Giving back

As many of you know, both of our girls are miracle babies.  Abby, now 6, was a premie, and was in the NICU for almost 2 months.  She could have been alot worse off...a lot worse off, but we were young, and on our own with no family or very many friends with us in Hawaii, and had no idea what was to be expected. She had bradycardia which is a condition that caused her to just randomly stop breathing and her heart to basically stop for a period of time.  Yeah, it was scary.  The unknown is so scary.   Jordyn was 2 weeks late, and I ended up having an emergency c-section from her getting stuck in my pelvis part way through delivery.  When they pulled her out, she was basically considered dead with an apgar score of "2".  They used full life saving measures to bring her back.  She was intubated for 4 days.  We could barely even touch her.  We did not get to hold her until she was almost 5 days old.  The worst 4 days of my life.  She had seizures and all sorts of different types oforgan failure during her 2 week stay in the NICU.  The most important thing though: They DID get to come home, which I can not tell you how BLESSED we felt for that alone. 

Because of these experiences, I sort of have a love-hate relationship with NICUs'.  I love them because I know my girls needed to be there.  They saved them.  They kept them alive.  I hate them because I didn't get to bring my babies home with me when I left the hospital.  I didn't get to hold them whenever I wanted.  I had to scrub in, and be let in, anytime I wanted to see my own babies.  I had to be told how to take care of my babies.  I had to be told every day, why they couldn't come home yet.  So yeah, like I said...love-hate.  It is such a stressful time to have a baby in the NICU.  Nobody plans for it, but it happens.  And I know many parents, such as myself, felt very ripped off.  One thing in particular that was taken away from me, was being able to get brand-new-baby Newborn photos.  Looking back, if we were in the right mind, we would have hired a photographer to come in and capture at least a few moments of our NICU journey with both of our girls.  It would have be so special to have that first time we got to go in and see them, or the first time holding them, captured to have forever.  Sure we took some photos ourselves, and we got a few family shots by nurses; but it is just not the same as getting real photos that show emotion and love.

Enter my idea.  Why not give that to NICU parents?  Why not combine two things that are so personal to me and use that as a gift, and a way of giving back for all the blessings in my life?  I had been tossing around the idea for a long time and finally... I decided that was what I wanted to start doing.  Should I just randomly start doing this, or should I get involved with some sort of organization?  My husband said, "hmm, I wonder if there is an organization that does that?"  Sure enough, there is a wonderful organization call "Pictures of Hope".  After reading all about what they do and what they offer, I decided that I wanted to join "Pictures of Hope".  Basically as a member, I would be giving free NICU photo sessions, along with professional prints, to families with babies in the NICU.  I really believe this is the PERFECT project for me.  I am hoping that since I have lived what these other families are currently living through, it will help me better capture the emotion that comes along with having a baby in the NICU.

In the past, I worked with OpLove which provides military families with deployment photos, and since we have never been through a REAL deployment, it just didn't inspire me as much as I had hoped it would.

Pictures of Hope hits so much more close to home.

I will be getting in touch with our local NICU here in Minot, as well as hoping that word of mouth will get around that I am offering this.