Valentines

I love this post from photographer Brianna Graham today where she follows one family through several beautiful changes. She is amazing and I love that she captured some mom & dad images of life after baby.

Wouldn't it be great if movies and other art forms weren't all about the chase to get the object of affection, but real love? What about the love that evolves after the wedding, and baby, and challenges of life? I guess they don't write about it because it's too difficult to put it into words. It's easier to stage the hook-up than what it feels like to love someone who is in the trenches with you and loving you in spite of all of the things that end up on the cutting room floor in the romantic comedy version of your lives. The ugliest things are photoshopped out. Because of that, the depth of marital love is often missing in movies, books and music.

It's in those little, not so polished moments when my husband and I are both exhausted and overdrawn on responsbilities and he makes me laugh or takes the dog out at 2 a.m. in the snow, that I feel like I've been given something greater than I ever new existed. Better than a dozen roses. Better than a boat ride on the Siene.