The Gordon Family { Hope Project }

I was lucky to be able to do maternity and newborn photos for this family who have been through so much. Their story is nothing short of inspirational ...so without further ado here it is.... 

My husband, Brad, and I had been married for two years when we decided we wanted to expand our family. We were living in Halifax at the time, and once I got pregnant, we decided to leave our jobs, Brad getting hired on with a firm on PEI, and we moved back home to raise our family. Claire was born on January 6th of 2011 and we were settling in to the new chapter in our lives as parents. When Claire was only a couple of months old, I started experiencing severe back pain and bumps on my head. I sought medical attention from two different doctors who chalked my symptoms up to being a “new mom who is nursing”. I had never been one to have any health problems at all growing up, not even so much as a broken bone, but still I didn't question anything. 

The symptoms progressed to experiencing night sweats, feeling tired all the time, loss of appetite/weight loss, and severe pain in my abdomen, all within two months time. Upon “googling” my symptoms I was convinced I was having gall bladder issues and went into emergency at the hospital once I could no longer take the pain. After receiving blood work, the doctor informed me my liver enzymes were irregular and that they would be admitting me overnight to receive an ultrasound in the morning. I phoned Brad, who was home with Claire and informed him what was happening, that I would pump that night and to bring Claire in first thing so i could nurse her, before getting what I assumed would be an ultrasound informing me I needed my gall bladder out. That my hospital stay would be a day or two. In and out. Easy.




The next morning came and the ultrasound tech asked me a lot of questions about my symptoms. Questions that I thought were more detailed than what they needed to be for gall bladder issues, but still I answered them. Then I was wheeled back to my unit, where they informed me I was being moved to a private room, for “more space since I had an infant”. Some time had passed, and two doctors came in to my room to inform Brad and I that they found spots that appeared to be cancerous.







I almost thought I had heard them wrong or that they were in the wrong room. That cannot be me, my issues are gall bladder. I am a 25 year old, healthy, new mom, this cannot be accurate. Over the next week, my symptoms were quickly progressing, and everything was mostly a blur as I had a direct line of constant morphine as my only source of “pain relief”. I had a CT, endoscope, bone scan, spinal, and bone marrow all done within a few days and my results were sent off to Toronto for assessment, as I did not “present normally” for the type of cancer. After my endoscope was preformed, the surgeon came in to tell us he believed it was stage 4 stomach cancer and that I had about 3 weeks to live. Not ideal with a husband and 5 month old. The day of my 26^th birthday, June 21, 2011 I was wheeled down to the cancer treatment center to receive my official diagnosis from my oncologist. Stage 4b Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, in my stomach, my liver, and in between my back and uterus. Highly aggressive, but tends to respond well with R-CHOP chemotherapy. Better than 3 weeks to live, but still not ideal. For the next three weeks I fought for my life, to not leave my daughter without a mother, my husband without his wife.

I began chemo right away and tried different anti-nausea and pain medications so I could start the transition home. I had chemo for 4 hours, one day a week, every three weeks. I had to immediately stop breast feeding, and I lost all of my hair. I completed all 8 rounds of chemo without any delay, which is a feat all in itself as most become too sick from side effects of chemo to complete that many, or their white cell count gets too low where it isn't safe to have treatment until the numbers come back up. I had my final round of chemo in November of 2011. a CT scan after revealed the tumors to be completely gone in my stomach and back, and only a few spots in my liver where they would monitor as they could be scar tissue from before cancer. A side effect of my chemo was possible infertility. My period stopped, and I started experiencing hot flashes, as I was going through treatment. I was trying to solely focus on getting through cancer, but it was hard not to think about the idea of Claire not having a sibling. That at the age of 26, I would be infertile. Two months after chemo treatments had ended, my period came back, and despite my oncologist saying we needed to wait a minimum of two years before trying to have more children, we found ourselves pregnant just two weeks later. I was overjoyed that I was not infertile, but beyond scared at what this would mean for my health in the months to come. After consulting with my oncologist on the island, and my lymphoma specialist in Halifax, we decided to go ahead with keeping the baby and took things one day at a time when it came to how I was feeling, how the baby was doing, and what the many ultrasounds/blood work was saying. I made it to 37 weeks without any complications/symptoms and delivered our second daughter Penny, naturally on November 30, 2012. Fast forward to this September 19^th, we welcomed our third daughter, Alice into our family. I still receive blood work and see my oncologist every few months, and they don't ever say “cured” for my case, but in November 2016 it will mark 5 years since my last chemo treatment, where they say the odds of my cancer returning greatly diminish. There is not a day goes by where I don't reflect on where I have been and where I am now. I am a mother of 3 beautiful girls, and a wife to my amazing husband.

The Belanger Family { Hope Project }

The hope project was put on hold for awhile but I am still determined to share the few sessions I was able to complete, even if the photos were taken awhile ago now. Meet the Belanger family... they will always have a special place in my heart. 

"We lost our dad to cancer in February and that is when our lives were forever changed. We have an emptiness inside but now we are closer than ever. This photo opportunity was so special to us. We cried, but most of all we laughed, all together, which has been a rarity. We had been wanting to get family photos done with dad, but time was cut short.

When someone has a terminal illness, everyone deals with it differently and we all believe she was going to win the fight. We were given the opportunity to show the world what our dad meant to us. We were "Donnie's Girls". 

The reason we have the Montreal Canadians blanket in the photos was because dad was a true Habs fan, but on the last few months of his life, he was always so cold from the chemotherapy treatments, so he always had this blanket with him. The night he died, my son, dad's only boy, wrapped himself in it and cried himself to sleep. The photos of the kids holding photos of their grandfather show that moments are precious. They won't have their grandfather in their lives to see them reach special milestones and they need to cherish the short time they had with him. 

There are pictures of our beautiful mother holding their wedding picture and dad's blanket. She is the strongest woman I know. In the last few years she was dad's wife and his nurse. She took such good care of him without asking for anything in return and while being our shoulder to cry on. She is the most selfless woman we know and we are so lucky to have her.

The night dad died, Mom looked at me and said "I'm so sorry". Even in the worst moment of our lives she was putting us first. In times like this, you realize how short life is and how precious each person and moment is to you. Dad was too young to die and now we are without a father, husband and grandfather. Pieces of our hearts are now gone to heaven with him."