I’m sure it was scary because it always is.
After baby Gwendolyn’s unexpected arrival at 34 weeks, Alex and Colleen found themselves spending many worrying hours sitting next to a newborn isolate in the Special Care Nursery.
More than a decade ago, after one of our clients had spent 72 anxious days with her newborn being cared for there, we decided to donate a gallery of portraits of “graduates” to adorn the walls there. After some initial confusion about the nature of our proposal, the clinical manager happily accepted our offer. 🙂
We set about photographing these now healthy and thriving ‘big kids’ who had spent the first days of their postpartum lives in the Special Care Nursery. The portraits showed these kids dancing, laughing, wearing martial arts or gymnastics uniforms, showing off how beautifully they’d overcome a rough start.
Our goal was to give hope to those worried parents during a fraught chapter. “Here’s what the future can look like for your baby, too.”
Alex and Colleen reflected that looking at those portraits had given them courage during their daughter’s time in the SCN, just as we’d hoped. They dreamed of having Gwendolyn’s portrait adorn the walls to offer that optimism to others.
Keiji and I volunteered to donate a wall portrait of her on their behalf. Besides, we were overdue to check on our previous donations and see if anything needed to be refreshed.
When we reached out to the current clinical manager, Jeanne, she couldn’t have been nicer. She welcomed us to tour the SCN, and our hearts warmed to see that the staff had added MANY new portraits of graduates in the intervening years. Jeanne had even added a plaque under each child’s portrait to indicate how long they’d stayed. It was lovely to see.
We decided to refresh one of our portraits, which had become damaged over the years, and collaborated on where the new addition of Gwendolyn’s portrait should live.
Recently, we went back with Colleen to see her daughter’s healthy, beautiful face on the walls. It was a joyful day, a tangible manifestation of Gwendolyn’s miraculous progress.
The whole project was a labor of love – a wonderful reminder of children’s resiliency and the Special Care Nursery staff’s essential work to help Flagstaff’s families.
Flagstaff Family Portrait Photographer • Flagstaff Maternity Pregnancy Photographer • Flagstaff Newborn Photographer • Flagstaff Child Photographer • Flagstaff Senior Portrait Photographer • Flagstaff Couples Photography
Kristen Dacey Iwai of KDI Photography is a full-time professional portrait photographer based in Flagstaff, Arizona with decades of experience. Making portraits of families, pregnancy, newborns, babies, children, and high school seniors in her downtown studio and on location, she serves clients from Flagstaff, Sedona, Tuba City, Winslow, Payson, Page, Williams, Prescott, Mesa, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Arizona
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