This is one of my favorite photo sessions I have ever done. It is partly because I love each of the people in these pictures. That is my younger brother and his family. His wife, Aimee, is one of my dearest friends and kindred spirits. When I look at these images, I see so much love between them. Their deep connection with each other is clear. In the span of 40 minutes there was play, kissed boo-boos, tears, hugs and so much laughter. Everything you'd expect in families with small children. 

What you can't see in these pictures is that Aimee got a phone call last week that will change her life, a call that included the word cancer.  When I heard the news I couldn't breathe.  We are all reeling. How does one keep trudging through their day with devastating news like this? 

We had one beautiful night in a week thick with grey skies and rain.  This evening was just a week after finding out. I am reminded that the disease inside her can not touch her spirit, the love they have or all the things that make her truly beautiful. So far, it has only made her more so, in her brokenness yet resolute faith in the One who made her. The words from her lips are praise even as she is facing this storm. Looking down a road of suffering her eyes are fixed even more on our God who makes all things new.  She is not without hope. She is not abandoned. Her words calm my disquieted heart. "He is making me bread that is broken, pressed like wine, for His glory." 

Will you join me in praying for healing and strength?

"You alone are the LORD. You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before You." ~Nehemiah 9:6

This is the God we serve, a God of power and might.  A God who tells the sun to rise each morning and keeps the planets spinning in orbit. He's a God who knows our lying down and our rising up. He is the same Jesus that was filled with compassion for the afflicted, sick and blind, the same one whose heart was to heal. We can lay our questions, rage, lamentation and fear at His feet. He is a good Father who hears and knows our needs.

Here is another way to help their family: <a href="https://www.crowdrise.com/supporttherileys">https://www.crowdrise.com/supporttherileys</a>