NILMDTS

For those of you not familiar with what NILMDTS is I will enlighten you.  It is an organization of approximately 5,000 photographers who volunteer their services within their communities to parents who experience the loss of a young child who is either stillborn or has a condition that is not compatible with life.  

This past week I had the honor of working with a family whose child was stillborn.  I received the call at about 5:30 in the morning and quickly agreed to come in.  It did not take me a second to think about it.  I knew that this is something that I had to do as time is very sensitive in these cases.  You literally have to be able to drop what you are doing and rush to the hospital and help take care of this family.  

I was fortunate that this was the hospital that I used to work in the ER for so, I quickly arrived and went up to the Labor and Delivery unit.  It was still night shift so I met with the nurses and then went in to talk with the family.  

I explained my forms that I am required to have the parents take care of and talked with them for a few minutes while I set up my equipment.  I then worked with the family to create several incredible images.  To say that this was one of the most difficult things to shoot is an understatement.  I worked with the mother, father and the baby's sister.  We did a few family images and then I worked with the little baby boy on his own.  

I then loved on the family for a few minutes and then left them to be taken care of by the nurse that was in the room with the family.

When I arrived back at our house I loved on my children and my wife.  I feel so blessed to have three wonderful healthy children and a loving wife.  I quickly worked through the day and into the next day to edit the images to present them to the family.  Technically I have 8 weeks to edit and return them to the family but I feel that the family should be able to have these images in time for the funeral if they so choose.

I can not say enough that God is a large part of me being able to work through this session.  I was praying constantly to take care of the family and of this little one who is with God for the entire time.