Not sure where to start with this post as this family session was so very special for me. A little over a month ago I received and email from a girl named Angie. Immediately when I saw her name I was taken back to my high school years. You see, Angie is the big sister of one of my best friends from high school, Cathy. As soon as I read the first sentence of the email I knew whatever happened I had to make this session possible. Very long story short – Angie informed me that Cathy’s 4yr old daughter was recently diagnosed with Severe Aplastic Anemia and her best hope for a cure was to have a bone marrow transplant. Matches for that can almost be impossible but recently they were lucky enough to find out that her brother was a match. In September he will be helping his sister fight for her life by donating his bone marrow to her.
I’ve set up a permanent place on my blog for Emma. Click here and you’ll see a slideshow storyline of her situation with more specific details. On this page you can also discover ways that you can help Emma and her family.
With this news, I traveled down to my hometown of Beaumont, TX to photograph Emma and her family. They wanted images to remind them of where they are right now in this moment. Their lives will be flipped upside down with this illness and I’ll continue to document what I can as their family goes through this. But for now – they have these memories of their wonderful family during our two jam packed days of shooting, laughing and smiling!
I can’t tell you how great it was seeing Cathy and her family. We haven’t seen each other since our reunion in 2004 but she’s one of those people you can just pick right back up with. Her kids are amazing beyond words and her sisters family is pretty great too! I spent a majority of my time photographing Emma (and her many wonderful outfits) but then of course had to sneak some in of her cousins (at the end of the post). Thank you all for thinking of me to do this for you. Each of you are in my thoughts daily.
If you’d like to find out more about Emma’s story, see more images and discover ways you can help – then click here. Their bills will be plenty and their road will be long – so please know that anything you can do to help out is more than appreciated! Thank you….
Love that last image of Emma and I. Thank you Angie for taking the camera for me! Love you Emma!!!
Again – if you’d like to help Emma and her family… CLICK HERE
[...] Emma’s Hope update. So many of you have contacted me to see how she’s doing since my initial post and my ‘transplant day’ post. By the looks of it, I know she must be feeling all the [...]
stunning session, heart wrenching story. my thoughts and prayers are with this family!
stunning as usual!!
what an absolutely beautiful family Jenny. You captured the love and joy to a T, prayers for that little angel!
what a beautiful story of a beautiful girl. great captures.
um…GORGEOUS! these kids are stunning!
You are so amazing. Seriously, I can’t pick a favorite. They are all so great.
She a beautiful little girl – Those bw’s especially are just so dreamy and gorge! Love your work – praying for little Emma. Great photo of you and her also!
Wow what gorgeous pictures, you did an awesome job
i love everything about this session!
i will keep lil emma in my prayers and positive thoughts.
What a beautiful little girl and a touching story. Oh and gorgeous photos, too!