I had the most wonderful privilege to document two very dear friends as they welcomed their little girl into the world. What an honour it is to be in the presence of two people as they go from man and woman, husband and wife, friends and lovers to mom and dad. The beautiful moment when three beings become family. Can you imagine? Having those first few moments, those raw emotions captured forever on film?!

I knew I was in for a treat when I walked in the door at 3:30 in the morning and was welcomed by my labouring friend with a, “Hey Dane, take pictures of whatever you want, it’s good to see you!!” which was quickly followed by some ‘vocal coping mechanisms’. Seriously, this girl was the most calm and polite woman I’ve ever seen in that amount of pain. She was laughing and joking between contractions and just really pleasant to be around.  I guess I should maybe go back and tell you the whole story so that you can understand how being witness to these two as they became parents was truly special.

I grew up on Vancouver Island, I had a huge crush on some guy who was two years older than me when I was in grade 9. His name was Shawn. I was one in a long list of gals who doted on him, and because of this, I never got to see my crush come to fruition. It was alright though, because we became good friends and were in a band together (which was pretty awesome, and I’m SURE we would have been something big if we had ever recorded anything). Anyways, he graduated and moved to Calgary, met Sarah and the rest is history. I, too moved to Alberta and would see Shawn and Sarah from time to time. I immediately fell in love with his new gal and could see just how perfect these two were for each other. I was honoured to be at their wedding and watch them two get hitched(which was also a wonderful opportunity to reincarnate our old band for a song or two).  I also got married around the same time and was told we were moving to Thunder Bay…(what?? I had never even heard of it before I met this guy!) So my relationship with S & S became facebook bound and we were all alright with that.

It was Easter and Nik and I went out to Calgary to visit my mum and dad. I knew that Sarah was due any day to have her baby so I facebooked to see if she’d want her delivery documented. I’ll give it to you that it was a little out of the blue, but I knew that if I had the opportunity to catch those first few moments of my kids’ lives, I would jump at it. And jump she did! She was excited and I was excited and Shawn was excited, so there we were. Just waiting. I had to leave on the Sunday and it was already Friday and her midwives had told her that she wasn’t going to be going into labour anytime soon (she was already a few days past due). But in the wee hours of Saturday morning I heard the phone ring and lo and behold it was Shawn telling me it was time…I don’t think my feet carried me fast enough. The rest is history and I want to thank Sara and Shawn (who kept saying how surreal it was to have me there, the friend of his youth) for inviting me so enthusiastically to be involved. I love you both and I love your baby girl!!