Celebrating Everett | Infant Loss Awareness | Seattle Maternity Photogapher

These photos are incredibly special to me because these people are so beloved by me. What started as a book club friendship turned quickly to a deeper bond. I was invited to photograph the birth of their first child. All the wonder and excitement of bringing a new life into the world - Michelle and Benjamin felt it keenly.

Then there was a diagnosis. Trisomy 13. There were questions and prayers, tears and decisions to be made. Looming over it all - the complete inability to ever really know what would happen. Truly these are the experiences that stretch the limits of human existence.

How can you feel so broken yet so held all at once?

I watched from the outside as these two parents navigated waters that none of us wish to face. They swam the oceans of heartache and peace. Swirling, rolling, suspended - like their baby inside.

Their story is not mine to tell. I will say that I have been changed by the life of Everett.

We met in the studio to document just how loved their little boy was before he ever arrived on earth. The safety of the womb and the hands that stroked that growing belly with reverence and care. Truly Everett knew love every moment of his life.

Thank you, Michelle and Benjamin - for allowing me the honor to capture the love and joy Everett brought to your life. We will celebrate him always.

Tessa Turns 1 | Seattle Family Photographer

There is so much to say about this session. So many thoughts about my best friend’s youngest turning a year old. Katie and I have been mothers together since the early days when we were hauling strollers up subway stairs and sitting in exhausted silence while the babies did NOTHING on the floor and we wondered if we’d ever be mentally alive again. And now we are older, softer, living on a different coast and marveling at how time can crawl and be a thief all at once.

When my friend told me that she wanted to book a session to capture this particular moment in time, my heart leapt. THIS. This is motherhood frozen. Kissing the fingers, squeezing the thighs and really breathing them in. Teaching them to clap and point and know what it is to be loved.

This is the relief of realizing that newborn exhaustion does not last forever, and the crushing heartache of understanding that actually, nothing does.

Here’s hoping that every mother has at least one other mother she can call and sob to. Someone she can text late at night with just the words - “I CANNOT!”

A friend who loves your children and totally agrees with you that they are monsters. Pass down the clothing, pass the french fries. Make another pass around the lake and around the sun. Together we mark the milestones and swear under our breath.

We sit in exhausted silence and watch the babies grow.

Happy Birthday, Tessa. And happy transition to you, Katie.