Every year my grandmother pays for my son's birthday pictures. Every year I get asked why I'M in some of the pictures.

He's my one and only. I was 19 when I had him. We were abandoned by his father in the hospital the night he was born after a 73 hour labor, emergency section, and a sudden admit to the NICU. I have always hated being in pictures but, I want him to grow up and have pictures showing that I CHOSE HIM, I didn't run away, and I want him to always have a little bit of "us". It might be selfish for me to have a handful of mommy and me pictures done for his birthday. I don't really care. Every year for seven years now I have a picture of him looking up at me, of him giving me a kiss, of him hugging me.

We have pictures of a bond I don't believe we'd have if he had siblings and I'm okay with that.