children

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Maternity, Newborn, Portraits, Studio

Maternity & Newborn Portraits: Timothée

When we walked into the Lacour family home, we were so amazed at their antique furniture collection! I found out that Justine and Cyrille had shipped all these furniture from Singapore where they used to live. It was quite a task moving some of the heavy Buddhas around to make space for the newborn shoot. What amazed me more was that Justine was helping to move the dining table herself, just 7 days after her C-sec! Where does this woman get her strength from?

Diane photographed their maternity portraits at our studio and I shot Timothée’s newborn shots at their home. What a handsome little chap!

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Diane In Parties & Events, Portraits

Tanusya’s Ear Piercing Ceremony

I admit. It was my first ear piercing ceremony coverage, but that didn’t damper my excitement! I love doing things that challenge my own photography status-quo, and quite truthfully, I was also stoked that I get to wear my under-utilised Punjabi Suit!

Having known the very chatty and bright-eyed Tanusya when the family came to our studio for a photo session, I know I am in for good, lively company. The family enjoyed the studio session so much that Tanusya’s mom, Sri, decided to have me photograph the event. What great honour! So I jumped right into my research about ear piercing ceremonies and prepared myself for what was to come.

20140907_Tanusha_Ear_Piercing_072 And true enough, it is was really quite a grand event. The temple hall was quickly occupied by teachers, friends and family. I can tell they how much they love Tanusya just by seeing the amount of gifts they have given her.

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Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Portraits, Studio

Dreams Come True: Shaun & Jochebed

Shaun and Jochebed have waited a long time for Eden to arrive. Way too long for any longing parent-to-be. In fact, the waiting was the cause of many heartaches, tears and prayers to her Lord Jesus Christ. Their hearts longed to see that test kit prove positive, but time and again, they were disappointed. She desired to conceive and prayed earnestly for more than 3 years. Every time she hears a story of a parent who doesn’t ‘want’ a child that they have conceived, she was heartbroken. To her, every child is precious, especially the autistic children at the centre she works at. The doctors suggested IVF but they decided to try IUI instead. Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful.

One of the breakthroughs she experienced was when she really delved into the word of the Lord to see what it had to say about women and pregnancy. God caused many miracles to happen and every barren women who loved God in the bible conceived. Childbirth is really in God’s original plan, and He is totally into expanding the next generation! (just check out those old testament family trees… wow!). Jochebed was led to google stories about miracle conceptions and it really increased her faith to believe.

One month after they tried IUI, Jochebed conceived naturally. Precious little Eden came into the world and turned their lives upside down. As I chatted with Jochebed about her story, we both unanimously agreed about how many women feel ashamed to discuss issues about infertility. Especially in Asian culture where you have to ‘endure’ comments from well-meaning family members who ask year after year… “When are you having children?”

For me, I waited 6 years to have Krysta, but that was a personal choice. However, with irregular periods like mine, it was a miracle that I too, conceived Krysta, and subsequently, Kyle. It occurred to me that every conception is really a gift from God. While we can try many treatments, in the end, it is the Lord who gives. But we really do not have to feel ashamed to talk about such things. There are many women out there who have shared similar experiences.

God is indeed good.

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Diane In Family + Children Portraits, Portraits

A Japanese family in KL: Yohei & Fumiko

Yohei, Fumiko and their two adorable children Shotaro and Shinjiro moved to Kuala Lumpur for work this year and wanted some casual portraits to remember this milestone in their life. Especially since Shinjiro was turning one at the time of the shoot! They feel it is such a great opportunity to experience different cultures and meet new people as a family. We’re glad to be able to document snippets of their life here in KL. It was a pleasure meeting you!

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Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Life, Musings, Portraits, Relationships

The birth of Kyle

20141030_KYLE_EZRA_LAM_182 I must truly give thanks to God for the birth of my two children, Krysta and Kyle. Everything from conception to birth is really a testimony of how good God is. For someone like me who has irregular menstrual cycles (once every 4 months?), I am firstly quite amazed that I could even conceive in the first place. I remember after I stopped breastfeeding Krysta, my period only appeared once and then in March this year, my pregnancy test kit proved positive! God is indeed good!

Kyle was due on 1st of November 2014, but around the first week of October, I started having really bad cramps that I could not explain. The pain was excruciating and came frequently, so much so that one day, I thought that I was having contractions as I could feel an intense pain every 5 minutes. That Tuesday morning, I went to my hospital for a check up and during the scan, was told that I wasn’t having contractions and the baby and water bag was fine. It was then that I discovered I had urinary tract infection and was given a round of antibiotics to cure it.

But two days passed by and my pain was still there. I just endured it but on Wednesday night, it was really so painful after every cramp that I had to stop doing whatever I was doing and allow the pain to pass. The next morning I was due for my final pre-wedding photo shoot before my scheduled c-sec the following week (Kyle was in breech position). That night, I called my staff to standby for the shoot the next day in case I couldn’t go because of my intense pain.

I guess God had other plans because that Thursday morning, I noticed a bloody show on my underwear and realised that labour had already started! Once we reached the hospital and did a scan, we realised I was already 4cm dilated and was experiencing contractions! (and to think I was about to head out for a shoot!). Kyle was under distress and his heartbeat was slow every time a contraction came. Within half an hour, I was in the operating theatre and during the operation, my gynae said that my water bag had burst some time back as I was completely dry. But despite of all that drama, Kyle was born safely on the 9th of October 2014 at only 1.99kg.

By the way, Kyle’s name means “Victorious!”

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