A Miracle Granted | Chicagoland family photographer | Water Street Dreams
There’s something super special
about photographing a family for the first time.
I was delighted to receive the email from Emilie,
inquiring about a family photo session this fall.
Emilie and her husband Steve
and their two littles,
Samuel and Joanna,
are such a gift to our church
community.
Their finger and heart-prints can be
seen
all over our church.
I really don’t know them well,
but have always felt like they’re the
real deal.
They love Jesus.
They’re kind.
They serve others,
often behind the scenes.
They
love and live well.
There’s something remarkably sacred
about that.
Last July,
they walked through
what every parent would
deem the most terrible nightmare
as they rushed their then three-week-old
Joanna
to the emergency room,
hoping and praying her little life
would be spared.
I followed their journey via
CaringBridge,
praying,
begging really,
that God would intervene.
I will never,
ever understand childhood illnesses
and tragedies,
but I will keep running to our Good
God
whose heart never wants sorrow and
brokenness for
the children of the world.
Meet Joanna!
She's a mover and a shaker.
Watch.out.WORLD!
Her little life was spared.
And while over a year has passed,
and this actually was a family photo
session
and not a
“Miracle Baby” session,
for me,
it was really the first time
interacting
with little Joanna
so my mind couldn’t help but recap the
miracle.
In the middle of their chaos,
I asked God to wake me up in the
middle of the night
if Emilie or Steve or little Joanna
needed prayer.
And He did.
I’d randomly wake up
with her on my mind.
So I’d pray.
And cry.
And pray some more.
Through the whole session last Thursday morning,
I kept looking at her thinking,
“She’s a little miracle.”
An answer to my prayers
and countless prayers offered up around
the globe.
The
doctors were stumped,
at
one point the surgeon
telling them,
"You must have a lot of people
praying…”
Boy howdy,
you have no idea how hard I worked
to stuff the tears
until their session was over.
If you’ve been around here for any
length of time,
you know I’m a great big cry baby,
so this is nothing short of
miraculous, either!
As their cars pulled away from the
forest preserve,
my tears flowed.
Grateful for little Joanna and the
miracle she is.
And grateful for the faith of her
mommy and daddy
in their darkest hours surrounding such
fearful circumstances.
Grateful for Emilie’s authenticity
as she shared her heart and story
of this event and the dark months that
followed,
at a women’s event out in the suburbs
last February.
I thought I might ‘cut and paste’
Emilee’s words in the midst of this
ordeal,
where ultimately,
Little Joanna was healed.
Emilie wrote:
“We saw mountains move this week.
I am still in awe.
I'm still processing all of this.
We picked
Joanna's name because
We thought Jo
was a cute nickname and
worked well
with brother Samuel's nick name,
and it means
"God is gracious."
Though I have a general sense of what that beautiful word means,
I just took a
moment to look it up again.
And I couldn't believe my eyes:
gra·cious
adjective: gracious
gra·cious
adjective: gracious
courteous, kind, and pleasant.
"smiling and gracious in defeat"
(in Christian belief) showing divine grace.
"I am saved by God's gracious
intervention on my behalf"
She is a
living, breathing miracle.
And her name?
No words
tonight."
Emilie and Steve,
Your family is so
beautiful
and I just kept smiling as I pulled up
images from our
time together in the woods.
into his sticks.
And walking.
And running.
And doing all
those 3-year-old things.
Parenting the littles
can be absolutely exhausting
but I see the love the two of you have
for your two precious littles.
May they always know that they are deeply loved by you,
and their Heavenly Father.
Boy howdy did we get some great images.
Wait 'til you see the rest!
Thanks for the privilege and honor of
capturing your family in this busy
chapter of your family's story!