Happy Monday! It’s been a while since I posted a Mine on Monday. But today I want to dedicate this “episode” to my sweet baby girl who turned 16 yesterday! I’m still trying to wrap my head around all of this. How do I have a 16-year-old? How did my beautiful baby girl turn into a beautiful young woman that seemed to happen overnight?
As a momma, you hear this all the time … “Time flies”, “don’t blink” … and I’m here to tell you that it’s so true. It feels like yesterday she was saying her first words, then taking her first steps, and now she’s stepping into a world of her own making, full of dreams and independence.
It’s a beautiful journey watching your child grow up. But it’s also bittersweet. While I’m so proud and grateful for the beautiful woman she is blossoming into, my heart also aches with the reminder that those sweet childhood moments are now only memories. I thank God for giving us the gift of photography as a way to preserve those memories forever.
But photographing these milestones of your child isn’t just about preserving memories; it’s also about capturing the essence of who they really are at this moment. I’m so grateful for all the memories I’ve been able to capture of my sweet, baby girl – through the real baby days up to the early teenage years. Now I’m so grateful that Lori is becoming a strong, kind, and loving person and through the power of photography, I can capture this journey too.
Raising a teenage daughter is such a rollercoaster and something that you can never really imagine until you go through it yourself. At least that’s the case for me. And I should say to my own sweet Mom – “Sorry, I had no idea what challenge I was, and THANK YOU for everything you did for me”. Had I really known, I would have been much better lol.
There are days when our house is filled with love, joy, and laughter – thankfully this is most days. But there are the days (really moments and not days) when the mom vs. daughter battles are real. But you know what, I love all the moments regardless. Maybe not at the time, but every day with Lori is a blessing.
So to all the mommas out there watching your children grow up too fast, just know you’re not alone. Capturing these milestone moments through photography is a way of pressing the pause button, if only for a second. And it’s a way of celebrating not just who our children are now, but who they are becoming. It’s a beautiful story told through photography. Savor the beauty of the present, even as we look forward to the future.
Happy Birthday to my sweet child! You are such a light and I give all the glory to God for blessing me with such a sweet-hearted, fierce, crazy, wild, funny, and loving girl who will always be my tiny baby!
