Thursday, February 17, 2011

Paying it forward...

Back in January, I asked my clients to nominate someone they thought was deserving of a free photo session and $250.00 print credit. I feel like we have been blessed this past year with the adoption of our daughter and how things fell into place for us, I wanted to give back. I got 2 different emails that were both nominating the same family. I thought that was a sign that these people had to be very special and deserving. Once I read the emails, I realized they truely have had a rough few years and deserved to have something positive in their lives. Now they can sit back and enjoy a photo session, with no worries of the cost. Their friend Holly and Bonnie wrote me letters explaining their situation. They both told about the same couple and their 2 children, who are adopted from Korea. Their son had very bad asthma and spent a lot of time in the hospital. He seems to be doing well now. They have a sweet daughter that has been through one struggle after another. She has a condition called chronic neutropenia. She now needs shots everyday. She also has severe allergies, she is allergic to so many things that she can only eat a very limited diet. She was eventually put on a feeding tube. She has been through some very hard times, and even close to losing her sweet young life. The mother, a wonderful generous person, took off work to care for her children because of the health problems. Part of Bonnie's note read "The father, Justin is the most wonderful husband and father and he has been so strong taking care of his 3 family members. Jamie, was previously a nurse, and has a passion for nursing. However, when Joella's medical issues surfaced she realized she could not be left in the daily care of anyone else, so God made her Joella's personal nurse. Jamie misses nursing and struggle daily with her own physical pain and emotional stress of her family situation. This family cannot attend or participate in many outings/events that most families can because they have to worry about allergy issues and germs with Joella's immune system and growth issues."
If this weren't enough to deal with, about a year ago Jamie fell down the stairs and had back surgery and an extremely hard recovery. Here is a bit of the letter that their friend Holly sent to me. "About a year ago when Jamie fell down the stairs in their house, backwards. She broke her back. She had to have back surgery to fuse her spine. It didn't go well, either. It's been a year now, and she still is not, and likely never will be, fully recovered. She can walk, but needs a cane and not for long distances (she uses a wheel chair when out in public most of the time). She cannot drive. For months she could not be home with the kids alone, so this one income family had to hire a babysitter for both her and the kids."
"Justin has been a trooper through all of this. I don't know how he does it. They are the sweetest and more generous people. They give so much, despite all of their challenges, and truly deserve to be 'lucky' for once!!"
I agree I think Jamie and Justin should be lucky for once. So they are the winners of a complimentary photo session for the whole family! And a $250.00 print credit. I hope you enjoy it, I know your friends think you deserve it and so do I!!