A busy week - Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

Ok, so I haven't really gotten used to blogging yet. I've been so busy these last few days that I've collapsed into be around midnight and don't even remember falling asleep! I had to reschedule a 6 month session for a First Day PHOTO! "graduate," this morning because my kids are sick and I didn't want to get the little boy I was supposed to photograph sick. Oh well, I am looking forward to doing it next Wednesday. Check back for his slideshow!

Today I photographed a little boy on his way to Heaven. I have the privelege of volunteering for a great organization called Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. http://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.com/ It's a 501(c)3 orgnization (that means non-profit) set up to provide volunteer professional photographers for babies who will not leave the hospital. I am one of about 40 members in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area - but it's an international organization. In the last 8 days, I've met three of these little angels and their parents and families. I don't usually do so many in one week, we all share the burden, but two of the three families I had relationships with so I was their photographer. On Sunday, I met Baby Maddy, who went to Heaven before her mommy and daddy got to hold her in their arms. I met them as their Childbirth Educator and then got to meet Maddy as her photographer. Maddy had Trisomy 18, just like our first little boy, Eli. (You can read Eli's story at http://www.prenatalpartnersforlife.com/Stories/StoriesTrisomy18-Eli.htm )

I am so humbled that these families invite me into their lives. There are so few people that get to meet their little ones, and to be one of them is a gift. The gift we give, then, is a tangible memory. We offer a photograph of something that would otherwise only be in their minds. Look for me in a piece on NILMDTS on NBC's Today Show sometime soon, probably Feb. '08.