Out of the blue, I received an inquiry from a Mom whose husband had just received military orders to head to Afghanistan.  He flew back to KC from Fort Bragg and had just a few days before he needed to head back to Bragg and ship out to Afghanistan.  They wanted to head to the West Bottoms for some unique family portraits and we did some posed shots and some casual, relaxed and natural portraits where the kids were just having fun blowing bubbles.  The three kids were so much fun and so cute and it was obvious how much their Mom and Dad adored them.

For those of us not in the military, it’s hard to imagine what it’s like for families to be separated for long periods of time, much less to have one of our loved ones head off to a war zone.  The parent that leaves has to focus on their mission and their job and it’s impossible to understand how much they miss their family unless you’ve walked in their shoes.  The parent that is left behind must run their family and put on a happy face for the kids so they don’t feel the stress or worry of the deployment.  That’s a tough job.  I can’t thank our servicemen and women and their families enough for the sacrifices they make so the rest of us can enjoy personal freedoms that are unknown in many parts of the world.

Thank you M. Family!  (and hug those darling kids for me please!)

This is my personal favorite from their session because I felt like it truly captured the kids personality.  We created a 3 image storyboard using this image and a series of shots similar to this one.

Everyone LOVES this red door!

Mom is an interior designer so she appreciated the juxtaposition of posing with this chair in front of a brick wall!

Don’t you just know they love each other?