Infants are gifts. Yes, the newborn human being is a gift, but more, the babe is a being that holds an infinite number of gifts just waiting to be doled out. These gifts are destined to be spread out across the span of a lifetime. From that first cry to first smile, to first steps, first day of school, all the laughter and funny sayings and on and on, babies grow into the children who become adolescents and then adults that are the gifts that keep on giving.

Heavenly is a new mother. Like most mothers she watches her baby boy develop and change right before her very eyes. For many, the changes are nothing short of miraculous. And no matter how long a day might be, how endless a night, an overwhelming feeling of awe almost always emerges when calmness sets in. The challenges are necessary for growth and all of them are elements of the miracle of life.

I had the privilege of meeting Heavenly when she was a newborn herself. I remember the love in her own mother’s voice when she told me her name. It was a name that made a statement. It proclaimed the promise of a life meant to shed light and love on those around her.

Heavenly has grown into a beautiful young woman. She lives up to her name. She is blessed with a mother who has seen the promise of Heavenly as a baby grow into even more promise as she matured into a little girl, then a young lady, and then a mother herself.

Experience and wisdom tell us time and again that our children’s childhoods pass so quickly. Never is that more true than in their first months of life. What a gift these photographs are to Heavenly–and to her young son and her very own mother. We cannot contain these moments, these gifts, because time does not stand still for it. But we can make memories and document the feelings in photographs. And of course, these tangible pieces of the present that become the past only become more and more valuable with the passage of time.