“To ease another’s heartache is to ease one’s own.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
It’s been a busy day so I’m just now getting a moment to share the news of the winner of the free photo session I have chosen to give away to those who helped create awareness about Spina Bifida by purchasing a t-shirt from Kari’s web site. A huge thanks to those who purchased a shirt to help create awareness but also help the Central Florida Spina Bifida Association win a portion of the proceeds from the t-shirts sold. Thanks also to those of you who helped me spread the word. Again, it’s been a long day so my apologies for the poorly lit video…Enough of prolonging the news…here’s the short video of the kids helping pick the winner.
Yes, I suppose the winner chosen is certainly evidence of how meaningful this session giveaway was for me. It obviously was important for me to help create awareness about Spina Bifida knowing that in less than a month we’ll be challenged with raising a baby with spina bifida. It’s something that still wears at my heart often and though I’m confident that somehow things will all work out and we’ll find the blessings behind all this news that has been so heartbreaking for our family to accept. I admit as I learned of the Spina Bifida awareness t-shirts and how they could potentially help the Central Florida chapter I thought of not only finding my way to help, but realizing that photography has always been a great distraction for me and something I know has come to touch many people. Little did I know that the kids would pick probably the person who truly could use the session most.
I had a handful of people enter and all had high hopes and obviously great reasons that made me look forward to a photoshoot with each of them. However, the email from Aimee who won the photo shoot was by far the most touching of all and I admit my heart paused for a moment when I heard Hope call her name. Aimee is a former classmate of mine, we ironically took our first web design course together at Valencia when Hope was still less than a year old. We distantly stayed in touch over the years as she moved away to North Carolina. She entered from North Carolina not with the hopes of photos of her and her children, but for me to photograph her parents. With her entry she let me know her father has had some challenging medical moments recently. Over the course of a couple of month he’s had a foot surgery, heart attack and pneumonia and his heart is now operating at just 20%. Obviously as so many medical things have happened there are fears for how much longer he might live and her request was to photograph her parents if she was to win. She shared with me some uplifting thoughts of her father and how she, like all the others, had her fingers crossed that she’d win. Yes, I suppose all this is just that much more evidence that everything happens for a reason…to help create awareness about Spina Bifida, to help lift my own spirits by doing something good, and in turn by helping someone else who I know will truly be touched by the impact my photography will have with her family as her father continues to face medical challenges. Needless to say the thoughts of doing this session definitely warms my heart and will do so much more to help others than I had imagined it would have.
So congrats to Aimee…and a huge thanks to all of you who participated or helped spread the word. You all are awesome.
by Amanda Kern
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