finn

i start to tear up around the Rockland/Rockport town line on Route 17 now. i will be fine until i hit that point, and as soon as i drive by Chickawaukie Lake (otherwise known as Chicki Stretch, also known as the place I have easily gotten about $2,000 worth of speeding tickets in my 14 years of driving) water will stream down my face and i instantly feel excited, happy, and even nervous that i am within arms reach of home. i don’t even have to see anyone i know and no one has to stop and talk to me on the street, but just being there is a pair of flannel footy pj’s for my soul.

the last time i traveled on the ferry to Vinalhaven, an tiny island community off the coast of my hometown in Maine, i was so young that both my hands fit inside just one of my grandmothers. she was wearing her good coat with hard, brass buttons…i buried my dirty blond head into her lap and tried not to think about the rise and fall of the boat. and even on the way to meet baby Finn a few weeks ago, i was surprised at  just how much this ferry moved with several cars, several people, a few dogs, a rabbit, and a dump truck filled with loam. it cut through the fog, and at the end of the 45 minute ride, lobster buoys and boats and seals sitting on the grey rocks appears almost as if by magic.

Sarah grew up on Vinalhaven, and her and her husband Chad had planned to have their sweet little babe right there in the same house as she and her sister were born. Finn had a different idea, and was born 3 weeks early on the mainland…a 45 minute ferry ride, away. in labor. on a boat, sick, getting ready to have a baby…for almost an hour. Sarah’s island life and her incredible gift of writing, is probably what made her a strong candidate for the NPR Baby Project, and she was chosen as only 1 of 9 expectant mothers across the WHOLE country to chronicle their stories of birth and the first few weeks of motherhood.  despite the fact that Finn did enter this world in a hospital on the mainland, actually getting to the hospital was an adventure that few of us have to worry or even think about.

we photographed Finn in the same house Sarah was born in….just that thought gives me tingles. i have to say, i have done a lot of sessions with babies, but this one just felt like home to my heart.

i have to say that i am not the only one who is sad to see the NPR’s Baby Project come to an end. i have so enjoyed reading Sarah’s blog and i am just praying that she will keep an online journal so i can still read her amazing words. click here to check out all of her entries….{click}.

{NPR Photograph Feature}

daily mantra: i feel we are all islands in a common sea…anne.lindbergh