The best part of my job is doing “Give Backs” I love highlighting Joy in the mist of Pain! The two can coincide and it is possible to feel both at the same time. When I scheduled this session with Carley I could tell how excited she was for this. She also knew that we only had this day that would work before Sam has his surgery. Well right when they arrived it started to downpour! We continued the session and ran under an oak tree for some coverage but it was cold and wet, yet as you can see here the session went very well despite to conditions. Well this family has joy and happiness despite the weather that has hit them. They are enjoying each and every day and even though storms are hitting they are finding that the rain is awaking their senses to love life and treasure every moment and touch. This last photo of the rainbow was what I took after the storm and after our session just proves that life is beautiful even in the storm itself.
See their story:
Both of our boys were born with complex forms of congenital heart disease ( CHD ). Anthony our oldest was diagnosed at birth. He was barely breathing when he was born and it was very obvious something serious was wrong. They took him to the nicu and quickly they were able to tell us that our beautiful baby boy had major heart defects ( transposition of the great vessels, double outlet to the right ventricle, a extremely large vsd and pulmonary steno-sis. The cardiologist explained to us that he would have to be sent UCSF by ambulance to have surgery and that I would have to stay in Sacramento till the morning to be discharged. When we arrived the next day our precious little boy had already had surgery and was recovering great. He was in the hospital for 7 days before we were able to bring him home. Anthony had his second of three open heart surgeries at 5 months old. Unfortunately 1 week post open he suffered a stroke while still in the hospital. The stroke left Anthony with a seizure disorder and paralyzed on his right side. The doctor s couldn’t tell us what to expect. They didn’t know if he would walk, talk, or have a good quality of life. With in a few months he began having more and more movement on his right side and was quickly diagnosed right side hemispheric ( an extreme weakness on the right side).
Over time Anthony began crawling, walking and even running. He continued having seizures that we couldn’t manage for a period of time he was having 10 to 20 a day but over time those stopped too! Anthony had his last open heart surgery in January of 2011. Since then he has had to have pacemaker put in but otherwise he is doing great! In July 2010 we had our 2nd little boy who was also diagnosed with CHD. We were very lucky with Sam because his diagnosis of hypo-plastic left heart syndrome or HLHS was given to us in utero. This allowed us to deliver in the right hospital to allow him the least amount of stress on his little body. The other thing that happens when the baby is diagnosed in utero is that you are given an option to terminate your pregnancy. This is something I couldn’t even consider since I could look at Anthony knowing what he had been through yet he was still so full of life. Our cardiologist was very honest with us he told us through out the rest of the pregnancy that he wasn’t sure if the baby would survive. I will never forget when Sam was born and I heard him screaming. They told us he wouldn’t be crying and they would probably have to put in a breathing tube immediately, but they didn’t he was screaming…praise Jesus!
Sam had his first of three open heart surgeries at 8 days old his second at 5 months and his third is scheduled for April. Over the last 8 years we have been through 6 open heart surgeries with 1 more to go and countless procedures.
People tell me all the time how strong I am and how they would not be able to handle my life. I always just smile say thank you and tell them you would if you had too. I not going to lie I don’t even have words to describe the feeling I have in my stomach every time I have to hand one of my boys over to a surgeon and walk away….it is far from easy to say the least but it necessary for them to live. I try and focus on all the love our little family of four has for each other and all the amazing things my boys do that doctors tell us would never happen!
1 out of 100 babies are born with some type of chd . We were lucky enough to be blessed with 2 of them!
Carly I love your family can’t wait to capture more photos in the future, praying for little Sam!
