Lately I have felt like I have something more to give in my photography career. I've had the idea floating around in my head about featuring the families I photograph on my blog. I want to be able to inspire others through faith, family and photography. I've felt like it is something I need to do. It has enriched my life spending time with families. I don't want to say my sessions are always butterflies and roses. They are chaotic a lot of the time! It takes a full days work to get ready for it. Picture day is exhausting (mostly for the mom,) but it's worth it! It is worth it to capture that happiness with your family. I want everyone to know that the happiness we share with our families is forever. Families are forever. I want everyone to know that we can find happiness through the love we share with our families, and through our faith in the Savior Jesus Christ. It is because of Him that we get to share love with our families. It is because of Him that we get to spend a chaotic hour taking family pictures laughing together. It is because of Him that we have beautiful scenery to partake of and enjoy. Through him the burdens we carry can be lifted. We can find peace. We can find hope. We can find eternal happiness. Sometimes life is dark. Sometimes it is sad. Actually, a lot of the time. All of us have trials and all of us have happiness. All of us have a story to share. All of us are inspiring and all of us are ready to be inspired. All of us can be a little kinder to one another and uplift and encourage each other through out our trials. That is why I have a message to share. That is why I ask my clients to share a message of overcoming their trials in whatever way they overcame/are overcoming them. I want to be an outlet for others to share their message if they please. I've seen so much strength in the people I photograph despite their trials. I hope that you all can see my message through my photography. I hope you can see the love that I have for my Savior Jesus Christ, his beautiful earth, and the the beautiful people he has created. I hope you can feel the happiness I felt in that moment when I captured the happy faces of my clients. The segment I am starting on my blog will be called "You Inspire Me" I would love if you would follow along. I will be posting stories from families every month. Share with your friends and help inspire others. To read the first post of the featured families on my blog go to Featuring the Mecham Family - You Inspire Me.
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I have lots of ideas storming through my head and when I get to follow through with one, it's really exciting! One of the things I have been wanting to do for a long time is feature the families I photograph on a blog by having them tell a story about one of their trials and talk about how they overcame it. Today is an exciting day! I am so grateful to one of my faithful friends and clients for writing a post for me. I cannot wait to see this evolve into something bigger that can inspire and strengthen others. It's amazing being able to work with families and literally see the big picture- The love and happiness we share with our families. The strength I see in these people (friends, family, clients) amazes me every day. I have felt for a while that I wanted to be an outlet for others to share through their family photos. I hope you all enjoy this segment on my blog and find inspiration in these posts. I'm so excited that Nicole is featuring us! She has taken pictures of our family since the boys were little! She has an amazing way of keeping their 5 minute attention spans and turning them into at least 20!!! Thank you Nicole for featuring the Mecham family!! To give you an overview.... Our youngest child Peyton has a rare genetic disorder named 6q24 Transient Neonatal Diabetes Mellitus! He is 1 of 24 in the WORLD! If you'd like to learn more you can read about it in this blog post! This is an older post but it's one I treasure most and thought I would share!! David A. Bednar hit it right on the head. Peyton is a miracle! I have said it before & I will say it a million times. That poor baby was barely surviving in my belly. It breaks my heart to admit that to a family member let alone the whole blogging world. He is one of my tender mercies. To the world he is a rare baby who has a condition not known to many, to me he is my lifesaver & miracle. He was sent to us to teach us as his parents to love more, live fully & forget the small problems. Peyt was sent to me to tell me that I was special enough to God to be rewarded with this special & loving baby who needed to be taken care of in just a way that I could. On one of my old blog posts comments a person I admire more than they know said this to me, "These experiences change us and you will see the world from a different perspective because of it. But most of all, we are learning the lessons that God wants us to learn. Rejoice in the small victories, things that mean very little to mothers of "normal" kids are a huge deal to us parents to have kids with issues. And most of all, consider yourself privileged that God held you and Trevor in such high esteem that he was willing to entrust one of his most special children with you. You are now a member of a very "elite" club, which comes with a high price, but with unimaginable blessings! Let me be the first to welcome you :) I know you will find that happy place...just give it some time." I will hold those words close to my heart forever!! When I heard these words I thought to myself how strong I needed to be not only for myself, but for my family & most importantly for Peyton. It is definitely no joke that babies feed off negativity. Once I realized that I needed to change my "poor pity me" attitude, Peyton started to drastically get better. He was gaining weight faster, eating better, & reacting to his meds better. Positivity is everything in the NICU even though it's one of the most depressing places. We received so much help from our friends, money, clothes for Peyton, & most of all the love, faith & prayers from everyone. It made Peyton's 73 day stay at PCMC a little less stressful. Never once did I feel like it wasn't going to be ok. Every night I would pray that Peyt would stay stable, my other boys would know how much we loved them but needed to be with Peyton as much as we could & that we, as husband & wife, could stay strong together. Yes Peyton had his daily struggles, as did Trev & I but we made it! We are home & we are happy! There comes a time when those happy moments can turn into the hardest times & hard to get through. Having a newborn is never easy...for anyone. Having a newborn with diabetes seems to me, just a little harder. Some nights I would put Peyton to sleep with his sugars in the 80's, that makes me so nervous. It doesn't seem low but I give him insulin at night sometimes that kicks in & he drops. We can correct highs, lows can be life-threatening. I have never understood a diabetics mind with lows until now. Sugars can be so up & down & you just never know what you can wake up to. It is a constant worry. On the 11th we withheld his Lantus. For three days Peyton stayed stable & in a good range. The morning of the 15th I had such a pit in my stomach. Peyton had been extremely fussy the night before his dr.'s appointment & I chalked it up to colic because I had checked him & he was in good range. I told his pediatrician how fussy he had been, he did a quick check up & confirmed we had an ear infection in the right ear & an infection starting in the left. MOM FAIL. Seriously my baby who already goes through so much has to be circumcised & start antibiotics for ear infections. So that night his sugars rose to 266. Not to high but enough to get his Humalog (fast acting) & make him feel a little better. You never realize the sugars unless you are a die hard fitness guru or your a diabetics parent. We all knew he would soar high with the meds. It's still stressful even if you foresee it happening. This week has been one of my toughest mommy weeks. Peyton has been non stop crying, the boys don't understand he gets sad when they are loud & Trevor is on night shift. It is so hard to contain & shush my kid until he wakes up. I have never had such a fussy baby. I haven't done laundry, dishes have piled more than once & I'm lucky if I get in the shower or dressed for the day. Life is not a cup of tea. Life is hard. Life knocks you down sometimes. God is bigger. He has so many plans for our family & we have so many blessings to be so extremely thankful for!! Thanks to Kylie for writing this beautiful post! She's been through a ton with Peyton's rare condition and much more, too! She's a fighter. I'm so glad she is willing to share her story. She's amazing right?! When I invite my clients to share on my blog, it is under no pressure or obligation at all. You can share as little or as much as you would like. Help be apart of inspiring someone; share with your friends. If you would like to share your own story, contact me. 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AuthorHi there. I'm Nicole. I'm a small town girl from Idaho who loves photography, my Savior and my family. You'll find me in the mountains with my camera around my neck begging my husband, "lets just take one more picture of your S'more." I love to blog about my photography sessions, family life and much more! Come read along. Archives
September 2019
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