This posting is of a family whose mother I've known for a long time. My friend Chris and her fiancee Bud, recently adopted two beautiful children from Ethiopia. Chris has wanted to be a mother for quite some time and I'm so happy for her to have finally realized her dream.
The story of these kids is truly amazing and profoundly moving. Their biological mother had nine children. Three of them died of malnutrition. Then her husband passed away and the mother could no longer care for her two smallest children. So she gave them up to be cared for. My friends and I have wondered if we could do the same thing if we were in her shoes. What an incredible act of love. To give up a child or children so that they could live and possibly never see them again. To me that is the most noble decision anyone could make. So on the day I showed up to take these pictures I didn't really know what to expect. Would they understand me with the language barrier? Would they be albe to relate to me and my camera? It was so much more than I expected. I think I would feel right in saying, I felt honored, to be in the presence of this story. It felt like a gift that had been given to me. Chris and Bud did such an awesome job of bonding with the kids. They looked for their new mother when they were unsure, and always came around for hugs. Sometimes I would see them standing there with these expressions of, "how did I get here, what is going on"? and then two seconds later they would be running and frolicking and just being silly. It was like a miracle at work, right before my eyes. We should all aspire to be this way. I'm sure there have been challenges, but who they were, at that moment, in their moment, was beautiful. It has inspired me to be a bigger part of these families lives. To document their personal stories. It is too powerful not to. The stories must be told so the memories can be laid down, forever. I hope you enjoy the photos.
