The best day of our lives…

About a week before our scheduled C-section, our friend Steve Rosen asked if we were planning on having his wife Jodi, an amazing photographer, take photos of Finn’s birth.  We reminded him that we were having a C-section, which we didn’t figure would make for good pictures.  He responded by sending us a recent photo slideshow that Jodi had compiled for another couple who had had a C-section… and when we both ended up teary-eyed for a couple we didn’t even know, we decided to give it a shot.

What Jodi pulled together through nearly 400 pictures and an immense amount of love is nothing short of breathtaking and beautiful.  I’m sure there will come a day when I can watch this slideshow without crying, but it isn’t any day soon.  

We are so grateful to Jodi for sharing her gift with us, and for her loving and lovely chronicle of this incredible day in our lives.  I am especially grateful, since I was a bit out of it during the surgery due to some issues with my spinal, and had to remain flat on my back for Finn’s first hour of life.  Through these pictures I was able to experience moments in my son’s life that would have otherwise been lost to me, and which I am so thankful to have now.

A few things to watch for:

• the look on my face when we are talking with the anesthesiologist about my spinal (terror)
• my loving husband, whose outfit looked like a combination of Haz-Mat and a French painter, and who was the rock I needed that day
• our OB’s scrub cap – yes, it is Spongebob Squarepants

As Israel Kamakawiwo Ole sings so beautifully in his version of “Somewhere over the Rainbow” at the end of the slideshow, dreams really do come true.

So grab some Kleenex, turn up the volume on your computer and click HERE to watch the debut of Finn Michael into our lives.

(by the way, you’ll need to install some software to view the show – it is all perfectly safe, so just keep clicking “yes” and “allow.”  All you Mac users are unfortunately out of luck – better go find a friend with a PC!)

If you live in the Seattle or Portland area, think of Jodi the next time you’ve got the need for family pictures, birth pics or any other special occasion.  Her site is www.jodirosen.com, and as you’ll see from these pictures, she is outrageously talented.