Picture-Perfect Love: Part Two

One of my favorite posts I ever put together was a compilation of some of my favorite mother and child pictures. Ever since hitting the "Publish" button, I have longed to do a second edition. Mother's Day seems the perfect time to put Part Two out there. As I said in the original post Picture-Perfect Love, all of these mothers are friends of mine, and I chose each picture because at the time that I first saw it I felt a lump of love rise in my throat. In each of the images, the love from mother to child is so obvious. In some photos, the emotion is awe; in some it is peace, and in some it is pure joy. Pictured atop is my favorite photo of my boys and me, the one I would wish everyone to remember me by. The photo was taken by my good friend Holly Hooper-Stover, a talented photographer who has really come into her own and has been a true pal of mine since the first time we spoke. Enjoy the shots, and thanks to my lovely moms (and dads!) who consented to have their images and names shared! Happy Mother's Day, particularly to the moms in this post who are moms on this day for the first time.

If you look carefully (or perhaps not so carefully), all three of my boys can be spotted.

The legendary Holly and her son Boston at a softball game

 

Lindsey and Ava. This photo has long been one of my favorites!

My friend Jen and her larger-than-life little boy JD. JD is taking the world by storm and has never let a diagnosis of Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome stop him. Follow her blog!

My childhood friend Katie and her adorable guy Bennett

 

Linzy and daughter Lorelei, enthusiastically greeting cousin Baby Harper

 

The two best superheroes I know: my sister Christa and my nephew Sebbie

The adventuresome Laura, out berry picking with Oliver and Lewis (and looking very much like Tea Leoni, if you ask me)

 My sister-in-law Jenny and my brother Billy, Thundering it up with their twins Will and Cora

 College friend Christi, giddy with her newborn Zella Simone. Check back to see her birth story published here soon!

Mikah and Baby Adelaide (Photograph courtesy of Katrina Wheeler Photography). You don't even have to see her whole face to imagine the complexity of the relief, joy, and love written all over it. You can read Adelaide's birth story in this previous post.

Our dear friends Amber and Erik holding their long-awaited Addison. Amber suffered many losses in her quest to bring Addison into this world, and it seems so perfect to me to see their faces finally resting, as though in peace, with their little one in this picture. You can check out Amber's blog if you're interested in her journey.

Cyndi and her dearest Sera, also long-awaited. You can read about her adoption journey on her blog.

 

Jeannie, a busy mother of three (two of them twins!), has always been an eager and proud spectator of her children's activities. Here she is with daughter Brooke.
 

Pictured here are Sue "Bam" and her daughter Lori. These two ladies are among my favorite in the world and have long been dependable friends of ours. Lori's daughter Kolby was behind the lens of the camera, and she too is such a good buddy. This particular photo strikes me because Kolby laughs, remarking that Bam and Lori are the only two crazy cats who would visit her in New England in the middle of a blizzard. Of course they would, because that is what mothers do. Mothers say, "You're not going this alone so I'm coming to be with you." And then mothers of mothers who say that say, "Well wait! If you're going then I have to come too!" Thus you end up with three generations in a freezing, snow-filled city when they ought to be baking on a beach somewhere.