09/05/2026
โจ ***Long post, sorry not sorry!*** โจ
Some people wait for life to happen to them...
Shelby decided to go out and create hers.
Shelby has always known she wanted to be a mother, but at just 17 years old, she was diagnosed with PCOS. Suddenly, something she had always imagined so naturally for her future came with a question mark.
Years later, she was given even harder news: she wasn't ovulating, and becoming pregnant would likely never happen without the help of science.
So Shelby got to work.
She researched. She planned. She saved. She asked questions.
She made decisions most people never imagine having to make,
and instead of waiting for the life she wanted to somehow find her, she started building it herself.
She chose IVF and a donor bank. When it came time to choose a donor, out of all the information she could have based that enormous decision on, one little detail stood out to her: he loved dogs, just like she did.
She even had the incredible opportunity to choose her baby's gender: A little girl.
The remaining embryos were donated, giving someone else the possibility of their own long-awaited beginning.
And then, through every appointment, every hurdle, every uncertainty and every hiccup along the way, that little girl grew.
Darcy Rose. ๐นโจ
About a year and a half ago, long before there was a pregnant belly or a due date on the calendar, Shelby asked me to photograph the day she would finally meet her baby.
And I said yes - Well, I said MAYBE.
In all my years as a photographer, I had only ever photographed one birth before, and that sweet baby was born an angel. I had never accepted another birth story.
Birth photography has always scared me for one simple reason: you can't reschedule a birth.
What if I had a wedding? What if there was an emergency? What if I couldn't get there? What if, on one of the most important days of someone's entire life, I let them down?
And now, working a corporate job with even less flexibility, I genuinely had no idea what my life would look like a year and a half after Shelby booked me... but she trusted me anyway.
So this past week, I waited, I worried, I paid attention to how far I was from the hospital at all times, and I checked my phone approximately 98579874 times.
To my clients who have wondered where I've been: I've been a nervous wreck waiting for a little girl named Darcy Rose to decide it was time. ๐ You will all be hearing from me very soon, I promise.
And then she arrived, on a day off when I didn't have to worry about a wedding or getting fired.
On September 3rd, 2026, I walked into Jasper Memorial Hospital and witnessed something I don't think I'll ever have the right words for.
I watched nurses and staff encourage her, care for her, advocate for her, and remind her of her strength when she needed it.
I watched Shelby endure something unimaginably difficult and somehow continue finding another ounce of strength every single time she thought she had reached the bottom of it.
I watched her roar her daughter into this world, and at 10:03 a.m., after years of dreaming, planning, science, uncertainty, determination and an unbelievable amount of courage...there she was.
Darcy Rose.
The little girl who existed in her mama's heart long before she ever existed in her arms.
I have photographed so many important moments in people's lives. Weddings. Families. New beginnings. Milestones that I know will live on long after any of us.
But standing in that room and witnessing an entirely new human being take her place in this world was different.
It was one of the greatest honors I have ever been given as a photographer - and as a woman.
There is something indescribable about watching an all-female staff come together to bring life safely into this world. The strength of the human body. The vulnerability. The pain. The determination. The way an entire room can become completely focused on helping one woman through the hardest moments of her life.
And Shelby?
Shelby is a badass.
She didn't wait around for the future she wanted.
She fought for it.
She planned for it.
She created it.
And then she brought her into the world.
Welcome, Darcy Rose. ๐นโจ
You were wanted long before you were here.
You were chosen in a thousand different ways.
And you have one hell of a mama.
P.S. - Funny note to add, after setting alarms every two hours I was so excited to jump into my car for the drive to the hospital that I forgot my memory card case. Quickest trip to the local walmart EVERRRR, who thankfully opened right at 6am ๐
