I debated for quite awhile before deciding on the title for this post. Matthew’s Heart? Matthew’s Smile? But, in the end, I just settled on the title of Matthew…because that is who this post is all about! A bit longer than my normal posts but such an encouraging story!

I remember the session like it was yesterday, but actually it was October 2007. I went to Matthew’s home for his newborn session. As is typical for my newborn sessions, Matthew was only a few days old. His big sister, Lainey, already my buddy from her previous sessions with me, met me at the door with a huge smile and proudly introduced me to her new little brother. Matthew’s mom, Angela, and I worked hard that morning to get some precious newborn pictures of Matthew. I remember how Angela and I kept commenting on the “cough” that Matthew had. I remember us talking it through…just two moms trying to figure out what might be going on with this helpless, tiny baby boy. What it a cold, reflux? Angela told me she was going to take him to the pediatrician again because her gut was telling her that something wasn’t right. Little did she know what was ahead for her little guy.

In Angela’s own words: “Our doctor looked at him for about 3 minutes and sent us to the hospital for a chest x-ray.  The results came back and I received a phone call at 2:30 p.m.  He had an enlarged heart and we were to see a cardiologist first thing Tuesday morning.  After the longest night of our lives, we went to the cardiologist on Tuesday morning at 10:30 a.m.  By 1:30 p.m. we were sent to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital where we were told that our son, at 4 1/2 weeks old, had Coarctation of the Aorta, which is a narrowing in his aorta.  He had a heart the size of his entire chest cavity; the cough I had been so concerned with was congestive heart failure; and his kidneys were failing.  The surgeon came in about 7:00 p.m. and told us Matthew was going to have heart surgery in the morning. ” Matthew had that surgery, but it was unsuccessful. They needed to do another surgery with a new cardiologist. “The only problem was she had only performed the surgery eight times and only once on an infant.  Again, my husband and I were in complete shock that we would have to have surgery again and that Matthew would be the ninth person to have this type of surgery.  We had faith in our surgeon and doctors that this was the right decision.  Matthew had surgery on December 28, 2007 and had a bypass graft attached on the right side of his aorta.  The graft should be large enough to take Matthew through most of, if not the rest of his life. We stayed in the hospital for almost three weeks.  While there we interacted with alot of employees of Le Bonheur, from cafeteria workers to heads of surgery.  Everyone of them showed genuine concern for Matthew and our family.  We are so blessed to have a wonderful place like Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital here in Memphis.  Their staff, nurses, doctors and surgeons took care of our family and gave us our son back.”

My friend and Matthew’s mom, Angela, has teamed up with some friends to plan an amazing event to help raise funds for LeBonheur. Angela contacted me about donating to their auction and I was so touched. I think this event sounds like so much fun. My daughter and I are going to attend the GenerosiTEA Party and make crafts, dress up, and, of course, have tea with my little princess. I have attached a link here,https://secure.lebonheur.org/generositea/register, for those of you who might be interested in attending. I would love to see many of your faces there to help support LeBonheur.

Wow! Can you imagine? The amazing thing is that Matthew’s story continues. He is now a little over 2 years old and is doing great! I have continued to have sessions with Matthew and so enjoyed watching him grow into one of the happiest children I have the privilege of photographing. I love this family!

So…Matthew’s Heart? Matthew’s Smile? To me, it is all about his smile. Thank you, God, for the gift of Matthew! Thank you for mother’s intuition. Thank you for a hospital full of doctors and nurses in our city who took such good care of him. Thank you for the honor of capturing moments like this…