Family Pictures Not Taken

You may remember this post which was originally featured as a guestblog on Overwhelmed!’s blog. Family pictures. And the fact that ours will never be complete. Well, the pictures came in today. I scanned them. I showed them off. I smiled at how pretty my family looks.

And then I broke down in a fit of sobbing messiness.

She’s not there. She’s just. not. there. She’s missing. While it may seem like the three people complete the picture in a family type way, there’s one person missing. Two if you want to get further technical. It really just stung me. This is the first portraits we’ve had done as a family. Yes, we’ve had some snapshots taken by friends and family of the three of us, but nothing “professional.” This picture, purchased in a 10×13, will hang on our wall for all to see.

And every single time I look at it, I won’t see the fact that whitening my teeth the night before was a good decision. I won’t see how much BigBrother is starting to look like J. I’ll see the missing girl.

And so, part because I was bored and like to play with graphics and part home-remedy therapy, I fixed it. Of course, the size proportion is off. The coloring isn’t the same though I tried to mess with brightness and contrast to get the same studio effect on the lighting. It was the best I could do.

But she’s there. Just like she is in my heart.