The beginning of this journey is different for everyone – no story is the same. For some it seems like a right of passage, others a natural progression in their happy relationship. For some people it is a surprise – a serendipity and others an absolute miracle. Regardless of how it all started there is one thing that remains the same; this child, the symbolism of love and the beginning of your family, is a loved, welcomed, blessing.

The moment you meet is also different for each person. They will all tell it differently, but the general gist of the moment is all the same. As the new love of your life wraps their hand around yours, there is a surreal moment of realisation. For the first time in your life you have never had to fall in love with someone. It is almost instinctual – like this love, for this little person – small enough to be held in your arms, was always there inside you. Waiting to be turned on. Waiting for them.

You realise that this is the first person you have ever met and known with a certainty like no other that you will spend the rest of your life with this person. A life long friend. You will teach them how to speak, and spend hours alone repeating your own name to them. You will teach them to walk, to write and read, shadow them through school as you slowly become smaller in their own shadow; and in return, they teach you lessons that nothing else in life could have gifted you with. They teach you how to be a parent, a teacher, a shield of armour, a gentle shoulder to cry on, a source of wisdom, a friend, a guidance, a mother or father.

Becoming a parent is single-handedly the most life altering journey for everyone – and no-one’s story is the same.

It was a blessing to capture some precious moments of little Addison for her new family to hold onto, and cherish, forever.