Bellies and Blessings

Last night Ken, Autumn and I got pregnancy pictures done. I wasn't sure I wanted to do them back in January, but after awhile I knew we needed to. And after last night, I'm so glad we did.

When we were pregnant with Autumn, we got pictures done by one of my oldest and dearest friends who, graciously, traveled many hours down here to do them as a gift to me. They were beautiful and perfect and just like the ones you normally see. For these pictures, I really didn't know where to go.

I had "liked" a facebook photography page that one of my friends "liked" almost a year ago, and I always see her beautiful work posted. So, just to see, I sent them a message asking if they did anything at no charge for pregnancies with a fatal diagnosis. The owner immediately wrote back to me and said yes, she would love to do them for us. We have been writing back and forth for about 2 months now, talking about timing and keeping her up to date on our appointments. She likes to do the pictures at about 33 weeks. I had been keeping her informed about my measurements, and since I'm measuring 36 weeks at only 30 weeks along, we figured it would be fine to do them now. So we scheduled our appointment for an evening session this past Thursday.

All of us wore jeans and black shirts (specially bought for the occasion--since we didn't have any "un-lettered" black shirts). We got there and were warmly greeted. Nikki, the owner, walked us through what shots we would take and we got started. I was a little nervous at first but quickly began to have a good time. We got some beautiful shots and I can't wait to see them all in a few weeks.

The name of this organization is Bellies and Blessings and I am so thankful for Nikki and her generosity. It was so nice to do something 'normal' for this pregnancy. We aren't having a baby shower. We aren't decorating a nursery. We aren't dusting off the carrier and getting it ready to be added to the back seat of my car. But we were able to do this. And these pictures will be a wonderful remembrance of our time with Carina before she was born. With Nikki's permission, I will post some of the pictures when we get them back.