Family Pictures

I have never been good at documenting things on film. Our pictorial history is spotty at best. At times we didn't have a camera. Other times I never developed the film. Mostly, though, I was too busy living the moment to take myself out of it to take the picture. Some would remedy this by having pro portraits made, but scheduling professional shots was often out of the question because of financial constraints.

The digital world has been easier on me. I don't have to remember to go get the film developed. I just shoot the pics directly from my camera to Shutterfly and they deliver them to my home. I don't even have to put on makeup or get out of my house shoes.

When our family was small, I could always rely on a shot of all of us at any family gathering. Some brother or sister would snap a picture of the 3 or 4 of us together; sometimes posed, sometimes not. Well as we grew those opportunities didn't just seem to happen anymore. They required concerted effort.

After God carried me through nursing school and I worked for a while, our pocketbooks would allow for the luxury of a professional portrait. We learned our fourth child was on the way. We decided to wait for the little one so that our family would be complete in the picture.

Our fourth child, baby Jack, was stillborn. A few months after he has born, we were supposed to have our pictures made. I couldn't do it. I felt like any picture made of all of us would be a lie. He wouldn't be there. The big gaping hole in our lives would show up on my face. How could we ever have them made now?

Thankfully, even what we can't imagine one day, is possible on another day. After a few years of healing and God's wonderful grace, it was time to make that memory. The same way God revealed Himself so many times through those years, He made His presence known with our family pictures.

I love the work of Brandy Jaggers Photography. A few months ago, she ran a contest on her blog. She asked "How long has it been since you had your family pictures made? Why has it been so long?" She said that she wanted to give a new family portrait to a one that really needed it. I entered my comment. It told a little bit of the story that I have just told you. Well, we won! We were the recipients of a portrait session and a 16X20 print. You can read more here and also see my comment.

I had read about including something of your loved one in your pictures. We brought a Teddy bear that was baby Jack's to the photo shoot.  Even if someone else doesn't know what it means, we do. We were thinking of him and he is a part of our family.

This is the 16X20 that we chose. This is really all we do now (chase Dinah), so I thought it appropriate for capturing the times we now live in.
The pictures were gorgeous and I'm so happy we have them. But, I'm happier to be a part of the family that is in them.