I’ve shared many a post about what not to say to someone struggling with infertility and shared some of the hurtful things people have said to us. One of the hardest things to be asked was “Why don’t you just adopt?” Yes – I am now the mother of a beautiful little girl thanks to …
Playtime with Marlee
As a photographer – I’m sure a lot of people think that I’m just constantly taking pictures of this little lady. But the truth is – I rarely pull out my big camera on a daily basis. I grab it for special occasions and her monthly pictures and that’s pretty much it. I typically end …
Here Comes Busy Season!
Well tomorrow marks my last free weekend until mid to late November. I’m super grateful for all the work coming up to help pay for our extra Marlee expenses, but I’ll be real – I’m a little nervous too! October is always the busiest month of the year for photographers. Everyone seems to want …
Marlee’s Five Month Session | Sullivan, IL
It seems crazy to think that our sweet little love is five months old yesterday! We can’t believe how big she’s gotten in such a short amount of time and she’s trying to be more and more independent every day! She’s started enjoying little bits of oatmeal cereal and rice cereal. She’s the queen of …
Life: Thoughts on Exercise
You know… For years I had an on again, off again relationship with exercise over the years. I found exercise at a young age in an attempt to lose weight and then it became an unhealthy obsession. I found ways to work out as often as possible throughout the day to burn as many calories …
Marlee’s Baby Dedication
We had a pretty busy time this past weekend but it was full of family and love. This past Sunday was Marlee’s baby dedication. Now… I grew up Catholic so the tradition for our families growing up was infant baptisms. But the church that Ryan and I are members of does baby dedications. (The difference …
New Baby Product Love
When we got the call and headed up to get Marlee, I knew we were going to need to get some things. But honestly – there are so many baby things out there and so many lists of baby “must haves.” But some of that stuff didn’t really feel necessary. Sometimes I think those lists …
Our First Official Family Portraits
Now that we are on the other side of our last major adoption hurdle… we can finally begin to slowly start sharing some pieces of our family with you. So today I wanted to start by sharing the first official family photos we had taken while we were up in Michigan. Now this was kind …
Tiny Life Update and Some Love
I know so so many of you are eagerly awaiting when I’ll finally post about Marlee’s adoption story. And honestly, I’m looking forward to finally being able to share it too. Unfortunately, the truth is adoption is complicated and long and right now we’ve been encouraged not to share too much. So that’s why you …
The First Mother’s Day for a Woman Who Waited
You know… I had already planned out my post for Mother’s Day this year. (The post I shared on Friday.) Never had I imagined that I would suddenly find myself to be a mother this Mother’s Day. For the past seven long years, we have hoped and yearned and ached and fought and surrendered and …