I am so incredibly humbled, grateful, thankful, amazed, but mostly honored to have been featured in last weeks Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.  I have received so much feedback about it and I wanted to share a little bit more about the experience and this incredible family. If you haven’t seen the article you can see an online version here.

About a month ago I received a call from Janene, the mother of little John Paul who I had photographed through the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep program, explaining that she had contacted the D&C to share their story.  She said they wanted to do an interview and asked if I could be present to talk a bit about how the program works and my experience with it so of course I agreed ( I would literally do ANYTHING Janene asked me to do- she’s just that amazing).

The feedback I have received from this article has been incredible, and I am so grateful to have been a part not only of the article, but of the entire experience with the Loughrans. I have had people reach out to me who have gone through tragic loss to share their story and  long lost friends contact me to tell me about personal experiences. I am humbled to say the least. When I called to talk to Janene about it, and to tell her about all those who have come forward to share their stories, her response was that she believes John Paul was put here, if only for a brief time, to bring people together.  And I truly believe she’s right…

If you scroll through some of my old posts you’ll see one I did on the Loughran family a while back and I just wanted to reiterate that they are truly an amazing family. Their strength, compassion, and faith is remarkable and if I can be a quarter of the mom Janene is to her children (all 4 of them) I will consider my motherhood a huge success. I cannot say enough good things about them…..

My experience with the Loughrans, and the other families I’ve met through the NILMDTS program, reminds me of what really matters, and what is most important in this life. I cannot begin to comprehend the loss of a child, or to have a child with a life-threatening illness and there literally are no words to describe how much my heart goes out to them.  As much as I believe in the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep program I’ll be honest that I completely dread getting the calls, because I know that it means that a family is experiencing a loss like no other, and there is nothing I can do or say to take that pain away.

If anyone has any questions regarding the organization please feel free to contact me at any time. Thank you again to all those who reached out- and especially to the Loughran family- John Paul will always be held tightly in my heart.

xoxxo