Abbie Madden | Newborn Session

At the beginning of the year I set a goal for AC Madden Photography of writing + posting two blogs per month. And while I haven’t come even close to hitting that goal (life happens, oops!), I have recently shared two gorgeous galleries + recaps of an engagement session and my spring family mini sessions.

But what I haven’t sat down and written yet is perhaps one of my favorite subjects to capture - newborn photography - until today! And what better way to kick off this corner of my blog than with a recap of my BEAUTIFUL and perfect niece: Abigail Claire Madden.

But first – a little backstory on Abbie’s parents, my brother-in-law Matt and his wife Sarah:

The first thing you should know about Matt and Sarah is that they have probably the COOLEST job of anyone I know: Diplomats for the US State Department. They do a lot of great work in their respective roles, but the most fascinating thing to me is that they get to pick up and move to a new country every 2-3 years, with a ~12-month break in between posts back stateside in Washington, D.C. to brush up on or possibly learn a brand-new language to prepare for their next posting. Are you impressed yet?

Their recent post brought them to Shenyang, China, which upon arriving in Beijing for the mandatory two-week quarantine period (note: despite being married and sharing the same air on an airplane for 24+ hours, they were forced to stay in SEPARATE hotel rooms), Sarah took a pregnancy test on a bit of a whim and was surprised to confirm that they were in fact pregnant!

After enduring what I’m sure was a frustrating (understatement of the century) education in maternal health protocols in China (my favorite of her stories was how, when she complained of headaches and debilitating nausea to her Chinese doctors, she was refused medicine and told simply that “Chinese women just deal with the pain.” …right.), she was medically evacuated to the US, where Matt joined her a few weeks later.

Fast forward to April 26th, 2023, and my incredible sister-in-law delivered the most precious little girl into the world! We are absolutely smitten with her and getting in all of the snuggles before she and her parents return to China in August.

So, with that - enjoy these images I captured from their Atlanta Air BnB a couple weeks ago: