[ambient music] - [Adoptive mom] Boone, this is where we live.
This is our world.
The home we so lovingly inhabit.
[alarm beeping] This is your mother.
And this was her routine before you were born.
[door creaking] [water splashing] Methodical.
Careful.
Intentional.
I realized early on I wanted to capture these seemingly insignificant moments.
What I've learned throughout my life, especially while waiting for your arrival, is that nothing is insignificant.
[machine whirring] The planning we did.
- That's locked.
- [Adoptive mom] The organizing.
The prep.
Making your nursery inhabitable, comfortable.
The shopping.
Looking at all the products we'd soon have to learn how to use.
All of it seemed so minuscule, yet so overwhelming.
We are the small things and I wanted to capture that.
[gentle music] So I picked up my camera, and I thought being behind it would take me out of the picture.
Would allow me to solely capture, rather than feel.
A bit of separation from my deep-rooted insecurities about motherhood.
- Okay, please stop.
- [Adoptive mom] But, now I understand.
- Can you please stop?
- [Adoptive mom] There's nothing more personal than pressing record.
Oh, look at him.
- Oh.
Your mother went through hell to bring you into this world.
He's adorable.
- [Mother] And these are the needles that also had to be prescribed.
- [Adoptive mom] For almost 10 months, she sacrificed her body and her health to create you.
She was diagnosed with gestational diabetes.
- I hate this part.
- Had to completely change her diet, inject herself with insulin every day.
- One, two, three.
- [Adoptive mom] Prick her finger to test her blood sugar after every meal.
The doctors tried everything to lower her blood pressure.
They hooked her up to machines twice a week to make sure you were okay.
We had no in-network doctors or hospitals in Wilmington, so she had to pack up and move back in with her parents, your grandparents, for a month and a half before you came, away from me, in order to make sure you received quality care in Charlotte.
Her high risk and complicated pregnancy was the reason I picked up a camera in the first place.
But behind the camera, I was panicked.
Not only did I have to face my fear and doubts about motherhood, and worry about your mom, I had to stress over the legal aspects of this new responsibility.
- Boone's birth certificate.
And look, who's listed as the father.
See, in the eyes of the law, you're not my true son.
Since we aren't biologically linked, I have to prove my parenthood by adopting you as my step child.
Fingerprints to the State Bureau of Investigation, references, some 60 hours of paperwork and $2200 in lawyer and adoption fees later, I'll finally have a piece of paper to prove you're my son.
Nothing like the legal system to add a layer of doubt on top of a mountain of raw insecurity.
But, you're my son.
Always have been, paper or no paper.
And besides, you aren't ours, we're yours for the rest of our lives.
[heart beating] In the hospital we were on the edge of exhaustion and panic.
With your mother's complications, and a dramatic drop in blood pressure in the middle of the night, it was scary bringing you into the world.
[light music] [baby crying] But, then you were here.
Seven pounds and three ounces of pure screaming joy.
And the rest just felt like a dream.
Staring at you, holding you, are you really here?
Leaving the comfort of the hospital was our first step into new, unknown territory.
We drove away laughing at how little we knew about being parents.
And now it's almost three weeks later.
You've grown.
We can see the physical characteristics of your face and your small body.
The way your pinky toes curl in more than the others.
Your big, beautiful, icy blue eyes.
Your hair that matches your mother's.
I hoped for that hair, those eyes, those toes, that face.
[baby cooing] And we've learned your quirks too.
Like your hatred of pacifiers.
[baby crying] Your scream when we change your clothes.
How you're hungriest when we need to sleep.
Sometimes you open your eyes and smile at us.
- Gonna smile?
- You giggle when you dream.
[baby laughing] You seem captivated by stories.
"The Grinch hated Christmas, the whole Christmas season."
We read to you every night.
"Now please don't ask why.
No one quite knows the reason."
Your bookshelf already overflows with shiny new books.
We had to find creative ways to stash them all in your nursery.
This film is a type of story, much like those overflowing from your bookshelf.
- He be coming.
- A sort of document or testament to the beginnings of you.
- [Mother] You're being filmed right now.
- [Adoptive Mom] And maybe one day, when you're old enough, you can watch the things you can't remember.
- Just chilling.
- He's watching.
The moments of love between your mother and me.
Moments that ultimately formed you.
Took you from our imagination to a real, breathing person, our son.
It won't be the last time I have a camera in your face and I won't hide behind it anymore.
Maybe it'll embarrass you eventually, filming your birthdays, moments with your friends, sports if you play any.
We'll probably be those moms at talent shows or school plays.
Or maybe even better, you'll think nothing of it.
Consider it normal, pick up the camera yourself and tell your own story.
Your children's stories.
Maybe then you'll understand, we are the small things.
There's nothing more personal than pressing record.
Let me zoom in here.
- This is what having a baby looks like.
- Let me get it focused.
- Bags.
- Where you going?
What trip are you taking?
I don't know.
[baby cooing] [woman laughing] Aw.
[crickets chirping]