Indianapolis Newborn Photographer | Raw Sugar Photography

Part of my job as a photographer is to tell a story. Usually, that story can be told through pictures that capture love, silliness, sleepy newborn smiles, curly toes, fuzzy ears, 3 year-old defiance, 9 year-old awkwardness, or any number of features and emotions that will help you remember this time, this moment. But sometimes, pictures don’t tell the whole story, and these stories need to be told. Other people, other families, other kids, should know that they’re not alone in their struggles or their differences. Sweet Lucille, who you’re about to meet, has quite the story of her own. Even though she’s only a few weeks old, she’s been a plan in the making for many years.

As parents, many of us hoped and prayed for our babies, but can you imagine if hope after hope got deflated, and prayer after prayer went unanswered? Sadly, it was a long road for Jessica and Paul to end up where they are now, happy parents of two healthy children. 13 years ago, doctors told them they wouldn’t be able to have children naturally, a sad reality for many couples that dream of being parents. Jessica and Paul decided that adoption would be the best option for them. They were chosen 3 separate times as adoptive parents, and each of those 3 times, the adoptions fell through. They couldn’t take another heartbreak, so Jessica started looking into alternatives. She came across embryo adoption. I won’t go into the science of it, you can read more about that here, but with the help of the National Embryo Donation Center Jessica and Paul were able to adopt 10 embryos.

The first embryo transfer didn’t take, something they were prepared for, but the second transfer, Jessica and Paul found out they were expecting twins. Jessica carried those babies for over 4 months, but sadly, at 22 weeks she went into premature labor. The babies were born alive, but at only 22 weeks their lungs were underdeveloped and they lived only a few short hours. Another devastating loss for the couple. They weren’t going to give up though, finally in late 2012, Jessica gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Linus. And, now, a little over two years later, Miss Lucille made her debut.

Before I knew their background, I did what I do with all my newborn clients, I scanned Lucille’s features and tried to decide if she looked more like mom or dad, I had settled on dad when mom revealed their extraordinary story. One day, Lucille and Linus may look in the mirror and wonder whose eyes they have or whose nose and that’s when mom and dad get to tell them the amazing story of how they came to be, and how incredibly wanted they were.

I am so humbled every time families share these very personal stories with me, stories I would never know if I had just seen them at the park or the grocery store, and every time I ask them if I can tell their story, they tell me “yes.” I am in awe of their generosity and willingness to relive some painful memories with the hope of helping other families going through similar situations. RTV6 actually did a story on Paul and Jessica a couple years ago when Linus was born, if you’d like to see that, you can check it out here. Thank you Jessica and Paul for sharing Lucille and Linus with me, and their story with the rest of the world.

Raw Sugar Photography specializes in newborn, baby, maternity, child, family, couples, and engagement photography in Indianapolis, Indiana and surrounding areas, including but not limited to, Fishers and Carmel.