Cute little Colton is wearing the same Christening gown that his 3 older siblings have worn as babies. I also took pictures of big sister Felicity in the same gown last year when she was 3 months old. How special is that? š
Colton is one of our “Year in the Life” babies. We’re commemorating his first year with a series of sessions. If you’re expecting and interested in a Baby’s first Year Packages, Contact Us for more info.
Tell Your Story | www.delalanephotography.com
Love hanging out with this family. They are a testament to strength, love, unity and they have an awesome story to share. Their daughter, Hannah, is a miracle. Literally. It’s been a year since she died and was brought back to life. With her family’s permission, I’m going to share just a teeny bit of Hannah’s story, in her Mom’s words, written on the one year anniversary of the day her daughter miraculously survived.
“Today is May 19, 2012. It was exactly one month ago that threw our family into the most difficult, tramatizing event to ever hit us. Our daughter Hannah suffered from cardiac arrest and a stroke; she is only 13 and already has had a diifficult life being born with septo-optic dysplasia (SOD). She was already blind and mentally that of a 3 year old, BUT she is our baby girl. We accepted God’s gift with only the knowledge of how to love her. Our family is tight and with our other two kids, our family of five is the core of our hearts.
On April 19 Hannah was taken to Hi Desert Medical Center by ambulance and when she arrived in the ER, her heart stopped. For 45 minutes the paramedics and the ER staff worked to stablize my daughter and a miracle was born in those moments. Once stablized, she was flown to Loma Linda Childrens Hospital by MerciAir. For the first week of her stay there, several doctors told us to prepare for the worst and what are plans were going to be should her heart stop again. Even our Pastor Jerel Hagerman came and councelled us and asked us what we thought of Hannah’s condition. Our answer was grim; we thought we were going to or already had lost her. When doctors and nurses checked her eyes-her light, her life was not in them. We said our goodbyes, told her to go ahead and go home and to not worry about us-we trusted God and her decision. Painfully, we thought our happy life of the 5 of us would be cut down too soon.
But Hannah held on. Little bit by little bit, Hannah showed improvement, but doctors were very unsure of her recovery. So everyday was a battle; Hannah would do something small and medically the news got worse. After lots of prayer, we just began to push back reality and focused solely on hope. Then she began to come alive again! First her eyes opened, then she began to move her right arm, then she was excubated and breathing on her own, moved out of the PICU, she began to eat. Then a seizure hit and again we were at God’s mercy wondering if these would throw her into a vegitative state. After 2 days, she bounced right back to moving forward again. She moved to chopped foods instead of purees. She moved to the basic care level. She began to develop her hand to mouth eating and then reality of her body is no longer capable of began to enter into her head. She was upset she couldn’t go home and sleeplessness has plagued her body, but after 4 weeks, 28 days she was well enough to be discharged from the hospital.
With all the amazing miracles of Hannah’s recovery, came miracles for the rest of our familly! God has placed people to help us with prayers, finances, food and shoulders to cry on. While at the hospital, the Ronald McDonald house took us in and we were able to be nearby Hannah as a family.
WE CANNOT AND WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO SHOW YOU ALL OUR GRADITUDE OR SAY THANK YOU OR REPAY YOU ENOUGH FOR EVERYTHING AND EVERYWAY YOU HAVE HELPED OUR FAMILY! The prayers alone have saved our daughter Hannah! And for that we pray that God will bless each and everyone who prayed to be blessed 10 times over. We love you beyond words and we look forward with eagerness at what God has in store for us next.
Please share this with the people who prayed. I want them to know how awesome our God is! He is very present in our time and Hannah is the proof that there is a God and He ALWAYS hears us when we call. Even if this had ended badly, “I would have lost hope if I had not seen the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (Psalms 27:13).” So many people have come to our aid: our church family at Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel for their prayers, our immediate family with help for our kids, the doctors who tried and didn’t give up even when medically speaking there was no hope, the nurses who loved her and cared for her around the clock and spoke to her even in her medically induced coma, the Ronald McDonald House for giving us a sense of a home away from home, the people who helped us financially to pay our bills, and most importantly to Jesus Christ who held us up to keep us moving and showing us that a little hope and faith go an extremely long way!
We Love and Pray for you!
The Coopers: Mark, Monica, Hannah, Faith and Mark Jr. ”
And we had a major milestone happen during the course of our session, Mark Jr. Lost his first tooth (it was his first one, right Monica?) He showed me how wiggly it was when they first arrived. And then, during our last little set, he was munching on a pretzel and knocked it clean out. Pretty exciting stuff. You can tell he thought so. š
A year later, though facing new challenges, Hannah is thriving. More beautiful than ever. I’m blessed to know this family and to call Monica my friend. And I’m constantly humbled by the faith in the Lord that binds them together and allows them to shine with such joy and peace in the middle of circumstances most of us can’t imagine.
Tell Your Story | www.delalanephotography.com
Mandy, of Amanda Kay Photography, is somebody I’ve known for over 25 years. But it’s only in the past 4 or so years we’ve become friends. She’s also one of my very favorite photographers, somebody who has influenced this business more than just about anyone. We have more than most in common. She’s the mother of two little kids, a girl and a boy. She’sĀ in love with photography, in love with the Lord, and in love with her family. She’s also incredibly passionate about creating opportunities and preserving memories for her family. She’s just passionate in general. Passionate about life and about not compromising the things that truly matter. She’s such an inspiration. I could list the crazy amount of coincidental similarities between our lives, our likes, our decisions, our experiences. I could go on about all the ways that our heart-to-hearts have influenced me… as a business woman, a photographer, a mother. But I’d rather just say how grateful I am to know her. And even though we’re separated by states and don’t get to hang out and chat as often as we like (and it took us a quarter century to figure out we make great friends!), we’re there for each other across the miles. I’m blessed to share life with her, whenever and however our paths intersect in our separate and distanced lives.
And then, on top of everything else, she goes and lets me shoot a ridiculously fun, inspirational, messy, creative, action-packed, laughter-filled session like this. Double bonus. This is actually only the second half of their family session. I’m splitting it up into 2 posts because I’ve decided to indulge myself and share more than usual. I’ll let the photos do the rest of the talking.
And for the record, before you ask… it’s called Holi Powder. š
Go check out Mandy’s business, Amanda Kay Photography on facebook and on the Amanda Kay Photography blog.
Check back for the rest of their family session, before they broke out the holi powder, coming up soon. And also stay tuned for a post on her blog of MY Family’s session with her (the night before this happened!) I LOVE the images she captured for us and can’t wait to get them up on our walls!
Tell Your Story | www.delalanephotography.com
I had a fun evening with this family way back in June when we met up for a shoot in Pioneertown. It was great to finally meet Becca, someone who I’d “met” online a while back. She is every bit as sweet (and beautiful!) as she seemed. And she brought with her her beautiful family. I couldn’t help thinking how lucky the baby of the family is to have all those big people looking out for him.
Tell Your Story | www.delalanephotography.com
Colton is my second “Year in the Life” baby from one of my very favorites families. We only made it to month 5 with Colton before they had to pick up and start over in another state. I’m hoping they get to come visit sometime next year. <sigh> I miss them!! But the distance makes it extra special and fun for me to go back and look through these photos we took when he was 2 months old.
Normally I wouldn’t try to pose a 2-month-old like this. But after a year and a half of working monthly with the same client, you reach a certain level of comfort. So we tried it. Carefully. Mom was spotting on one side and Dad on the other at one point. I figured I’d be photoshopping them out, but little Colton held his head up all on his own. Pretty amazing!!
This was one of the more difficult baby sessions I’ve done. He was tired and really didn’t want his pictures taken. But we managed to get a few good ones that made the whole session worth it. And I love the less-than-perfect moments we preserved too, especially his little pouty lips. š
DelaLane Photography “Year in the Life” packages preserve Baby’s First Year in a series of custom sessions. Contact us for more details.
Tell Your Story | www.delalanephotography.com
