We are going to finish our week with beautiful babies James and Leila.   Have a great weekend. 

Meet my little buddy Dylan!  He goes to Moms daycare and I usually make a beeline for him when I come to pick up the girls because he's just so darn cute.    He also usually sports this little helmet that is helping shape his head which is equal parts ridiculous and adorable and it makes me love him even more. 

Last weekend I got to hang out with a beautiful little girl who has very big birthday coming up.  Her mama and I have known each other a long time.  She was a Senior in high school when I was a freshman and she may or may not have snuck me a few wine coolers at some parties back in the day. 

This first picture is probably my favorite from the whole session. Mom & Dad are just over the moon, smittin' in LOVE with this little girl, she is the center of their whole world, and what better way to show it than with this photo.  Happy Birthday Hannah! 

New squishy babies make the world a better place, they just do.   Baby Jack was one of the sweetest and calmest babies I've ever photographed.  And Mama Holly is over the moon smitten with her new little man.  Wouldn't you be?  

I photographed their daughter, Bella, when she was a newborn and I was so happy to see this cute little family add one more.   Jack was bright eyed and bushy tailed almost the whole shoot.  I think we got him to take a 2-3 minute nap but that was it.  I guess he was just really excited for his first photo shoot :)

I'm working again - Yippie Skippie! I always take 4 weeks off in February/March to reset my batteries, literally, the ones in my camera and in my head.   The first week or two is lovely but then I'm just a mess, I can only re-organize the hall closet so many times before I'm busting at the seams to work.  It's not that I'm a work-a-holic, but more of the fact that I really love my job.  Hanging out with brides and cute kids makes me happy and I'm sad when it's gone for too long.

Last Sunday afternoon I got to spend some time with Katie during a Chemotherapy session.

When I talked to her mom, Jenny, about 6 months ago things were going fantastic.   While she wasn't cured, or in technically in remission, her body was responding to the treatment very well and everyone breathed a small sigh of relief that things for the moment, were working.

Then, in late February, Katie was having pain in her legs and back so they went to the hospital for an MRI and the cancer was back.  It has spread.  Everywhere.  Her bones, her spine, her skull, it would be easier to name places in her body the cancer wasn't in, than to name the places it was. 

At this point any treatment she receives will not save her life, only prolong it.  And that was probably the most difficult sentence I've ever had to type.   

I asked Jenny(mom) if she had any plans for a benefit to help them with the medical costs.  With Katie hanging off her side she said they would probably do something when it comes time for the funeral because they weren't sure how they were going to afford that.  

And then, 5 seconds after the word funeral...Katie went right back to playing her CandyLand game.  

Because remember, she is a child. Despite all the grown up bullshit she has had to deal with, she is still 6 years old, so funeral talk bores her, but making sure she got to be the yellow gingerbread man for CandyLand was a big, big deal. 

   

But we have hope, and we have prayer right?  What are we without those 2 things. 

 I know that we cannot change Gods will but I am still praying for a miracle.   I actually like to get really specific with my prayers, I'm an organized person by nature so I like to sort things out neatly for God to deal with ;)  I've been specifically praying for 3 things, and I would love it if you would join me.

1. That Katie stays out of the hospital as much as possible, she wants to be home, she wants to go back to Kindergarten and living out of a hospital room is not exactly convenient for a single mom of 3 kids so please pray with me that Katie stays out of the hospital and gets to go back to her normal life as much as possible. 

2.  Pray for no pain for Katie.  Chemotherapy and Cancer can be both grueling and painful, the side effects are awful, and for a mother to watch her child suffer is one of the most unjust things I can think of.   However long this little baby has left, please Lord don't let her be in any more pain.

3. I am praying for her family, but specifically her brothers.  This is not the childhood they asked for.  And what a difficult age to understand all this.  I pray for their strength and understanding, and that they behave for their mama who is doing all she can to keep steering this ship.  I pray they find comfort in their family who is weathering this storm with them.