Corin’s Story

By Michele

We recently did a maternity shoot for a wonderful family whose story touched us.  We wanted to share.

Corin is expecting twins in late July.  One boy and one girl, Jeremy and Kyra.  Corin and her husband Nate are the proud parents to two other children, Makayla and Gabriel.  Makalya is 2.  Gabriel is their angel watching over them.

Gabriel was born on November 18, 2006 and within minutes was swept away to the NICU.  He was diagnosed with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH).  Gabriel passed away on January 12, 2007.  He spent his entire life in various NICU’s, which was beyond stressful for Corin and Nate.  Gabriel’s little sister Makayla was born in early 2008 and went through a difficult delivery.  She spent 2 days in the NICU, but thankfully recovered quickly.  She is a healthy, happy and adorable 2 year old who will be a wonderful big sister!

Corin, along with some other moms who had spent a lot of time in the NICU, decided they needed to do something.  They founded Project Sweet Peas.  There are currently 15 Project Sweet Peas Chapters across America and Canada.  All of the people who run these chapters have one thing in common; they know how hard it is to have a child in the NICU.  They assemble and deliver gift bags to local hospitals to help families who need it most.  They have delivered over 400 gift bags.  I am not the only one who thinks this is a wonderful thing they are doing, because they came in first place for the Pepsi Refresh Project last month.  They have been awarded $25,000 to continue delivering care packages.

While editing the photos for this family, tears of sadness would come to my eyes thinking about what they have been through.  Being a mother myself, I can not imagine the pain.  I experienced tears of happiness too, thinking about how special this pregnancy must be for them and about everything they are doing to help others.  Corin, in my eyes, is a pillar of strength and a true example of how the rest of the world should be.  She turned a personal tragedy into hope for others.

I also noticed something strange while editing Corin’s photos.  She was glowing in all of her pictures, but not like a normal pregnant woman.  It was more of a haze, and all I could think was that Gabriel was present for this photo shoot as well.  After some of the pictures were posted to facebook, one of Corin’s friends commented on the photo below, noting that she could feel Gabriel’s hands right there on her belly with the family.  Perfectly said.

If you would like to help Project Sweet Peas, please visit their website.  You can donate gift bag items (see item list), money, purchase from their cafepress store  (all profits go directly to funding distribution of gift bags) or even start your own local chapter.  There is also a local project store for Gabriel's Gift.  All profit from the Gabriel's Gift Store goes directly to funding distribution of gift bags for Corin's local project.

Todd Philip Photography is looking forward to organizing some sort of charity event with Gabriel’s Gift of Project Sweet Peas in the future.