December 28, 2018 ~ Jackson, Mississippi ~ Birth: Ezra Langston
The story seems too unbelievable to tell, and honestly if I didn’t live it, I wouldn’t believe it either.
I won’t ever forget this day. This 36hr day that was a beyond hard labor & delivery for my dear friend Jasmine.
A few months before her due date, Jasmine said on social media that it would be a dream to have
Jemmie Photography shoot her birth, so I messaged her and said if she was serious, let’s make it happen.
She cried. I laughed. We tried to tentatively plan. If God wanted it to work out
(and it was literally a gift of God that it did), then God would put me there.
{A bit tricky since I live 3 states away!!}
Thursday, December 27th at half past noon she texted me saying she was going to be induced that night
but didn’t think her labor would go quickly. I said “okay”, listened to my gut, drove home,
and at 4pm started a drive that wouldn’t take the normal 10, but 12 hours due to intense rain in whiteout conditions
(is there a road? I can’t see it. God, make one?), tornado warnings, flood alarms, and gale force winds.
Straight through the night on a half cup of coffee and a lot of playing “That’s how I got to Memphis” on repeat.
I was 1.5hr away when Phillip texted me she was 7cm at 2am. I wasn’t going to make it. I cried.
But at 4am I walked into Jasmine’s room with the line “Someone wanted a birth photographer?”
For the next 8 hours I watched, prayed, held hands, cheered, turned my head away to cry silently
(that Enneagram 4 feeling ALL the emotions and pain for her!), and stood watching with my whole heart in my eyes
as my warrior queen of a friend, Jasmine, labored and was literally held in tenderness by her “steadfast love”
{“Phil? I need you.” “I’m here, baby. I’m right here.” “It’s so so hard.” “You can do it my love. You are radiant.”}
Labor. Shaking hands. Deep moans slipping out. Birth playlist playing “Your labor is not in vain…”
I will never forget the memories of watching Phillip & Jasmine labor together.
Jasmine, mighty, exhausted, “beyond what she could handle yet brave beyond her own knowing”
roared in agony, shook with adrenaline, cried in pain, gripped Phillip, and fought to bring her precious son
into the world in a natural birth. I’ve never been or will ever be more proud of her than that day.
She. Is. A. Lioness.
I won’t ever forget the day Ezra Langston Holmes was born and the cheers that rose and the tears that fell.
This is so little of the whole, hard, beautiful, agonizing, shining, tearful, belly laughing hours of that day.
But now you know a little too, and you know just how much it all really is. Birth is a miracle and a gift.
30 seconds after she delivered her son, after the cord was unwrapped and untangled and Langston was
passed between her legs to be lifted up to her chest, THIS was the moment Jasmine realized she’d DONE IT.
Her look of pure joy and relief she shot me made tears fill my eyes as I cried “Oh Jas!!!”
and then she looked up at Phillip in utter joy as cheers filled the room “You did it!!!”
What a huge honor and a privilege to be so present in the most intimate and personal moments of the day Langston
arrived & the days after. He is honestly one of the cutest and dearest little boys I’ve ever met in my life. I love him forever!
Thank you, Holmes family, for loving me so much and inviting me into a special space & being so amazing!
Congratulations again (4 months later)!! I love you all with all my heart. – JM
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