Celebrate Motherhood Project

I am happy to announce that The Celebrate Motherhood Project was published on January, 2020.

More about the Celebrate Motherhood Project.

1

When I was a child, I remember there was always a photo sitting at the center of my father’s desk in his office. It was a portrait of a beautiful woman with four young children.

I asked my father: “Who is this woman?”

“It is your grandma.” My father said.

“Which one is you?” I asked, puzzled.

My father gazed at the photo with a loving look and answered: “I was not born yet.”

I remember how surprised I was! This is the only photo I have with my grandmother and her young children. Being a single parent, she endured many hardships and raised all five children by herself. Among them, three have become accomplished economists in China. I knew my grandmother was a courageous, strong and determined woman. However, without this photo, I would never have known how beautiful, elegant and graceful she was as a mother!

To our family, this photo is a timeless portrait, cherished by her five children and twelve grandchildren.

2

Around the time I became pregnant with my first child, I also discovered that my mother had been diagnosed with lung cancer. In the last months of her life, I was at her bedside. I put my mother’s hands on my tummy to let her know she would be having a granddaughter soon. My mother was able to feel her granddaughter’s movement for the first time – so gentle, like a butterfly’s tapping.

Four months after my mother passed away, my daughter was born…

My daughter’s birth was an emergency C-section that I will never forget. I vividly remember when we brought our daughter home from the hospital. It was a wintery day and the first thing my husband had to do when we arrived home was to shovel the driveway. As I sat alone in the car, I looked at our baby in her car seat, covered by a yellow blanket and wondered: “What am I going to do with this tiny thing?”

That is how motherhood started for me twelve years ago. I can honestly say that nothing has taught me more in life than being a mother.

My children are also the reason I have become passionate about portrait photography. Motherhood portraits hold a very special place in my heart.