PRE-BABY MILESTONES & ADOPTION

 

Here’s the scene:  gorgeous sunset, beautiful couple… and, of course, the baby bump.  SO SWEET à double tap…thumbs up…like.  You know what I’m talking about, right?  Those totally adorable professional maternity shoots that pepper  Instagram feeds and left me wishing for my turn.  There are a lot of pre-baby 'milestones' that conventional couples hit, and the road to adoption definitely looks a little different.  In some ways, I wanted to experience those same moments.  Especially in the age of social media, the maternity shoot almost seems like a right of passage to parenthood.  Joe and I really struggled to decide if we wanted to document our journey with professional photos.  I’m SO glad that we decided to go through with it!  Our friend Annette is INCREDIBLE and captured a lot of the photos that you’ve seen me post on the blog so far. 

I won’t lie, I was shy and definitely procrastinated getting the ball rolling.  After a little (OK…A LOT) of encouragement from our best friend, Karleya, I finally decided to contact Annette.  Not only did I trust her to document this significant milestone, but I also trusted her creative vision with another special project. 

As part of the adoption process, it is important that you craft a portfolio of who you and your partner are to present to potential birth parents.  These 'profiles,' if you will, serve as a tiny bit of insight into your life and help give birth parents confidence when selecting families to place their children.  I knew we would need to produce a video, but Joe and I are not especially talented with a camera and quite frankly, I wasn’t looking forward to seeing footage of myself.  I was especially nervous for that awkward feeling when you hear yourself speak.  Anyway, I got over the fear and asked Annette to produce our adoption video.  We had an awesome time shooting and she made both Joe and me feel super comfortable.  The final product is nothing short of amazing and I feel so thankful to have this memory to share for a lifetime.  I hope you all enjoy watching...my favorites are the outtakes at the end! ;)