As soon as we got on the beach, T was off collecting shells. It was a great day for shell collecting! I could tell right away how close this mother/daughter duo were. N was always attentive to T, anticipating her next move, and making sure everything she did, she did it safely.
I wasn't sure how T would react to me, so I put on my long lens and I stayed back at first, just capturing them from afar as they scoured the beach for shells.. and crabs in the tide pools, occasionally asking if they'd found something good.
I was expecting a shy little girl who wasn't going to be easy to approach or talk with after all she's been through in her short little life, but I was very pleasantly surprised to see how opposite of that she really was. She was sweet, and warm, and silly, and engaging.
N is no ordinary Mom. She is a single Mom who has never bore any of her own children. She is 29 years old and has been a mom now for 4 years to the sweetest 9 year old girl you'd ever meet.
T is 9 years old. She's the luckiest girl in the world because she has the best Mom in the world. Her Mom was friends with just the right people, at just the right time, to be in just the right place at just the right time so that one day she would become her adoptive Mom and love her the way no one else had loved her before.
T wasn't always so lucky though. Her story didn't have a happy beginning. Unfortunately, she has known uncertainty, heartache, fear, and loss. Finally, after the first 4-5 years of her life, social services decided they needed to take T away from her birth mom because she wasn't up to the challenge of caring for the little girl. Instead of letting social services place her in foster care, N, her Godmother, stepped in (at only 25 years old) and said she would take T. They told her it would only be for 3 months. Three months turned into 6, which turned into more, and more, until T's birth mom's rights were terminated in 2009.
N officially adopted T as her own on National Adoption Day in November of 2010. N has had to make some major changes and sacrifices in her own life in order to accommodate her daughter, as any mother would, but just spending a little while with them and I could tell that N was certainly suited for the job.
It took T a while to adjust to her new life with N. Things didn't come so easily at first. T missed her birth mom and had a hard time accepting that she wasn't coming back at first. DCF (Department of Children & Families) & MARE (Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange) gave both N & T the resources they needed to move forward, and come together during that time.
N asks that if you are touched by her story at all, or if you know of any child who has been a victim of abuse or neglect, or if you just want to do something to help someone who really, really needs it, please consider making a donation to The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Please follow this link to do so. Every little bit counts! I'm pleased and proud to say that KBP will also be making a donation in T's honor to MSPCC.
Enjoy some of the photos from our very special session below:
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