Yours, Mine And Ours

1) Hands: Matt, 27; Abbey, 25; Luke, 15 months

2) Feet: Matt, 27; Abbey, 25; Luke, 15 months

3) Eyes: Matt, 27; Abbey, 25; Luke, 15 months

Learning to love my natural self has always been a fight. A battle in my mind of what is "beautiful" and "desirable" in the materialistic standards of the world, versus embracing the body that allows me to fully experience the joys and true beauty that same world offers. Being a part of the blogging culture comes with a lot of digital enhancement, tweaking, and erasing flaws. But how does that help? I like to witness that other women out there are happily living in their imperfections and welcoming them with open arms. I don't want to be afraid of judgments anymore, I just want to fully love myself. Unpainted toenails and all (which is a weird insecurity I've had all my life -- my toenails being unpainted and bare). 

I can tell you the exact shape, tone, and look of every part of Luke. Call it the mother's memory. And that sweet, tiny body of his is perfect. At what point do we go from appreciating this precious gift and start critiquing it and demanding it's not good enough? Don't get me wrong, I don't like body hair, pimples, wrinkles and any other funky thing that happens to the aging body (and obviously I like makeup and all that crazy stuff), but it is part of being human. We don't need to be freakishly and perfectly glossy and preened with a certain body fat percentage to be exquisite and loving of ourselves. 

Hence, I give you the hands, feet, and faces of the ones I love, myself included, even though it scares me a little to put these out there for the world to see. Unedited (minus a few exposure and lighting adjustment to give the best view of the photos), no cosmetics (although those are the remnants of some lash extension -- no, my lashes are not that long naturally! I wish!), and raw -- just the way God made us. And you know what? I think they are beautiful.