Photo Captures Deeply Emotional Moment Family Meets Adoptive Daughter
A friend documented David and Sarah Olson’s “unbridled love,” meeting their adoptive daughter for the first time, in a powerful photo series that’s going viral online. (Photo: Kristen Anne Photography)
The initial moments of welcoming a baby are often described as a blur, but David and Sarah Olson will always be able to look back on meeting their newborn daughter clearly. A photographer friend, Kristen Prosser, captured each nerve-racking, heartwarming, and awe-inspiring minute in a set of stunning photos that has gone viral, touching hundreds of thousands of people.
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Photo: Kristen Anne Photography
“We brought Kristen for our family memories,” David tells Yahoo Parenting, about flying from Minneapolis to Tallahassee, Fla. with Sarah and Kristen, his wife’s college pal, on July 22 to greet 4-day-old Tilly Pearl. “Never in a million years did we expect [so many people to respond to the images] but we are so honored to be able to share our journey with others.”
Their hope, he continues “is that through these pictures and our story, birth mothers might find some peace in their decision, that adoptive families might look forward to their match, and that more people might understand the transcending power of love that flows through adoption.”
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Photo: Kristen Anne Photography
To hear the father describe it, that love hit them the second they saw Tilly. “If you have ever had a child or watched a birth, that moment of recognition is so very difficult to put into words,” he told Today. “It is an unbridled love for this human. That is the love we felt for this little baby. …Within a split second of holding her, we couldn’t imagine life without her.“
Photo: Kristen Anne Photography
Watching the couple made an equally powerful impact on Prosser. “I have always wanted to photograph the first meeting of an adopted baby,” she wrote on July 24 on Facebook, where she shared the photos of the family. (Her images captured the Olsons in the airport on the way to get Tilly, waiting at the hospital on pins and needles, and finally joyfully embracing for the first time — and have been “liked” by a staggering 303,000 people). “This week, I got to be a part of this incredible moment with one of my best friends!”
Photo: olsonfamilyadoption.com
It was a moment nearly a year in the making for the parents of three, including biological sons, Zakary, 6, and Levi, 3, who decided to adopt shortly after Levi was born with spina bifida and physicians discouraged Sarah from pursuing another pregnancy. “We’ve always wanted three,” said the mother in a video that she and David made as part of the process, during which four previous adoptee-matches fell through. “And, something in my heart wasn’t done yet.”
From the instant they committed to the idea, their future daughter became a part of their family. “We plan for her,” Sarah says in the video. “We talk about her. We think about her.” And soon they will bring her home.
“Our adoption attorney is working hard to push our paperwork through so that we may all be home,” David tells Yahoo Parenting. Until then, the couple video conferences with the boys, whom the dad says ask daily if Tilly is coming home.
Photo: Kristen Anne Photography
“They are both excited to be with her and have mom home,” he says. “On the other hand, this has been an unbelievable time of bonding…lots of cuddles and quality time with our daughter, so, it’s all good. But we can not wait to have our family whole.”
Photo: Kristen Anne Photography
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