<br/>the night Drew was born OR Rachel has a baby while Willy is deployed

On October 7th, 2015 at 1:15 a.m., I pulled up to the hospital in Temple and knew that I hadn't felt this happy about being awake at this time since I was in high school.This was the first birth I've (Jade) ever had the honor of photographing. Rachel contacted me last April and told me she had a unique challenge for me. Had I ever photographed a birth before? And could I just call her, because it would just be easier to explain over the phone. She wanted to ask me to be present at the birth of their second child, because her husband Willy would be deployed. He couldn't be there, but her Mom and a close friend would be, and Willy would hopefully be able to be there via FaceTime, so she wanted me to be there to take photos because that would hopefully help Willy feel like he had been there when he got to see them. I very enthusiastically said YES. I had no idea what it would be like. But Rachel had been so brave to ask, so brave to reach out and invite a practical stranger (we had met once before) into one of the most difficult and biggest moments of her life. It was one of those requests that just felt so much bigger than me; I would have done anything to be a part of it.Willy watched over Face Time as Rachel became this incredible superwoman during her labor. He encouraged. He made her laugh. He looked on, worried and excited as she made him a Father to his second child. "It's a boy!" Rachel's Mom handed me the phone because I happened to be on the side of the bed where the warmer was, and where little Drew Raymond was now crying big healthy cries. Will looked at his perfect baby boy from thousands of miles away, feeling all those emotions a Father feels for his son, on the other side of the world.It's a miracle, isn't it? All of it. That a woman can carry and labor to deliver a perfect child. That Will is able to use this crazy Jetson technology to be present in a moment where he can't be physically present. That Rachel was strong and fierce and a freaking superwoman. That this little boy will grow to know that his father and mother are brave people who serve this country well, at great sacrifice to their family.Tomorrow morning, Willy comes home. He will get to hold his wife and his babies for the first time as a family of four. And I get to be there to witness this too. These images tell the story of the night Drew was born. And tomorrow I'll get to share the day he meets his Dad for the first time, and I'm already teary about it.