the will family | bismarck, nd family photography

I’ve mentioned it before that I am a volunteer for Red Thread Sessions.  But I want to explain why.

Several years ago, I was driving in my car at a time of day that I normally wouldn’t be driving.  As usual, I was flipping through the radio stations, hoping to hear a decent song, and I came across a Christian talk radio program that I had never heard before.  In fact, I don’t even remember now what the program was.  But in those 10 minutes that I listened, I heard one of the most profound things I’ve ever heard.  It was a story that has literally changed my perspective on life in so many ways.

A man was talking about how he and his wife struggled with infertility for years.  I personally have not struggled with infertility, but it did strike a chord with me because I have lost a pregnancy and I did go through a time where I questioned if I would ever have children like I had always imagined.  So I continued to listen on.  He described the anger and loss of hope he experience during this time in his life.  He and his wife would be the perfect parents.  They would be able to provide for their children, not just financially, but emotionally and spiritually as well.  Why would God not bless them with a child?  He began to keep a journal about their infertility struggles and for more than a year, he wrote in his journal almost daily.  After much loss and heartache, they were led to adoption and went on to adopt their son.  Time went on and one day, he was reminded of his journal.  He decided to dig it out and began paging through it, and he came to an entry that he very vividly remembered writing.  His memory and the words on the page reminded him of how he was feeling that day and how angry he was in that moment about all of the pain he and his wife had been through while trying to conceive a child.  And then he looked at the date of that particular journal entry and realized what had happened.

The day he wrote that angry and desperate journal entry was the birthdate of his son.  The day he felt so hopeless, God was at work in a way he could have never imagined at the time.

Thinking about that story brings me goosebumps and tears every time.  When I am struggling with something or angry about events in my life, I am comforted when I wonder what is God doing right now that will eventually make all of this make sense.  It hurts my heart to know that there are children out there who have nobody to care for them.  Children who have had to endure more in their short lives than we can ever imagine.  On the other side, there are families longing to take care of and love those children.  But I also know that God is working in ways that we can never know.  And that is why I feel a connection to adoption.  And while I’m not sure that God is calling me to adopt a child, I know that he is asking me to do something to help.  So I volunteer for Red Thread Sessions, in hope that using one of the talents that I have and the time that I have can bring some comfort and joy to those families who have endured a lot of pain and heartache in order to bring their son or daughter home.

Here is a very special Red Thread Session that I was able to do this summer.  How their children came into their lives is not my story to tell, but I do think that, just in looking at these images, you can see a large part of that story.  They are a family and they deeply love one another.  And it was my privilege to have been able to capture that for them.