EVERY STORM RUNS OUT OF RAIN

thank you Gary Allan.

i absolutely love this song. the reasons are endless, but some are more simple to explain.

 there are often times in life when you feel like the winds will never stop blowing, the rain will never stop pouring, the trials will never stop coming. this can go on for days. months. years even. it is often impossible to see hope, to see a future ahead of what you are going through at the current time.

mortality is full of this. sickness, death, disease, disasters, hate, crime, heartache, failure, misfortune, (should i keep going)? it awaits at every corner. there have been times in my life where i wanted to do nothing outside of my control because the fear of more trials taunted me. i knew it was lurking around the corner just waiting to attack. i was fearful.  i was afraid. i was dammed. i was paralyzed to move forward for fear of more heartache.

and then something wonderful happened. the darkness still surrounded me from all sides, but the rain stopped, the wind ceased, and eventually the clouds broke. this storm cleared a little.

there wasn't a magnificent double rainbow in the middle of a clear meadow, but there was a glimpse. a clearing. it seemed about like this;

 (thank you google images)

the sky was still grey, but you could see the blue, you could see the colors poking through the clouds. and i remembered the promise, that the storm wouldn't last forever, the heartache would one day end and there was hope.

with each trial we may face, there is hope that there may be a brighter (not perfect) but a brighter tomorrow.

this may seem like a strange thing to write about out of the blue, but i had an incredible opportunity to do a couple maternity session with the campbells and they told me it would be okay if i shared their story as well.

i don't know all of the details, but the story is touching nonetheless. 

the Campbells are expecting their second child in two weeks! (i am so excited to meet this little girl!) this little girl is their "rainbow baby." i had never heard this term before now and i am so glad i know now what it means. 

a "rainbow baby" is a child that is concieved after a miscarriage or still birth. 

i found this quote online and thought that it gave a nice description;

"Rainbow Babies" is the understanding that the beauty of a rainbow does not negate the ravages of the storm. When a rainbow appears, it doesn't mean the storm never happened or that the family is not still dealing with its aftermath. What it means is that something beautiful and full of light has appeared in the midst of the darkness and clouds. Storm clouds may still hover, but the rainbow provides a counterbalance of color, energy and hope.

i love that! and find it to be so true.

the campbell's first son was born still when jen was 7 months pregnant. 

i can't imagine the pain or the heartache they must have felt then and still feel now, but their clouds opened up a little and they are expecting a little girl in 2 weeks. 

i had the opportunity to be a part of helping capture some of the feelings that these little babies are already bringing to this family. jen asked that we incorporate the rainbow baby theme in a couple of the images.

ENJOY!

these two babies are incredibly lucky to have such wonderful parents! 

thank you campbell family for reminding me that there is HOPE.

a few more photos can be found here.