Now, I don't come out with this the first time I tell people. I mean it's not like it's so much a conversation starter so much as I just feel like it's unnecessary to mention. I mean really? What does it matter? My family is my family is my family. *shrug* But I won't deny that it has made me and the way I think about my own life different than someone elses. I don't look like any of my family members. (Well... maybe my dad I do because he just happens to be Asian too but he's from a whole different country than I'm from and despite the argument that might exist that "we" all look alike. WE DON'T. But I digress.) I also don't have many things that so many others do - the stories of their origins like what it was like when they were born or even the rundown of what their first five months of their life was like. *shrug* I won't lie, it used to bother me but it doesn't anymore. Why? Because, as I said before, my family is who they are and that is my family and I'm not a person that gets easily bogged down by the messy details. Also? I feel like my life has really come full circle (so to speak) and now that I have my own child...
Well? I guess the fact that I've been able to give her so much of what I never had? Well... I feel like I don't miss all of that so much anymore. Just the same, I've not forgotten what it was like before now.
Family is so important. I was raised to obey some very solid family values with regard to the correct and appropriate way to be towards your family (it's an Asian thing) and it's something that I believe I will raise my daughter to have as well. Yesterday I had both the joy and the honor to photograph a family for their first ever family portrait. I can only show you this one image though.
And why is it the only one? Well, because they are a family of the adopted sort as well. And per their request and my own belief and understanding of the situation, it's best this way. Right now they are at the beginning stages of being a family. Similar to what I experienced as an adopted child, they all have spent some huge chunks of time missing from each others lives. They need this time right now to live in their own private world together and make up for all of the lost time and stolen moments that we all have had and can remember of our own families - this includes me as well since I have had the great redemption of being able to have my own sweet little girl right from the very beginning.
I hope I get the opportunity for more portrait sessions for adoptive families. I have such a special place in my heart for them and I know that I will be able to capture the beauty that they have within them that usually transcends everyone else's eyes because I know what it's like to be there among them, I know what to take note of, and I love being reminded of all it myself. It only makes me love my own family that much more. You can never have enough love, you know?
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