Not so sure what I was EXPECTING!

Something amazing happened to me yesterday. I am really not sure what I was expecting, but what I got was a whole lot more. I was so very honored to be given the opportunity to capture a special moment in time. A moment....A miracle....An amazing stage of life. Pregnancy....it really doesn't get much more incredible than that.

I have had an interest in photography for as long as I can remember. It started small, as a child. I got my first camera in 5th grade. I didn't take many pictures at that point, but I enjoyed the whole process. In High School, I took a photography class, and learn all the ins and outs of my Dad's old Minolta. I experienced the dark room, and enjoyed photographing for the School Annual. While in college, I played around with my old 35mm and simply took pictures of friends and events. I cherish those pictures....as they captured those good times. A few years into my marriage, I got a new 35 mm, and thats when I really started to find the joy in picture taking. Along with it, I began scrap booking. It thrilled me to see my pictures proudly displayed on a pretty page. I took pictures of my pets, and pictures of my nieces and nephew. I took 8 rolls of pictures on my trip to Hawaii, and 12 rolls in Washington D.C. My scrapbooks are very LARGE!

About a month before giving birth to Makenna, I started to worry that I wouldn't be able to take the pictures at her birth, and what if they didn't turn out....I worried and worried. I so badly wanted to have good pictures of those amazing first moments. I made an impulse (so not like me) purchase of a small point and shoot digital camera. This way, I could view the pictures on the little LCD screen and make sure someone got the shot. whew....I relaxed a little.

It has been an amazing ride since that first digital purchase. What an incredible little invention. You can take a picture, check it out to make sure all is well, and get it on your computer and printed out within minutes!!! You can email them, and post them online. You can play with them, and make invites, thank yous and collages. FUN FUN FUN!!!!! It has become an addiction for me. Nearly a year after my first purchase, I felt the need to have a better camera. Along came my Canon S2 IS. WOW....now the fun really began. I started taking portraits of Makenna and my nieces.....and then my friend's baby. OH the joy....I just can't stop. I love capturing the moment, the face, the features, the personality. I am not sure how many pictures I have taken in the last 28 months alone, but it is well over 20 thousand. I am looking to purchase my 3rd camera in a little over 2 years. I am drooling over a Digital SLR. Maybe I can combine Mother's day, my 11th anniversary (july) and my 33rd birthday (sept) and buy myself one. I have to earn it you know! :)

This all leads me to yesterday.....the moment that literally left me welled up inside. The opportunity arose for me to photograph a friend of a friend in her 38th week of pregnancy. I was excited and nervous....and so was she. Soon though, we relaxed and just had fun playing. My vision was to capture the moment...capture this phase....HONOR this amazing MIRACLE. I personally feel that there is nothing as incredible as creating life. I have never understood how we can take for granted the most unbelievably wonderful gift. Nothing compares to feeling your baby grow and move inside your body. You are making a person....and not just any person...you are making the most perfect gift of a person. The pregnant belly is beautiful....because it holds that gift. I so badly wanted to honor that gift.

While I was taking the pictures....I wasn't sure I was really getting the results I wanted, and as I traveled home, I worried that I would be disappointed. I am not sure what I was expecting, but what I got was so much more. I stayed up an hour past my bedtime, so that I could finish editing and have the proofs ready for today. I just couldn't stop. I am not sure if anyone else will get it....and it really doesn't matter, because for me I did it. I was successful. They are beautiful. They say it all.

I do have one regret....I wish so badly, that this belly was mine....and my gift. I wish that someone had felt the NEED to capture my moment in this way. I will be equally honored if I am ever given this opportunity again. I am so blessed to have shared in this moment.