Like so many other Viet Nam adoptive mommies, I met Kelli online. We were both fighting a battle against the clock and against bureaucracy to bring our children home. One particularly nail-biting day, I could sense the terror in her online communications, but I had information that would help ease her worry so I risked it all and sent her my phone number telling her to call. I was just doing what any mom to be would do, but I found out how much it meant to her later. When we were all able to exhale and talk more freely.
I was privileged enough to be one of the first to see Aiden Bao in his first photos sent from Viet Nam. Considering it an honor to do so, imagine how I felt when Kelli found out I was coming to Chicago and could I do a shoot for them? Kelli drove in from Indiana and was ready to unleash He Who Made Me Work For The Shot! I was dying just to meet them in person, but to be asked to photograph Mommy and her little Prince was cathartic and healing in ways I couldn’t have imagined until I was there. Shooting. A. Miracle. I still get emotional thinking about it and unless you were caught up in what we were caught up in, it is hard to explain. Just trust me . . . it was a full circle experience.
Aiden, however, could not be bothered with such silliness. There was this whole park that needed his footprints on it and if I wanted a piece of him, I’d better be quick. The 70-200mm, 2.8 was MADE for Aiden. It was REQUIRED for Aiden. I just had to lie in the grass waiting for him to zoom by. Luckily, it never occurred to me to try to pose him. What a loss that would have been. You want to meet Aiden . . . just look at these photos. That is who he is!
*Slideshow*
Chicago Family Photographer, Chicago Lifestyle Photographer, Chicago Portrait Photographer, Indiana Family Photographer