My Hannah Grace, you are such a delight,
The birth of my beautiful daughter was a turning point in my life and a gift from God. It is important to me that you be conscious of some facets of yourself that other people probably aren’t aware of. I would want to share with you the ways in which you have impacted not only my life but also the lives of a great number of others located all over the globe. I would want to share with you some information regarding the special method in which your Creator has fashioned you.
I am aware that you are only three years old at the time that I am writing this, but when you are older, you will understand how incredible you are. One day, it’s possible that I won’t be able to express in person how glad I am for you. In order to ensure that you never forget how special you are, I am going to record this information and compile it into a book for you to read when you are older. I’d want to talk to you about… your background.
To get things started, let me give you some background on your birthday. In order to spend time with family, we embarked on the long journey from Maui, Hawaii, all the way to Tennessee. The moment of reckoning has finally come, and I couldn’t wait to be in your presence! So, yes, that hurts! I did not put two and two together. There was absolutely nothing that could have adequately prepared me for the moment that you were put on my chest. Seeing you glance at me with those almond-shaped eyes solidified my feelings for you, even though I already knew I loved you.
You may tell your mother, “Mommy, it’s me, your kid.” I have high hopes that you will like me. I am the sound of your heartbeat that you were so thrilled to finally hear. I am the same baby who was safely ensconced inside of you when you were pregnant. I am the same person who slept off to the rhythm of your heartbeats serving as a lullaby. You were singing to me even though it was dark and cozy where I was. You expressed to me how much you cherished our relationship. If you take me up on my offer, I will alter the course of your life. I was designed in a manner that is both terrifying and delightful. It’s alright if you don’t understand me, Mommy; God designed me this way on purpose. If the opportunity presents itself, I shall do extraordinary deeds.
I will make sure that you have a grin on your face each and every day. God devised me with you in mind from the very beginning. He said that you needed my assistance, and that I am completely under your control at this point. Yes, my little baby, I was aware that you were a divine being. You should realize that when Jesus created you, he bestowed upon you a very unique gift. It is a gift to the world, despite the fact that some people may not acknowledge it. Those who are moved to acknowledge what a magnificent gift you are have been changed by something that is bigger than themselves; as a result of having their eyes opened to the beauty of your soul, they will never be the same.
This condition is referred to as trisomy 21, which is also its name. Because of God, you have an additional copy of your 21st chromosome. It baffles me how he was able to pack so much affection into such a little portion of chromosomal space, but he did it. He meant for you to be distinctive, to instruct, to love without condition, and to demonstrate to others how to love in a similar manner. You came into being on purpose and with a specific objective in mind.
However, it appears that every narrative has certain aspects of sadness, and ours is no exception to this rule. In order for you to have a thorough understanding of how brilliant you are, it is necessary that every detail of your story be shared. Only in really dimly lit settings will you be able to fully appreciate how brilliantly a candle may shine. Within a few hours of your birth, it was discovered that you had three holes in your little heart, and there was also a potential that you had leukemia. I was inconsolable and terrified that I would have to say goodbye to you. If you didn’t undergo open-heart surgery (which, by the way, you didn’t really need to have), they claimed you wouldn’t survive to see your third birthday. When we were at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), I felt like a zombie.
Your father did not acknowledge the special talent you possessed or the influence it had on you in any way. Unfortunately, he was one of the people who are occasionally afraid by things that they do not comprehend, and he was one of those people. Because he was incapable of loving with his emotions, all he could do was gaze at the object of his affection.
He left this world when you were only five days old, so he never got to see your heart, smile, or the way you love with every fiber of your being. He lost out on what may have been the most significant opportunity of his whole life. Others choose to cultivate ‘disabilities’ that they weren’t born with, and he chose to cultivate a blind heart. Some individuals are born with certain abilities, while others choose to cultivate ‘disabilities’ that they weren’t born with.
Even though your earthly father was no longer here, your heavenly father never turned his back on us. He gave us a number of different father figures that love you as if you were their own kid and he did this by providing us with them. But don’t worry, my darling daughter, for this is only the beginning of your tale and what’s to come. (Spoiler alert: things are about to become much better!)
It was a nerve-wracking time for us as we shuttled between visits with the cardiologist and the oncologist. I wept each and every time I went there. Your Aunt Anita, who is responsible for my sanity, came to each and every one of them. You were wired up like a machine and ready to go. No longer did we have a location to call home, a means of transportation, or employment opportunities. After a brief stay in a motel, we went to see our relatives for an extended period of time. I participated in a government program that gave me vouchers to go toward the purchase of certain products that were on a list of things that we were ‘authorized’ to eat. I hid my tears from you so that you wouldn’t see me crying in front of you.
I wanted to be strong for you and give you the life you deserved, and couch surfing was not the way to do any of those things. After a lot of fasting and praying, God answered our prayers by providing me with a job so that we could start putting our lives back together again. We hired a modest, historic farmhouse and made it our home for the night. Although it didn’t seem like much to most others, it was our home and that was all that mattered to us. This is a fresh start for the both of us, and it is a chance for me to provide a brighter future for you. A member of the church provided us with all of our furnishings, but for many months we had to sleep on the floor.
On the other hand, we have turned our misfortune into a worldwide message that we want to share with the rest of the world so that they, too, may discover how to learn to see with their hearts. Permit me to explain what you did and how you accomplished it:
I took a ridiculous number of pictures of you with my iPhone. Those photographs quickly went popular on various social media platforms. I was really taken aback by your attractiveness, and as a result, I took pictures of each and every one of you. THE END OF IT ALL. It just so happened that the individual who hired me was an experienced cameraman. After looking at those photographs, he said, “You have a talent.” “You really ought to go out and invest in a high-quality camera.” Because your mother is so lousy with technology, I couldn’t help but giggle at his seeming insanity.
But I eventually broke down and bought a camera after months of cackling at the thought of doing so. Because there were so many buttons and lights, I would have wrecked the aircraft if it had been one because I was so bewildered by them. When I finally got the hang of it, though, I couldn’t stop doing it. I have always had a great desire to alter how people in society regard individuals with a variety of skills. As a direct consequence of this, I took photographs of your little life.
The kindness in your heart and the beauty of your smile were attracting the attention of people from all over the globe. So, just what was it that I did? I put in a request to be given a podium in order to call attention to the individuals all around the globe who needed to have their voices heard, many of whom were unable to communicate verbally. “How am I supposed to do that?” I pondered the idea in my head. Well, after consuming a lot of coffee one evening and scribbling the words “Paperdolls Photography” on a piece of shredded paper, it was as if the floodgates of my mind opened, and the Lord revealed me precisely what it was that I wanted to accomplish.
My business was officially established in March of 2016. It was less than a week after I published my debut collection, “American Beauty,” and you had your first television appearance when you were just two years old. Nashville News Channel 5 was standing in our yard at the time. People from all around the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Australia wanted to know why I was receiving phone calls and emails from those countries as well as from Washington, D.C. They question, “Why are you highlighting people with special needs in your photographs?” Therefore, I complied with their request enthusiastically.
Through the use of photography, which does not need me to say a single word, I am able to communicate our story, raise awareness, and UN-teach society’s harmful consequences in the hope that this may prevent what happened to us from happening to other people. The images of you and your friends, my daughter, resonating loudly and clearly in every language spoken around the globe, influenced hearts and minds of people everywhere. Using the skills that God has bestowed upon me, I will continue to fight for you and all of your friends located in other parts of the globe. In addition, it is my dream that my legacy will live on when I am no longer physically here on this planet.
You have made Paperdolls Photography into a worldwide phenomenon, and you have recruited the assistance of your many close friends in order to do so. You are not the only one going through this. You have earned the title of “lover of the global community of people with special needs” because to the awareness-raising efforts you have undertaken wherever your face is recognized. By the time you were three years old, you had already made at least three appearances on television, not to mention that your stunning appearance had been highlighted in several publications, blogs, and other kinds of media all over the globe. Simply being yourself is the most effective way to achieve all of these goals.
It never ceases to amaze me how much of an effect you have on people who are not even related to you. humans have written to me to tell me how your writing has changed their perspective on humans in general and how it has benefited their own life. Hannah Grace, are you aware of the amount of pride I have in you? Do you understand what I’m getting at? Is it not readily apparent that you are a blessing? Do you have any idea how much love there is for you? People have come up to us in public places like supermarkets and started sobbing, the only thing that has been spoken between us is, “She is so beautiful.” “Thank you,” is the response that I give. “Are you feeling all right?” They merely nod and walk away without saying anything. You, my darling, possess some kind of extraordinary ability.
I’ll close by stating this, even though your narrative is by no means finished: This demonstrates how great you are, and you should never, ever forget what your mother said. YOU ARE THE RIGHT PERSON. ROYALTY. You are really beautiful. You are a potential outcome. You have the ability to do whatever that you set your mind to. You are a blessing to all of humanity. You are an exceptional one of a kind. You are a cause for joy and celebration. You were created in the image of God, which is both awesome and awesomely fearsome! You are the seventh marvel that the planet has to offer.
You are the oldest kid in my family. You are an integral component of who I am, and I can’t imagine my life without you. You are going to continue to change the world, one person’s heart at a time. I am right there with you, providing assistance to you while you create each stunning image. It is possible for us to communicate without using words when we utilize photography since pictures can be understood in every language, and the love that is shown in them expresses all that needs to be spoken.
You are so much more than the daughter that I hoped for and prayed to have one day. I am grateful that despite all of my shortcomings, you have not stopped loving me. The most of the time, I don’t feel like I deserve to be your mother at all. You are a teacher who can alter the world, as well as an unending source of love’s purest form. You are completely good, blameless, and blameless in every aspect. You are held in awe and admiration by thousands of people. For me, out of all the tales spoken around the world, both old and modern, my absolute favorite is… The narrative that is YOU.