When the call came, I was on my way to a play at the Ferst Center.  I knew it would likely take several more hours before the baby would be born, so I sat anxiously through the play, came home to throw on some jeans, then arrived at Kennestone Hospital’s birthing center around 11:30 Saturday night.

Christine and Roger have been waiting on this baby for a long time.  They’ve WORKED for this baby.  They’ve suffered for this baby.  (Especially Christine, who hasn’t had a single vomit-free day since getting pregnant.)  But the struggles never lessened their excitement, and they were as prepared as any expectant parents could ever be.  They even had a typed birthing plan prepared for the hospital staff.

When I walked into Christine’s room, she was completely relaxed, breathing calmly through her contractions, smiling in between each one.  Roger kept a cool cloth on her forehead.  “No way you aren’t on drugs!” I teased.  She was incredibly calm, but also 100% drug-free.  A natural childbirth was her #1 priority, and so far she was doing great.

Christine’s mom and her husband Roger were the only two people allowed in the birthing room. Oh yeah; and me.  WOW.  I’m not sure how to even describe the honor of sharing such an experience with someone.  It was even more powerful because Christine and Roger are such dear friends of ours.  We’ve seen them fight for this child for months, and I knew I was about to see the final battle.

Roger was amazing.  I’ve never given birth, but I can’t imagine a more supportive, stabilizing presence than Roger.  He talked softly to Christine as her pain increased, and never seemed to tire of holding her hand or rubbing her back.

Every hour, for fifteen minutes, a nurse would enter and hook the baby monitor up to Christine’s belly.  Watching the contractions grow and the baby’s heartbeat get stronger was as enthralling as any movie.  Crazy?  Maybe.  But totally true.

Around 4am, a small dose of pain medication and some anti-nausea meds finally allowed Christine to relax between the contractions that had become nearly unbearable.  Okay, so relax isn’t quite the right word.  She would fall into complete, absolute, snoring sleep for just minutes at a time.  Roger was right there with her.

I’ve never been present for a natural childbirth before, so I had no idea what to expect.  I remember my mom telling me once that all the classes and breathing exercises and mental relaxation tricks in the world could never prepare a woman for what would surely be the worst pain in her life.  Watching Christine, I believed it.  She had labored for 12 hours, the pain finally escalating to the point that she couldn’t help but yell out with each contraction.  She paced the room; she sat on the birthing ball; she relaxed in the shower; she focused her energy.  But the pain was clearly excruciating.  “I can’t do this anymore,” she said.  But she did.  And finally, just after 7am, it was time to push.

I’m not going to share the photos of the actual birth, but this was taken just seconds after the Nurse-Midwife pulled the tiny, white and purple baby into the world, rubbing him pink and releasing him into Christine’s arms.  “It’s a Jax!” Roger said.  “Baby” was officially a boy.  Christine let out a tiny choking sound, a cry, a gasp… and her shaky hands lifted her son to her chest.  “I just love you so much,” she said.  “I just love you SO much.”  And she was crying.  And Roger was crying.  And I was crying.  And Jax was making little kitten noises through his tiny, perfect baby mouth.  And as surely as Christine was holding Jax, Jax held Christine.

Christine’s mom could only sit and stare and cry, joy streaming from her eyes.  It felt as though the entire room had finally exhaled.  I thought my lens was fogging up, and only when I pulled my camera away did I realize that it was actually my eyes that were wet.  I felt weightless.

Just like that, they were parents.

Jax opened his beautiful blue-brown eyes and looked straight into his mother’s face.

Jax got a pretty good cry going as he was weighed and measured and footprinted.  He had arrived 3 weeks early, but he was chubby and noisy and squirmy.  He was perfect.

With Roger rocking Jax, Christine could finally close her eyes in her first nausea-free, pain-free, worry-free moment in nearly 10 months.  Christine had endured her long, difficult pregnancy with joy and grace.  She had looked beautiful from the moment she knew she was expecting, through her long painful labor.  But at this moment she was absolutely radiant.  I know, I know, that’s what everyone says about new mothers.  And it’s true.

Roger Tweeted Jax’s birth while the new little man got his first meal.

Christine’s sister Becky came in to meet her nephew for the first time.

Christine’s brother John was nervous to hold Jax.  “I don’t know how,” he said.  But Jax seemed right at home in his uncle’s arms.  John’s eyes filled and he laughed as he cradled his first nephew.

Christine’s dad was stuck in Missouri, so Jax made his very first phone call to his grandpa.

Christine’s brother Jim and his wife Cherelle stood guard over Jax as he warmed up under the heat lamp in preparation for a bath.

The long night is over… and a brand new journey has begun.

Being present for Jax’s birth was… miraculous.  I am so blessed to have two such strong, wonderful friends, and I can’t wait to know their new little son and watch him grow up.  If he’s anything like his parents, he’ll be one lucky boy.

I love you guys!

The world is a better place because Thomas was here.

When we got married, we were in the painful beginning stages of starting our business, and we didn’t have a dime to put toward a honeymoon.  As our little photo business has grown over the past 5 years, every June we’ve been faced again and again with the decision: make money, or spend money.  So every anniversary, we, of course, chose to make money, and celebrating our anniversary involved heating up a pizza at the end of a long wedding — someone else’s long wedding, of course.

But this year, we thought it was about time to do something for US.  And we decided to embark on our first EVER vacation.

We knew we wanted to visit the west coast.  I’ve never been any further west than Las Vegas, and Dan hasn’t been to the WC since he was a kid in California.  We’d heard lots of great things about Portland from friends and family, so we took the plunge and booked tickets to the City of Roses… or… Stumptown?

………………….

The first photo we’ve ever taken of OUR rings, imported from Canada 5 years ago:

With a little boost from my Starwood-employed sister, we stayed at the luxurious hotel The Nines in the heart of downtown Portland.

And, of course, the first thing we did is take pictures of our room.  We have like a million of them.  Here are just a few.

Check out the iPod dock on the nightstand!  Not sure why, but that was super-exciting to us.

Dan.

I was giving our room a thumbs-up.  I think Dan was throwing out a 3-fingered peace sign?  (Isn’t that cool wallpaper?)

Me.

The restaurant Urban Farmer was in our hotel. We didn’t eat there, but it looked pretty.

We DID eat at an awesome joint called The Original. We actually ate there twice.  It was YUM, and our server Kayla was awesome.  (We LOVED that everywhere you go to eat in Portland you have a huge selection of fresh, organic food.  We’re just waiting for Atlanta to catch up!)

Day 2 was a “FREEZING” 63 degrees when we headed out for our Portland Walking Tour. (Then our tour guide informed us that it was a “beautiful, WARM day, PERFECT for a walking tour,” and we realized that we were just spoiled by the Georgia heat.)

We learned that this sculpture, “Portlandia”, was intended to become Portland’s landmark, like the Eiffel Tower or Washington Monument.  But the artist retained ALL rights to the sculpture until his passing, so photos and videos of Portlandia are all but nonexistent.  Oh well.

A small art exhibit was being hung in a theatre we visited.  The artist’s name wasn’t up yet, but I LOVED this piece, so I took a picture.  I’d love to give credit to the artist if anyone knows who created this.

The other restaurant we visited twice was Ping, a DELICIOUS Asian restaurant on the edge of Chinatown.

I wish I could eat those potato skewers every day.  EVERY. DAY.  They were amazing.

We hopped on a pedicab one afternoon to visit Dan’s favorite coffee shop, Peet’s. He’s ordered their beans online for years, but this was his first opportunity to visit a store in person.  Our poor driver took us WAY up a hill — dude was sweating like crazy — then realized he’d taken us the wrong way, and we had to ride all the way back down the hill.  We tipped him a big extra fat tip.

Self portrait in our hotel.

One of our FAVORITE parts of the trip was visiting Portland’s Saturday Market. Vendors sell everything from handmade goods like clothing and shoes, to musical instruments, to food and juices.  We got “breakfast” there twice — elephant ears.  Mmmm.

These food stands were at the Saturday Market, but other stands were literally EVERYWHERE in Portland.  Most days we had lunch from a food stand.  There was every type of food you could imagine!

This little string quartet was playing by the river.

We spent an afternoon at the Japanese Garden. It was incredibly peaceful and beautiful.

This was us waiting for the bus to take us from the metro stop to the garden entrance.  Well, we didn’t actually stand like this the whole time we were waiting.  Just some of the time.

Dan took this picture of me standing on a little bridge in the middle of the  most beautiful irises.

Another self portrait.

We didn’t have a long enough lens with us, but you could see Mount Hood from an overlook in the Japanese Garden.

We walked over to the Rose Garden, but instead of seeing the roses, we spent an hour hanging out with a couple of extra-friendly squirrels.  This squirrel was the teenager.  He was the skittish one.

Then Big Fatty came along… Literally, belly dragging the ground.  Poor overfed little guy.

But really, how do you say no to this?  I think he would have taken the food out of Dan’s mouth if he’d let him.  (Look at the gut on that squirrel!)

The train from the gardens came through this tunnel.  It was SOOOOOOOOOOOO cold down there inside the mountain!

We liked this parking deck, even if it was full of cars.  Do we look like car salespeople?

We both bought new jeans at this sweet little shop called Blake. BIG thanks to our tour guide Amanda for telling us how to find the best jeans shop in Portland!

Me again.

My love.  :)

At my sister-in-law’s request, we HAD to check out Voodoo Doughnut!

Doughnuts with Froot Loops on top?!?!?  WHAT?!  :D

We got to hang out with our friend Cory while we were in town.  YAY!  (See my teeshirt?  I got it from a screen printer at the Saturday Market.  Well, you can’t really see it very well here, but it’s super cute.)

Our last night in Portland, Cory took us to this little hole-in-the-wall bar where your drinking choices were beer or water.  (Sorry, Dan!)  It was super cozy inside, and people were hanging out at tables with their dogs running around and the cool night air spilling in the open door.

Happy Anniversary, baby!

Let the laughter begin!

Corbin, being serious, walking the line.

This is what Corbin does when you say, “Show us your Good Boy face!”  HA.

Sometimes I make a photo that takes my breath away — not because I’m an amazing photographer, but because the moment is so enormously precious to me.  This is one of those moments.

Corbin’s nap wasn’t satisfactory (no thanks to me), so he got a bit cranky at one point.  After a “talking to”, he decided he wanted to sit on this curb for his time out.  I couldn’t resist a photograph of his sad little face.  This kid is too much.

A few highlights, in order of occurrance:

-We were completely screwed over by the rental car company we had booked with, which was really annoying, but in the end we wound up with a WAY cooler car from the fabulous folks at Hertz and a very easy drive through the mountains!  Not every couple can spend 10 hours in a car together and love every minute of it, but we sure did!

-Dan’s mom didn’t know we were coming. His step-dad kept it a secret and when we showed up at 10pm on Monday night she FLIPPED. Everyone was crying and hugging and it was SO much fun!

-We were upgraded to a KING SUITE at the Westin Columbus, all at a “my-sister-works-for-Starwood” price. SWEET!  We were treated like absolute royalty the entire time.

-Dan’s family recently moved into a house that backs up to a small farm. Missy and I went out one morning and spent time with the horses…

It was SO cold outside!  Everyone’s breath was steaming in the frosty air.

I don’t know if this is a colt or a pony.  Anyone out there know?  I just called him “Little Horse.”

Little Horse didn’t get too far from Big Horse.  If he did, Big Horse would stomp and whinny.  If Big Horse wasn’t the mom, she sure was bossy!

Missy looks so gorgeous here petting Big Horse!

The family dog Middy LOVED tromping through the neighbor’s pasture!

We feel so blessed to be surrounded by family who love and support us. We know it’s an incredible gift, and we are so grateful.

Thanks, Jim, Missy, Jess, Tyler, and JAY for welcoming us for Christmas! We can’t wait to see you all again soon! Much love…