Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Foster/Adopt "Maternity" Photo Shoot

Before Christmas, I got a little antsy since all we had left to do was wait to be licensed.  I got a little saddened honestly at the lack of humanity in our trek so far.  Here we are, expectant parents getting ready to take care of sweet little ones, but all we've experienced and had tossed our way is paperwork, inspections, interviews, classes, questions, locks, safes and fire extinguishers. 

I wanted something more.  Something to help prepare my heart, not just approve our house and fill our brains.  

We had already arranged with my photographer sister to take some pictures of us over Christmas, in order to update some of our frames at home.  Being a pictures person, I had mentioned the possibility of adding some humanity to this whole process by taking some "maternity" photos, typical of expectant parents, but giving it our own twist to fit our situation.  

I wanted to copy the cute idea of taking pictures of the parents' feet with baby shoes next to them, waiting to be filled, except with two photoshopped fill-in-the-blank spaces instead of shoes, indicating that we've got (currently) two spaces in our home and our hearts for whoever may come our way.  I wanted to make the cute heart with my hands, but over my own heart instead of a pregnant belly, because it really does feel like these children I haven't even met yet are growing in my heart. 

While Sarah slept off the last finals week of her life one afternoon, Trent and I went to Main Street in my hometown and, over a pale ale, I shared my ideas with him. We discussed them for a bit and I got a bit upset that it sounded really corny once voiced.  We realized that we were trying to fit ourselves into someone else's mold.  I was ready to throw my hands up and just abandon the idea, but Trent, my wonderful, caring, thoughtful husband, salvaged the whole thing. 

"We don't need to fit ourselves into another mold.  We need to create our own path."

So we did.  We carried on with our discussion and came up with some ideas for a photo shoot that would reflect US and OUR situation as expectant parents.  After we woke Sarah from her post-college slumber before the "diffused light" time of day passed, we shared our ideas with her.  I wondered if she'd think we were weird.   She loved it.  




How many expectant parents do you know who pose for their maternity photos with a fire extinguisher? :-)  For the record, that is not a DFPS regulation fire extinguisher, just one that my mom had under their sink.  Ours is much more heavy duty.

Here's to the future, for creating our own path and taking the road less traveled. 

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