The Photographs You’ll Treasure Most

Imagine sitting on the couch with your grown child years from now. The room is filled with laughter, maybe a few tears, as you pull out old photographs. There’s one of you, cradling your tiny newborn — their head tucked under your chin, their fingers wrapped around yours.

Your child points to the image and says, "I love this one. Look how small I was. Look how you held me."

Now imagine yourself in that moment, looking at the same photograph, and saying, "I almost didn't let this be taken. I felt so unlike myself. I didn't like the way I looked. I almost stayed out of the frame."

But you didn't. You let yourself be seen. And years later, it won’t be about how you felt in your body on that one hard, beautiful, disorienting day. It will be about what you gave. The way you held them. The way you loved them.

No one ever looks at those photographs and sees anything but love.

These images aren’t just for you now — they’re for the future you, the one who will be so glad you chose to be part of your baby’s story.

And most of all for the child who will one day cherish seeing his mother’s face, holding him close, when he was brand new.

You don’t have to feel like yourself yet. You don’t have to pose or perform. You only have to be there — snuggling, feeding, rocking, breathing. The beauty is already in the tenderness, not the perfection.

These are the photographs that last. Your child deserves to see you in them. And so do you.