Let me tell you a story about an extra special family. One that has impacted me personally in a very unique and powerful way.

But before I tell you about this family, let me go back several years to the time when Joe and I were newly married and first moved to Indianapolis in the summer of 2000.

I was expecting my first child, and because of Joe’s work, we made the move from Terre Haute, IN to Indianapolis. After seeking God’s will about the church He would have us be a part of and a special series of events that made that answer very clear, we were led to our church on the east side of Indianapolis.

At that time, one of the families attending had two young girls. Little did we know that the youngest daughter of this family and the baby I was carrying would have their lives intertwined in a unique and special way years later.

A few years prior to this, when I was in my senior year of college, my family was shocked when my younger brother went into kidney failure as he was finishing up his first year of college in Pensacola, Florida. We almost lost him, but he made it. Fortunately, my dad was a perfect match. That summer, he was able to have his kidney transplant.

In the course of all that happened with my brother, we discovered that there was a rare, genetic condition in our family called Alport Syndrome that was passed from females to their sons. We found out that there was a good chance that I could be a carrier and pass this condition to any boys I may have. Sometimes it misses a generation, or it can be passed to just one and not all the boys. But we knew there was a high chance that if I had sons, they could potentially be born with this condition.

Alport Syndrome is a mutation on the X chromosome where the tiny blood vessels in the glomeruli of the kidneys are damaged. Scar tissue slowly forms in the kidneys throughout the first couple decades of life and usually around the age of 20 there is so much scar tissue that the kidneys can no longer function. There is also significant hearing loss associated with this condition and this presents itself around the age of 10. My brother had to get hearing aides when he was around 8 years of age. At the time we had no idea why.

Everything was going along fine and our family continued to grow with two girls and another sweet little boy.

And then, around the age of 8, my son began showing signs of hearing loss, and a fear gripped my heart at the potential road of difficulty ahead of us. After a short time, it was confirmed that he did, in fact, have Alport Syndrome, and we began making regular visits to see a nephrologist at Riley Childrens Hospital.

Because this condition is an actual mutation on the X chromosome, it is part of how he is made up, so there wasn’t really anything they could do. He was put on blood pressure meds to potentially work as an ace inhibitor to possibly slow down the scarring process within his kidneys. But there was no guarantee this would be effective to prolong the life of his kidneys.

He made it through high school and his first two years of college, but as he was approaching the end of the final semester of that second year, his kidney function suddenly worsened and over the next few months he went into complete kidney failure. Unfortunately, unlike my brother, he did not have any family members that were a match for him, so we had no idea who his donor would be. We needed a living donor.

Remember that young girl from our church that I mentioned? She was all grown up now and had recently married a sweet young man.

When he discovered my son’s need, he applied to be his donor, and he was a perfect match.

It took a long time to get to transplant day with a lot of traumatic experiences along the way, but in February of 2022, my son was able to receive a healthy kidney from this amazing young man.

The following summer, I found out that this sweet couple was expecting their first baby.

I was absolutely thrilled to gift them with a newborn session. It pales so much in comparison to what they gave to us, but it was so special to provide beautiful heirlooms of their little boy when he arrived.

Enjoy these highlights from their newborn session at my studio on the east side of Indianapolis.

We started the newborn session with photos of little David individually with Mommy and Daddy. We captured several precious shots of their sweet family of three together as well.

Aside from the special blanket, momma requested that David’s set ups include jewel tones. The deeper, richer colors complimented this precious little boy so well!

What an incredible blessing it was for me to help them celebrate the life of their son, just as they made it possible for me to celebrate the life of my own son.

To God be the glory, great things he has done.