I photograph the arrival of a new family member quite often, but few quite as sweet as this one. Little Mei-Lin may have taken almost two years to get here, but the home she found could not be more ready for her debut.
I’ve been friends with this gushing new mommy for decades, and I’ve closely followed their journey through the adoption process; a long, exhausting, emotional roller coaster. Finally, this January, all t’s were crossed, paperwork approved, passports stamped and green lights given… they could make the long trip to China to bring their baby girl home.
I came over about a week after they’d settled back in, on a day that just happened to be sweet girl’s second birthday. What greater present than to have found her forever home, and to have been transported from a life spent mostly in a crib, with no toys beyond wooden blocks (she came home frightened of stuffed animals, as she’d never seen them before and didn’t understand), to suddenly being the center of the universe to two insanely happy and attentive parents.
All three beamed the entire time, their happiness infectious… my cheeks hurt when I left from the sheer joy of it all! I was beyond thrilled to capture this first chapter in their new life together, and look forward to many happy years of watching them grow together!
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