As I pulled up to a red light before getting on the highway, the morning sun was just breaking over the horizon and I started to cry. Now, I’m the first to admit there may have been some hormones at play here. Like many women, I am more likely to cry, either happy or sad tears, at certain times of the month. But these were happy tears, and the emotion—fueled by hormones or not—was real.
I was headed to a photo shoot and what I was feeling was intense gratitude. A mom had reached out for family pictures and shared that she was newly pregnant with their second child. This woman's deep joy in motherhood was palpable.
Now every mama knows (and everyone else, too because we tell them) there is not deep joy in every day and every moment of motherhood. There are hard, hard days and even seasons where we wonder if we’re going to get through. This complex web of emotions is all intertwined within each of us because nothing will challenge us more and nothing will bring us greater joy than parenthood.
So we mamas follow our toddlers around with a camera, capturing their milestones, capturing the everyday, looking for the beauty even in the mundane. We take hundreds of pictures of wrestling matches and tickle-fests with daddy and we take a couple selfies, to get some evidence that we were there, too.
But wouldn’t it be nice to have someone else hold the camera for a change? Wouldn’t it be nice to take a minute to fix our hair and put on something that makes us feel beautiful and get someone else to capture the joy of motherhood?
I cried that morning on my way to photograph this woman and her family because I was so deeply honored. She made the time, put forth the effort and then trusted me with the experience of capturing the joy that is motherhood and the joy that is being a family. It makes my heart sing to be honored with this responsibility—to help mamas get on the other side of the camera and capture their love for their families.