I wanted to take a moment and blog about an organization that I am involved in that I love. If anyone caught the tail end of the Today show today, you saw the special segment on Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (which I will henceforth refer to as NILMDTS). For anyone who didn't (I am sure most of my clients spend the morning watching Mickey Mouse, like I do) let me just talk about NILMDTS for a little bit.
NILMDTS is a non profit organization founded by Cheryl Haggard, a mother grieving the loss of her infant son, and Sandy Puc', who is a very succesful photographer based in my home state of Colorado. Cheryl contacted Sandy when she realized that she wanted family portraits that included her 6 day old baby Maddux, who was about to be taken off of life support.
Cheryl and Sandy teamed together in the following year to help other families obtain portraits of their own infants that they might never have had. In three years, this orginazation has grown by leaps and bounds. It has gone from just Sandy as the photographer to include 3200 affiliate photographers from around the globe.
I realize this may be a hard concept for everyone to understand. Why would you want a picture of a baby who is not going to live, or has already passed on? Every parent testimonial that I have seen indicates that these photos are a beautiful reminder that their child did exist, if only for a very short time. None of them ever express that they regret having the portraits done.
If you would like to know more about NILMDTS, you can visit their website by scrolling all the way down to the bottom of my blog and clicking on the banner down there. I am not posting the link right here because I do want you to take a moment to consider if you're emotionally prepared for some of the stories and pictures. The first time I visited the site, I browsed for two hours, bawling the whole time. Even to this day, it tears at my heart. But knowing that there are 3200 of us out there preserving the precious memories of families makes it all worthwhile.
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4 comments:
I saw it and I BAWLED my eyes out! Such an amazing organization and you are all extraordinary people to do this for all those families out there missing their precious babies. I would love to become involved someday.
Wow Courtney...thanks for informing us of such an amazing organization. I too cried and cried. What a great way to "give back" Amazing!!!!
Thanks ladies for looking and leaving great comments. It's really a fantastic gift and I could talk about it all day long!
I just want to tell you I'm so happy you're involved in this. It is a very important and much-needed service. I hope someday to be good enough as a photographer to be able to give a little something back to families in need myself.
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