With an easy openness & simple honesty, Brett shared her story with me over the phone. She told me about her past and being abused as a youth and falling into anorexia. Then she told me about fighting it. When a therapist once asked her what would make her want to take care of herself, she thought about it & then answered that if she was pregnant she would take care of herself because she’d be caring for another person.

Alot of therapy later (as Brett says with a laugh) & finding her soulmate who accepts all of who she is, Brett was pregnant with her third child when we captured her story in the middle of  an orchard in the Tri-Cities. It was a significant setting for her battle and arriving at such a fruitful place in her story. Brett said she wanted raw beauty & “my stretch marks to show!” Well, I unfortunately failed on capturing any stretch marks but her belly is unfiltered in these images, I promise! Just raw beauty! Ah Brett I hope you see the beauty beauty beauty the rest of us do in your story!

Yesterday I got to meet Paxton, the new little Mister that was the hidden subject of these belly pictures. He is healthy, growing & even starting to give hints of a smile. & he has every reason to be smiling with this beautiful Mama caring for him Thank you Brett for your positive, god-centered outlook on life!

Right after giving me a big hug at the end of our session, Brett asked, can I have an apple for the road?

& here are a few apples for your day & where ever your road may take you!

How are you making beauty out of the brokenness in your story?

I was telling my high school teacher, Mr. Miller, how I’d been feeling pressured to get a job with ‘benefits’. Miller paused a moment in his characteristically-wise fashion, then said, “But you enjoy what you’re doing.”

“Yes! I get to hold babies!” Miller has known me long enough to understand my off-center train-of-thought & random outbursts: so he just nods his head at my moment of enlightenment. Sure, there are whole load of other things I love about telling stories with my camera, but right then it was all about babies. I get to wrap babies in blankets & take oh-so-dreamy pictures of them. I get to feed babies their bottle after the session & listen to their mothers who are grateful for adult conversation. I get to rock babies to sleep & watch their parents pick-out the pictures that will let them remember their babies as babies.

I get to hold babies like Abigail & that’s a pretty nice benefit.

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