4 + 2 = Complete | Vancouver Family Photography

Meet the Pullyblanks. They are the fun family I had the pleasure of photographing down at Jericho Beach on an amazingly sunny January day. They are also the recipients of this years Giving is Awesome session. They have been working and searching for the past five years to complete their family. I am so honored to have had the opportunity to photography them together in their completeness. Scroll down to read their story as told by Tiffani.

The Pullyblanks Story (the medium version):

Our family has never had professional photography services before, because we went straight from “we can’t afford that” when my husband was a student and I was a stay-at-home-mom, to “we can’t afford that because of the adoption” once we had decided to bring two more children into our family via African adoption.

We tried to save all the money we needed for the adoption, but life often gets in the way of such plans, and we’ve gone largely (oy) into debt in the quest to bring our kids home. We began our adoption journey five years ago, with many twists and turns and bumps in the road along the way. Multiple home studies combined with moving several times and the legal challenges placed in our path have both extended the time-frame and challenged us in many ways.

At one point we discovered it was possible to adopt from the beautiful yet poverty-stricken country of Uganda. We hired a lawyer there to help us adopt, contacted the orphanage he recommended, and were matched with a beautiful 2 year old girl whose photo we quickly fell in love with. Over the next few months, we worked to satisfy the US government (as I am a US citizen) that we were a suitable adoptive family, and sent in the fees requested by the orphanage to process Esther’s paperwork, all the while getting prepared for her to come home to us. I opened my email inbox one day to the subject heading “Esther is dead” and collapsed in a sobbing heap just as Mark walked in the door to catch me. We all grieved for Esther, who we were told had died of malaria, and for all the children in Uganda and
around the world who fall victim to malaria each day.

Once we felt ready to move ahead, we found a more ethical lawyer and a wonderful orphanage also in Uganda. We were quickly matched with our two beautiful children – a 4 month old baby girl and a 2.5 year old boy! We continued on with fingerprints, background checks, medical exams, etc, to satisfy US government requirements. The exact day we finally received our approval from the United States Government the US embassy in Uganda stopped issuing visas to adopted Ugandan children, and this stalled everyone’s adoptions by about 5 months. We finally welcomed Zachary and Rose into our home this past November. This however, quickly washed away the logistical nightmare we had been through and allowed are focus to fall on the REAL work of becoming a family.

It took 5 years to bring them home, and I’m HOPING it will only take 5 years to dig ourselves out of this financial hole – but every single penny spent is more than worth it, was totally necessary at the time, and brought together two abandoned children who had very little hope of ever having a family, and the family that had been dreaming of them and working toward bringing them home forever.

Thank you Mark, Tiffani, Lucy, Dexter, Zachary & Rosie for allowing me to enjoy the sunshine a sea air with you. It was a pleasure to document this chapter in your family life.