This surrogate pregnancy session is near and dear to my heart.  My other in law was a surrogate for twins and is one of the generous and selfless people I know.  

I had always really admired this selfless act of surrogacy - surrendering your body to give a child to another family.  So when Kyle contact me asking about a maternity session for a surrogate pregnancy, I was so excited!  Though Kyle is originally from Oregon, Kyle and Charles currently live abroad and they were just in town for Jalyssa's 20 week ultrasound appointment.  So we had to get photos in THAT DAY!  We were also somewhat limited by appointment times and daycare schedules for Jalyssa's toddler, so we did what we could to work around the weather…

But it's Portland, Oregon.  In April.  So it's basically always going to rain.  And boy did it rain!  We really didn't have any other option to reschedule, so they TOTALLY embraced the rain.  And it was awesome!  I did what I could to cover my camera and keep it sheltered while we were walking between locations and trying to find some tree cover, but even the tree cover didn't do a whole lot to keep the rain from reaching us.  I was worried at first about trying to edit rain drops out of the photos, but after I just embraced the rain as well, it was fun to run around and play and just get wet.  And I think the photos have an authentically Portland vibe to them.  You can see the big fat drops falling down around everyone when we were way up on the hill, and it gives the session it's character. 

And hearing Jalyssa's story was so heartwarming.  She had always wanted to be a surrogate since she was a little girl, but when she looked in to it as an adult, she learned that you have to have already had a child in order to be a surrogate candidate.  Happily, she found a partner and discovered she did want a child of her own as well, so they had a little girl.  And after a while she applied to be a surrogate!  Kyle is originally from Oregon and when he and his partner, Charles, were looking in to surrogacy, they decided to use a surrogate close to his home.  Charles is from France, and apparently the State of Oregon has very surrogate friendly laws, so they went with an Oregon surrogate!