photographing Grace Marie

Grace Marie

This past weekend I had the pleasure of photographing my goddaughter.
I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday.
The day before her mama, Jessica went into labor, we were together doing anything we could to induce labor.  We were squatting, jumping, anything we could think of to get the baby moving.  I knew it would be any day now.
That same night around 3 in the morning I got the call that her water broke and I was so excited I didn't get a wink of sleep the rest of the night.  Months prior to this she had asked me to be at the hospital with her and the family for delivery.  My biggest concern was making sure I could get Justin home to watch the kids before she pushed sweet Gracie out!
By three o'clock, I was at the hospital in time to see her for a brief minute before I would go to the waiting room.  She was already almost completely dilated and just as calm as a cucumber.
After hours of sitting with her family and praying that her hubby, Brett would give an update, we got the text that they had a healthy baby.  It was finally time for me to go meet this little angel.
I won't ever forget how her skin was like porcelain and she was as tiny as a doll... absolutely perfect.  Before I left the hospital for the day and after Jessica's whole family went home to rest, Jessica and Brett asked if Justin and I would be Grace's godparents.  To top off an emotional day, we were all joyously crying and looking at our beautiful (god)daughter.

Becoming a godmother is one of the biggest honors of my life.  It has all the joy of motherhood, but without the day-to-day stress.  It is sharing in the life of a child that isn't your own in the most intimate way.  It is a bond that can make friends truly family. It is a responsibility to be your best self for the sake of someone else.

Watching Grace grow up for the past year (and a few months) has been amazing. I've watched her go from bottles to food, from sitting to crawling, from crawling to walking, and from being a quiet, peaceful baby to a happy, life-filled, firecracker of a toddler.

 

Druzak family 2015

 I was the one who took her newborn pictures only days after she got home from the hospital and the transformation from those first pictures to the ones I snapped this weekend is incredible.  What a blessing to be able to capture the different stages of life of someone so uniquely special and important to me and my family. I hope that at some point everyone can experience a relationship similar to the one I have with this sweet girl.