It’s the perfect picture, the one moment every new parent looks forward to. It’s the moment you see your baby for the first time. You’re exhausted, yet glowing as your heart is bursting with love. I couldn’t wait for that hospital picture. But not every parent gets that’s perfect newborn photo.
This is my photo.
Five years ago today, my husband and I shared this picture of our dog with three little pairs of booties. It was our shocking, yet exciting, announcement that we were expecting triplets. We were 15 weeks pregnant and couldn’t contain our excitement as we shared with friends, family and the world that we were finally going to have the family we always dreamed of.
It’s a day I’ll never forget, a day I look back on with pure joy and happiness.
You see, we never got that picture-perfect hospital photo. We never even got a picture of all three of our babies together. I went into labor more than 17 weeks premature. Instead of me glowing in a photo holding my children, I have photos of me in tears of sadness and shock as my babies were born far too early. I have photos of me holding two of my children as they passed away in my arms within two months of their birth.
I never got that picture that should be framed in our home. So, instead, this is my photo. Five years ago today, my husband and I were giddy with excitement as hundreds of friends sent well wishes and shared in our happiness. And while the tears flow on this day as I think back at what could have been, I choose to smile and remember this moment from five years ago.
This is our photo. We never got that perfect hospital photo, but that’s OK. We have this sweet photo, our pregnancy announcement…and on this day, it was perfection.
The reason I LOVE Garth Brooks song The Dance….yes I could have missed the pain but then I would have missed the dance…my pregnancy with my son and the excitement of having a son join our daughter for that perfect family…so many happy dances with our Quentin.