Yay! We had our maternity photoshoot this past Friday, & it couldn’t have been more perfect! I have been planning this shoot for months now, looking for the perfect outfit, hairstyle, & location. I still honestly can’t believe we have come this far in this pregnancy. Everything seems so surreal. I look at these photos & don’t even recognize my own body, because there’s still a part of me that doesn’t feel like I have that big belly. But it’s so amazing & beautiful & wonderful! Pregnancy has been so great for me, & I’m very thankful for that. I’m forever grateful to Erica Torgeson Photography (make sure to go give her page a “like”) for these beautiful photos that we will cherish forever! Also thanks to my amazing friend Jess Erickson for my blonde curly hair (let me know if you want her contact info).
These photos are also the first time I have ever publicly shared my butterfly tattoos. After our last miscarriage in January 2016, I was really wanting something permanent to remember my babies. I decided on 6 butterflies along my spine. There is a saying that says, “perhaps the butterfly is proof that you can go through a great deal of darkness yet become something beautiful.” This quote really spoke to me & encouraged me while I went through the darkness & pain of losing our 6 children. As well as that quote, there is “The Story of the Butterfly” (source unknown) which reads:
“A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.
One day a small opening appeared.
He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours
as it struggled to squeeze its body through the tiny hole.
Then it stopped, as if it couldn’t go further.
So the man decided to help the butterfly.
He took a pair of scissors and
snipped off the remaining bits of cocoon.
The butterfly emerged easily but
it had a swollen body and shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch it,
expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge
and expand enough to support the body.
Neither happened!
In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life
crawling around.
It was never able to fly.
What the man in his kindness
and haste did not understand:
The restricting cocoon and the struggle
required by the butterfly to get through the opening
was a way of forcing the fluid from the body
into the wings so that it would be ready
for flight once that was achieved.
Sometimes struggles are exactly
what we need in our lives.
Going through life with no obstacles would cripple us.
We will not be as strong as we could have been
and we would never fly.”
There is one thing that really speaks to me about this story in relation to our miscarriages. We will always feel that our babies were taken from us too soon. Just as the struggling butterfly needed more time in the cocoon, our babies didn’t come to full term in my womb. However, we know that they are whole in Heaven with their perfect butterfly “wings” they never got here on earth.
Thanks for reading something so special to us. I know you really just want to scroll down & see the photos though, so please do!
Location: Imperial County, CA a little past Yuma, AZ
Dress: Boutique in Laguna, CA
Photographer: Erica Torgeson
Hairstyle: Jess Erickson
Blanket: Made by my sweet friend, Destiny, for baby McG
Thank you for continuing along this journey with us!
Beautiful Bethany! Aria is almost 4 months old and I still look at her and think, I can’t believe your really here! It is so surreal. Can’t wait for you to finally be with your son!
Ahhhh, thank you! I’m sure I will be feeling like this the rest of my life. So amazing!
Wow. Those are so beautiful!! And what you wrote was beautiful, too!!
Thanks momma!
My heart is so full of thanksgiving! Thanks for sharing!
Breath taking
Thank you, Rita!
Speechless… you guys are beautiful as are the pictures. Can’t wait to hold him!
<3