Today sucked. It was one of those "gah, I wish I weren't a mom today" days..we all have them. But then I see photos like this on my camera roll and I get a total perspective change. I was a cranky, selfish brat today. I totally was. But this, this right here is what keeps me going....I thank my Lord every day for giving me my five little gifts. And this is why I take so many photos...to remind me.

A photo posted by Kassi Bacquet (@kassibacquet) on Apr 20, 2015 at 9:42pm PDT

 

Years ago I stayed in Niger for 3 months covering a story on the Tuareg identity. One day I was invited to this beautiful wedding and being a woman I was privileged enough to discover the behind the scenes, where women were hiding. Being a woman photographer has always been a great advantage for me, I will always be fascinated by the closed worlds within the world. #agadez #niger #africa #wedding #celebrate #party #tuareg #everydayafrica #everydayeverywhere #africanwoman #reportage #being20inagadez #sahara #keltamasheq #tamasheq #tenere #desert #nomads #bedouins #tandemreportages #photojournalism

A photo posted by Matilde Gattoni (@matildegattoni) on Dec 28, 2014 at 5:14am PST

 

In a tiny mountain village #chechnya

A photo posted by markosian (@markosian) on Aug 19, 2014 at 5:37am PDT

 

Plum was awarded with Honor Roll at school today, so we celebrated with chocolate milk and donuts.👍🏼

A photo posted by miss james (@bleubird) on Apr 15, 2015 at 2:38pm PDT

 

Mother and son, Nablus...and the ubiquitous hand gesture of Middle East. It can mean slow down, calm down, listen...and occasionally: have some manners. Photo by @habjouqa #nablus #palestine #westbank #mothers #culture #occupiedterritories

A photo posted by Tanya Habjouqa (@habjouqa) on Apr 14, 2015 at 1:51pm PDT

 

Indonesia - Bangka Island - Batako - Malasari Amirudin, 33 years old sitting next to her 15 year old daughter Novi Akher are portrayed in the room where they live sharing an apartement with 5 other miners. Amirudin has mined since she was ten, collecting tin scraps falling from the washing lines. Recently, she was joined by her daughter, who had just come from Pangkalpinang, the capital of Bangka. In a day, they can gain around 20 USD by collecting 3 kg of low concentrate tin. Lost in the Indian Ocean, the tiny Indonesian island of Bangka provides 30 percent of the world tin, a vital metal for assembling electronic products. Fed by the global hunger for smartphones and tablets, illegal tin mining has now turned this once tropical paradise into a hell on earth, causing environmental destruction and a neverending stream of deaths. Every year, up to 100 miners lose their life drowned under the sea or buried alive by landslides in their desperate quest for tin. Some of them are children as young as five. Bangka's tropical forests have been devastated by thousands of moon-like mining pits, full of acidic water contaminated with heavy metals. Offshore mining has already killed 60 percent of the local coral reef, destroying the livelihood of local fishermen and harming the tourism industry. #bangkaisland #indonesia #tinmining #tin #deathmetal #environmentaldisaster #waterpollution #waterissues #pollution #environment #asia #everydayeverywhere #everydaysoutheastasia #everydayasia #miners #motherhood #motheranddaughter #family #love #tandemreportages #photojournalism #reportage #wireduk

A photo posted by Matilde Gattoni (@matildegattoni) on Jan 18, 2015 at 10:05am PST

 

Finding shells 🐚

A photo posted by kristinrogers (@kristinrogers) on Apr 20, 2015 at 7:58pm PDT

 

👪✈🗽👋🏻🐶🐶 ➕ 👩🏻❤🆕👜

A photo posted by Stasha (@northwestmommy) on Apr 13, 2015 at 11:59am PDT

 

To kick off Cystic Fibrosis awareness month I wanted to share something a fellow mom [Bree Alsman] of a CFer wrote - it's so true to my heart, I feel I could have written parts of it myself. Some days… Some days Its ok. Some days I can think positive. I can see the light in a child's disease. I can see her fight, her innocence in thinking 20 pills a day is normal. I can work hours of breathing treatments and airway clearances into our schedule like ballet class or nap time. I can ignore when she coughs and when she tells someone with her sweet little voice in passing she has a cold and I can smile and keep going without having the urge to tell them it isn’t really a cold, that to call it that would be like calling cancer a bug or AIDS the flu. Some days I can hold my breath while she coughs and then ask her questions like what would you like for lunch? or what did you do today? I can act like it doesn’t pull at my heart, like I’m not every-single-time saying a prayer in my head fighting to keep my legs straight and not bow down on my knees right then and there. Some days I can talk of a cure and tell people about the enormous strides we’ve made in science and how some children are living into their 30’s, 40’s and beyond. I can say this and skip around the thought of the ones who don’t. I can tell about her blood work and x-rays, about how at 4 years old she already has inflammation and irreversible lung damage with out picturing them, her tiny lungs. Without watching her breathe in and out and wondering each time if she’s breathing in a new bacteria, a new illness that will cause more little foggy marks in radiographs that should not have to be taken of a child this small. I can talk with a grin of the other things that fill our lives and how a disease will not stop us from doing these things that we love. And somedays I can’t. (Continued in comments)

A photo posted by Kassi Bacquet (@kassibacquet) on Apr 30, 2015 at 6:09pm PDT

 

Mother walks daughter to school in west bank village of Yatta. Young girl had snazzi shoes & a curious gait #westbank #palestine #dailylife

A photo posted by Tanya Habjouqa (@habjouqa) on Feb 19, 2014 at 1:18pm PST

 

A Somali mother tries to protect her baby from the harsh sunlight while queueing for food distribution in Dadaab refugee camp, the largest one in the world. #somalia #kenya #war #refugee #drought #africa #everydayafrica #humanitariancrisis #hunger #motherhood #protection #dadaab #refugeecamp #somalirefugees #latergram

A photo posted by Matilde Gattoni (@matildegattoni) on Aug 23, 2014 at 3:33am PDT

 

A mother and her daughters gaze out at the sea in Gaza. #palestine #gaza

A photo posted by Tanya Habjouqa (@habjouqa) on Jan 22, 2014 at 1:42pm PST