Like everything I ever lost come back to me. ~Nayyirah Waheed

When she got home from the hospital that day, the adoption agency called. It had been a whirlwind few weeks. After losing their beloved 13yo pup and unexpectedly moving, they found out they had been selected to adopt twin boys. But when a pregnancy test - the same sort of stick that had said no for so many years - told them they were expecting, they told them they couldn’t take on three newborns at once.

But that pregnancy ended a few weeks later, and with her head swimming with everything that had happened, hearing the adoption agency’s well-wishes could wait. She let the call go to voicemail.

The message held new news: a little girl had been born very early, and they were the only couple that met all of the birth mother’s criteria. Could they?

Yes. Of course, yes. We’ll be right there. They met their tiny daughter hooked to machines and wearing a diaper half the size of their palms. It would be a long 100 days in the NICU getting their girl, Bria Grace, healthy enough to come home.

Two thirds of the way through that stay, a new surprise. Another stick with a yes. And this time? It stuck. Two babies to welcome in a matter of 9 months, both met with so much love and capable hands.

These images are the start of a very special Don’t Blink Project of two babes that join Lori and Andy’s family in very different ways but will have the exact same experience of unconditional love from here on out. Bria is 9-months old in these images, nearly completely off of oxygen, and baby Brennan, who was born two days before Christmas and I get to meet very soon, was in his final weeks of brewing inside Lori. The photo of Lori on the phone? Oh, just her on the phone with the hospital working out Bria’s latest testing while in the middle of a photo shoot. So much responsibility met with such joy. It is simply an honor to get to tell this story. I cannot wait to watch it unfold.