Baker Beach: Bendz Family Portrait

I’ve been so excited about this post because the Bendz fam­ily was the very first con­test win­ner ever on our blog. I love giv­ing things away but giv­ing away pho­tog­ra­phy is way up on the list. Pic­tures of loved ones are so impor­tant to us so to give that to another fam­ily is as much a gift to us as it is to them. This fam­ily in par­tic­u­lar is even more spe­cial to us besides being win­ners and it was the rea­son they were cho­sen — their daugh­ter Maggie-Faye has Cys­tic Fibro­sis. It wasn’t just the fact that Maggie-Faye has Cys­tic Fibro­sis but it’s what her mom and dad did with that news that’s so inspir­ing. Holly Bendz was the win­ner of the Mother’s Day Give­away because she is not only a mother, but she is Maggie-Faye’s advo­cate. She is  an advo­cate for her daugh­ter and for so many fam­i­lies out there strug­gling with this same dis­ease. Holly is an advo­cate for the Cys­tic Fibro­sis Foun­da­tion. We even ran into some­one who had just heard her speak the day before as we were start­ing to pho­to­graph them. The gen­tle­man came up to Holly and thanked her for the encour­age­ment she gave him. It was the neat­est way to start the session.

We had a blast from the minute we started all the way to wash­ing the sand off of our feet. This fam­ily is just incred­i­ble! Watch­ing Bob and Maggie-Faye be silly together brought smiles to my heart. And watch­ing Maggie-Faye kiss her mommy’s belly that holds her soon-to-be sib­ling was the icing on the cake. Holly and Bob radi­ate with laugh­ter and kind­ness that makes them so much fun to be around. I could go on and on about the dynam­ics of this sweet fam­ily but I will allow the pic­tures to dis­play their won­der­ful personalities.

Holly, thank you for being such an inspi­ra­tion to so many. The way that you fight for you daugh­ter is remark­able. But I love that your heart is so big that you had to reach out and fight for oth­ers too. You didn’t let the bad news get you down, but you took the bad news and are doing some­thing great with it. Bob, thank you for all of the laughs! I can see why the two women in your life always have smiles on their faces. You truly made this ses­sion a blast. Maggie-Faye, thank you for your imag­i­na­tion. Watch­ing you talk to the pigeon to help her find her mommy was the cutest thing ever. I hope you never lose that imag­i­na­tion as you grow up. We just love the three of you and can’t wait to meet the one on the way!

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Please meet the lov­able Maggie-Faye. She’s gotta be one of the most styl­ish kids I know. That dress, those bangs, and those rockin’ blue eyes. Oh, and how could I leave out the beau­ti­ful porce­lain like skin?

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There isn’t a pic­ture from the day that bet­ter rep­re­sents the Bendz fam­ily than this one. I just love it!

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Oh, how I love this moment!

I can only imag­ine what is com­ing out of her mouth. This kid has the most unbe­liev­able vocab­u­lary for her age, com­bined with per­son­al­ity. Who knows what is going on here, but I love it!

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The baby started to kick as we took these images and it all brought Holly to tears. She looked at me and said that she’d remem­ber this moment for­ever. That is exactly what we want for every one of our clients so to hear it come straight from Holly was the best way we could end the ses­sion. Holly, you are absolutely beautiful!