this family came into my life over ~ MILK! RaShell took on the responsibility of the raw milk co-op i’ve been part of for many years. we have become good friends and getting to love on her family has been the bonus! i hope what you can see conveyed through these images is the picture of a strong bond, which takes my mind straight to chemistry… the kind that are difficult to break. if you are a science person you can see the triple lines in your head. from top to bottom team Southerland is Jason, RaShell, Hannah, Daniel, Joshua, Ezra, Jonathan ~ Ezra grabbed my heart in some of these!! he loved the camera, or maybe the lady behind it ;}

jonathan was having a hard morning… fighting a cold, facing bright white sky light and then the wind was brutal on top of that. just before this last-last image, i was engaged with the older children playing on the boxcar, but out of the corner of my eye caught jason laying the baby down on the sidewalk for lack of another place to rebundle him!! rashell’s response to me later… “a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do”! LOVE IT! this was our final shot and one of my favorites. i love team southerland!

i woke up thinking that there is a story of my life and the life of my inutero grandchild to be told. somehow they are intertwined. it is for good because God’s promise is true ~ all things work together for good for those that love Him. this is my journalistic expression ~ continuum ~ in images of our daughter and coming grandchild. and also, this is a post to show how growing life is so dear…

at this time, jenna and cash are already amazing parents of a baby ~ in the womb. they were mildly tried in getting to this place. nothing seems more concise and clear as these verses: “Three things are never satisfied, NO, there are four that never say, enough… hell, a barren womb, a parched land, a forest fire.” {Proverbs 30:15-17 the Message} their happy announcement came at the beginning of week 6… baby Case!

week 7

week 9

week 11

week 12

week 13

14 weeks and fyi’s here…
you can google any week of gestation and find out the amazing changes taking place! baby case is 3 1/2 inches long and can make faces… squint, frown, grimace :/ {something like that i guess}. the kidneys, liver and spleen are working organs. this baby can peediddle! i also believe that swallowing is going on as well because the swallowing/peeing cycle is all part of the healthy ratio of amniotic fluid forming. the baby is the size of a lemon. i love lemons!! so all of these will remain in color 🙂


15 weeks



below ~ a representation of the exponential growth… grape = 9week!

16 weeks ~ entering into the “glow” of it all ~ which is completely displayed in jenna now! nausea is nearly gone, anticipating feeling flutters soon and so close to knowing who this is growing inside.





week 17… i love this week in images. doing one simple thing that every household with children does made jenna smile even though she was actually fighting a bad cold ~ boo. babies in the womb are measured from “crown to rump”, which i should have made clear before. at this point the baby measures approximately 5″ so imagine jenna and cash’s baby sitting for his/her first height check :} tangibles are good… what is truer is that God is good; tangibles are fun!



jenna and cash’s little “sweet potato” at 18 weeks… measuring 5 1/2 inches head to bottom ~ feeling life ~ ~ little flutters toward the right. baby case must be stretching out! tomorrow we should know WHO this is. happiness. {carved heart idea ~ jenna’s friend}



19 weeks ~ this one is significant… jenna and cash now know this is their little boy! his name is cash ezra after his daddy cash elliot… keeping initials the same. i love him and i love his name. it is good to be praying for him, my grandsong ~ that was a typo, but i think i will leave it as it… made me smile ~ maybe he will sing :}
updates on gestational information: at 19 weeks neurologically the sensory system is becoming more highly defined. cash ezra can hear those prayers now little mama and daddy!! his arms and legs are proportionate to his body… weighing in at 8 1/2 ounces and 6 inches from crown to rump. during my years of labor/delivery work in philadelphia i witnessed my first inutero surgery on a 19 weeker. miraculous. 25 years ago that was cutting edge technology… i feel sure it has become much more common now though no less spectacular.
in the images below, i actualized our fruit baby this week! one site said the size of a mango, but none measured 6″ so i added a kumquat head and a bowtie! our little man :}






20 weeks!! though jenna didn’t want to include her face in this shoot, she seemed the loveliest i’ve ever photographed her… so i win and here is her face with baby banana now measuring in at 9 inches from crown to heel!



21 weeks!!
at this gestational age, little cash is approximately 9 1/2 inches tall and weighing 1 lb. the correlating fruit/vege is a carrot… not too interesting that one skinny carrot so we tied 1 pound’s worth together all about 9 1/2 inches in length and let the green tops remain… jenna is dreaming of a baby with hair :}


{holding place for 22 weeks}
23 weeks ~ jenna has this full presence of life. everyday. everyone has now felt cash ezra kicking and it makes us laugh! by the charts he is approaching around 11 1/2 inches. goodness it is getting difficult to find a representation of that in the produce isle :/ lots of ‘hair’ talk on the updates… i love that about babies ~ the soft everywhere hair. i gave jenna a bit of a glow in this weeks images ~ she is going blond soon anyway so we may-as-well get used to it.

continuing…

the hope of families is to raise up successful families… the sad part in today’s world is this usually means separation by distances as school and jobs relocate our children. the following is documentation of the Wardlow family ~ 4 generations represented. it is the first time they have all been in the one place at the same time for many years. in my work, a story needs to be told… what is living and going on between the people. the beauty to me is that it isn’t perfect and little ones do make funny faces and cry… but it is representational of what is perfect for this family ~ hence, the sign “together”. that wasn’t exactly their vision for the shoot, but i am happy they allowed it for some of the images… that point to me was the most defining of what was occurring. there is a lot of love here and a lot of happy. i can still hear the robust laughter when they all got silly and the incessant chatter – i hear music!! i am less than formal and love it when my clients can embrace something outside the box of ‘usual’ photo stuff. thanks for going with me on this gayla, and for those of the family that drove the hundreds of miles to make this happen (i think greg and sandy)! teenagers, you were really special to me. your love showed for each other and your embracing and helping with the little ones helped me immeasureably ~ and i will remember you all. my husband got in on this evening as it took 2 cars to haul all the props to our location… he now understands why my legs ache a little after a big busy event 😉

all because of these faithful two!!

(if you have ever watched ‘romancing the stone’… in the beginning where the author, joan wilder, is crying at the end of her own book ~ that is me today. families do happen because of love and two people. i toast this completion with a hershey’s kiss.)