When a baby dies and doesn’t get to come home from the hospital with its family, dreams are dashed and hearts shatter.
Those families need an extra helping of love and care to help them heal, and it’s always an honor to be a part of their story.
Most of my friends and many of my clients know that I spend a good deal of time volunteering for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep as an Area Coordinator. We provide heirloom quality baby portraits for the families who must face the loss of their little ones before or at birth. Beautiful timeless black and white images of these angel babies.
That’s what we do — and we do it at no charge. We do it because we care and we do it because we CAN.
I feel SUPER blessed to have found an outlet for my skills and talents that just might help someone’s broken heart begin to heal.
Well, there’s another group in town that also helps bereaved families who have lost an infant at any stage of gestation or early life. Volunteers with Baby Gowns for Eternity take wedding dresses, formal gowns, and other special occasion dresses, deconstruct them, and lovingly create beautiful tiny gowns and embellished pocket wraps. They simply want every little angel-baby to be wrapped in love and dignity for their burial.
Very recently Houston’s ABC Channel 13 news team filmed a story about the Baby Gown group, and it just aired this week. Click here to watch the video and learn more about them.
I was there that day too, and these are some of the wonderful volunteers that I got to meet.
There’s a volunteer position with Baby Gowns for anyone who wants to help. These are the organization’s two youngest volunteers. They are very very good at removing buttons and ripping seams.
There’s this gorgeous young woman who officially joined our family nearly a year and a half ago — and there’s also this amazingly scrumptious dress that’s been hanging in our front hall closet ever since the day she and my first son returned from their honeymoon.
I’ve been waiting and waiting for her to get back into the dress and go play with me and my camera. The old adage about the shoemakers children having no shoes definitely carries over to photographers as well. Our own kids are the last ones to get booked on our portrait schedules. It finally fell together not too long ago when we had a trip planned with just a little extra time to kill.
Lisa earned her degree in nutrition from The University of Houston, and she is very good at creating oh-s0-yummy and still super-healthy goodies in her own little kitchen. That’s why Sweetpea’s Bakery provided a perfect first stop for us. Unfortunately, there was no cupcake sampling for us that day because the shop was going out of business. Everything was still adorably decorated, though, and we had private access. Definitely a lucky coup for us.
It’s great to have inside connections, and I’m thrilled that we got to shoot here before this place went away. BUT… an Italian Cream Cupcake sure would have tasted good about now. RATZ!
Oh how I love working in back alleys…. small towns, urban centers, doesn’t matter… give me some good grunge, and maybe a little street art… HEAVEN!
Moving garbage cans out of the way gets a little bit nasty, but I know to carry wipes and hand sanitizer.
Probably the highlight of our session for me was spending a little time at “The Station.”
We drove over to an old empty Mobile Filling Station that my grandfather owned and operated until the mid 1970’s when he retired. It wasn’t just an ordinary filling station either. This station had a bar that served up ice cold longneck bottles of beer, and for the kids, every flavor of sodie pop you can name… and ice cream sandwiches. Mmmmmm!
I think that about a half dozen local retirees used to practically rotate shifts, sitting on the bar stools, drinking and smoking at the station. I never knew their names, but can still see their faces in my mind’s eye. A liquor store was attached, but with a separate entrance on one side of the building. On the other side, a corrugated tin drive- in awning, or car-shade as we called it, allowed people to sit in the shade in their cars, drinking cokes or beer and eating snacks as long as they pleased. When the customers wanted to place an order or were done and ready to leave they could honk the horn and Pawpaw or one of his employees would come out side, take orders, and deliver treats on a window-mount tray.
I ran around this building with my brothers and cousins, barefooted and out of control for years…
My my how times have changed. The gas pumps are gone. I do NOT get out of the car without shoes at a filling station or anywhere!
The doors are locked, but the station building still stands, just a little more worn from the years that have passed.
I am so glad that I got to share this little bit of family history with our newest family member.
Well, here’s to an exciting first at SPCcreative Photography.
Hannah is my very first Senior Portrait client to also become one of “MY” brides, and I can hardly WAIT to watch the next chapters of her sweet life unfold.
I still remember her senior session. She brought her ultra-handsome and oh-so lovable new boyfriend, Jake, along for part of the shoot, and we included him in a few of our images. While I could tell they had something very special between them, logic tried hard to convince me that I was just being a sucker for young love.
Who would have thought that Jake really was going to be THE ONE? I guess they both knew a good thing from the get-go.
Hannah and Jake were married in the chapel at The Brookwood Community where, as it turns out, I worked as a development officer for the first three years that we lived in Houston. Brookwood is a beautiful campus with a fascinating mission. It’s located just outside of Brookshire, Texas.
RATZ my link didn’t seem to work, check out www.brookwoodcommunity.org for more info.
I love it when a bride has a special idea that she wants incorporate into her session, and Hannah wanted to create a special gift for her father. Ahhhh the sentiment!
You can’t tell here, but we all shared a few tears while she wrote this note on a slate.
Best wishes Hannah and Jake — for a LONG and HAPPY life together.
Aubrey and Michael. What can I say? I ABSOLUTELY adore this couple.
It’s not just the bride and groom who made this wedding such a joy to photograph, but their parents and their bridesmaids and groomsmen as well.
Talk about a kind and helpful and . . . well … just downright genuine and fun-loving group! If I could photograph an event for people this delightful every single weekend, I would do it in a heartbeat.
A dream in her ruched and pleated ivory dress, Aubrey made an absolutely stunning bride.
Then, when the groomsmen came outside with their amazing fedoras, I knew we’d be in for a delightful evening. And you know what? I was right.
