Kari’s parents divorced when she was young and when people ask her, “What’s it like having a lesbian mother?” she responds, “What is it like not to?”

Kari describes her mother’s wedding in March as “pure joy” because of all the years she had to be discreet about her relationship.

Sandy said the best part of the wedding was how excited everyone was – her office, Robbie’s office and even the hotel. “I wasn’t expecting this much acceptance,” she said. “It blew me away.”

Even Sandy’s mother and father blessed the union. “My mother called to say she was glad Robbie and I were getting married,” Sandy said, adding that it was the first time her parents had ever said a positive word of acceptance.

Now with the birth of Jalen, the family has a lot to celebrate.

A fine art maternity photographer, Jennifer Loomis is known for her groundbreaking work with the pregnant nude and her help in moving semi-nude photography into the mainstream. Photographing all types of women, from welfare mothers to the wives of celebrities, Loomis has a studio in Seattle and flies every month to San Francisco, where she shoots in clients’ homes. She has been photographing pregnant women for over 12 years, and has photographed more than 800 pregnant mothers in that time. She also takes photos of partners, babies and families, and is one of the only maternity photographers to combine a career in photojournalism with fine art photography.

Loomis holds a master’s degree in photojournalism from the University of Missouri and has worked as a staff photographer for the Kansas City Star, the Evansville Courier and MSNBC.com. She has also freelanced for Time, U.S. News & World Report, CARE International and the Gates Foundation, and worked in Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Nepal, Mongolia, Singapore, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya. Her work has been featured in the Seattle Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Sunset Magazine and Epregnancy, a national pregnancy magazine.

A collection of her photographs of gay and lesbian families debuted in June in San Francisco during Pride weekend.

Loomis, who donates her services to approximately 50 fundraising auctions throughout the year and offers sliding-scale shoots, said she seeks to redefine women’s perception of their bodies and how society views pregnant women. She created the business motto, “Feel Beautiful”, because many of her female subjects said they felt beautiful during and after the photo shoot, and some of her clients have said that she makes them feel that their bodies are beautiful for the very first time.