While I was out of town this weekend I received an email containing these photos of Sophie. With so many other things going on, I'd actually forgotten about the photo shoot she'd planned with the talented Megan Gneiting.
I stared at these beautiful images which capture how I see my daughter every day--in the first picture I can actually hear the laugh which follows that smile--and felt like someone had wrapped me in a deep, warm, embrace.
It's not that Sophie's establishing a colony on Mars or anything, but she will be leaving home to attend university soon. Regardless of her comings and goings from that point on, I understand things will be different, and I can't deny the dawning of this reality has been harder than I'd imagined.
Seeing these photos felt like out of the blue, someone had given me this moment to keep forever.