Cherished for Many Years to Come

The Lindell family invited me and my daughter Alli (who is an Expert with Small Children) out to their sanctuary in the country to photograph them where they live.  The setting was incredible and we had a warm, summer evening with beautiful fading light to work with.  It was impossible not to fall in love with Lucy and Karson, their almost one-year-old twins. The tender love between Nate and Kendra was palpable.  It was a beautiful night.

Kendra happens to be writer.  She wrote about her experience and the reason why she wanted family-focused portraits on the Willamette Valley Medical Center’s Facebook page.  I’ve copied her story in her own words below.  Thank you Kendra for so eloquently sharing your family and your writing skills with me.  May God bless you and your little babes as they grow.

Photographs are cherished more than almost anything. We proudly hang them on our walls. They’re plastered on our social media sites. They once filled our wallet sleeves but now they greet us on our phone screen. We’re able to carry digital albums with us everywhere, and can show them off whenever we’d like. They bring a smile to our face and remind us of the love and joy we carry.

Pictures capture more than just fleeting moments. They capture the feelings inside those moments. They help us hold on to memories, and even go a little further for often, the memory is almost always a little sweeter.

Camera phones make it so easy to always be ready to capture a moment. I might go a little bit overboard with all the pictures I take, but I promise I’m not always looking through a lens. It will be a few years before Karson and Lucy will be able to snap a picture and they won’t remember these times so it’s up to me to be a memory keeper. Whether that means filling up my phone and computer with thousands of images or finding people to take pictures for us, recording these memories is important to me.

In most families, the mom carries the job of the primary photo taker/gatherer/collector. And since moms are generally the ones taking the photos of their brood, they tend to get left out of the picture. I have a million photos of my babes but only a handful of decent ones with me in them. So when we finally got around to taking professional family photographs, I wanted the focus to be on us as a family.

Photo day was a fun affair. Jodi Stilp our photographer was great to work with. She brought along her daughter to help out with the babies which are always a handful. The babies did well considering they were up past their bedtime.

Of course I think the pictures turned out adorable but like all the other pictures I keep, their worth won’t be fully realized until 15 years or so from now when Karson and Lucy will laugh at their silly little selves (and our outdated fashions).

Yes, someday, I will love these pictures even more than I do now. They will remind me of this sweet time and how it just seemed like yesterday when I could hold both these little ones in my arms.

In another someday, Nate and I will be old and worn. We will have been married for much longer than the short span that we currently hold. Karson and Lucy will be grown. They will have kids of their own. Their kids will wonder what it was like “back when.” These pictures I keep will be a window to the past. They will show the love Nate and I hold for each other and our family.

Just as I have cherished pictures hanging of my grandparents when they were young, our future tribe may do the same with these pictures of us. Photographs will be part of the physical legacy I leave behind for my family.

You don’t ever hear anyone say, “Gee, I have too many baby pictures.” You certainly won’t hear Karson and Lucy saying that.

Note: Kendra Lindell gave birth to twins, Karson and Lucy on October 5th, 2014 at Willamette Valley Medical Center Birthing Center. She writes about her experience on the WVMC Facebook page. STAY TUNED for more stories from Kendra. See WVMCWeb.com for previous posts.