this. If you’ve been visiting this blog for any length of time, I’m sure you’re familiar with Bodee, my very first Baby’s First Year client. I actually get a little sentimental at the end of these baby plans because by the time their first year finishes, I’ve spent a good amount of time with the families and gotten to know them better. Watching a mother see her baby’s 1-year pictures, remembering when we started it all 12 months earlier with the newborn session, I’m reminded how fast time flies when you have young kids and how quickly my own kids have moved past those unforgettable, precious baby stages.

Evan with his mom and grandparents. Isn’t his grandma beautiful?Thank you, Dr. Webb, for letting me meet your son and for trusting me with his first pictures. And for the hundreds of other things you’ve done for my own family. We appreciate you greatly. I hope you and your family like these pictures — I’m looking forward to Evan’s next session this summer!