Shuffield Photography Blog

A couple of weekends ago I was honored to participate in the second annual Hope Mommies Retreat. This is a weekend where women who have lost full term babies assemble and find comfort and encouragement from women who have walked this unfortunate path as well. We had 23 women come from as far away as Canada. The goal of the retreat is to teach God’s truths in our lives even in our darkest hours! These women have experienced every woman’s greatest fear in life; to bury a child. No one can share this heartache like a fellow sojourner on this very painful journey!

After the first Hope Mommies Retreat, Erin was moved to organize the Hope Mommies in to a 501 (c)(3). She has worked tirelessly and poured in hours upon hours to the organization so that other moms will have a place to turn when their lives have been shattered. The message of Hope Mommies is….TRUSTING GOD WITH THEIR BABIES: born out of hope, prayed for in hope, taken to Christ in hope!

Our dear guest speaker, Lynette Kraft, who has birthed 9 children and buried 3. She has dedicated her life to encouraging women with her same plight!

Our 23 precious Hope Mommies!

The awesome kitchen crew!! Chris, Constance and Carla! All the girls raved over the fabulous meals!!

A wonderful craft project designed to portray putting their lives back together!

Erin created blocks for each baby with their name, date of birth and story! Precious!

My Sarah’s block for baby Holden!

All of these girls were present at our first Hope Mommies Retreat! This is the reunion picture (minus a few)!

Molly Bears is an organization that makes teddy bears that are weighted to your babies weight. A mom who experienced a full term loss began the organization when she lost her baby girl! There is a huge wait list and they always accept donations! This is Erin’s Molly Bear!

We held a ballon release Sunday morning before the ladies began departing. It was a very special time!

Our speaker, Lynette, with her daughter, Abigail! They were a huge blessing over the weekend!! Lynette and I were surprised to find out we have the exact same birthday, year and all!! How fun!!

Wow, what an amazing week!  Living in a small town always has its advantages and disadvantages.  While we sometimes miss the luxuries of city life, we believe Brady is a great place to live and raise our kids.  We are passionate about our schools and hospital for a variety of reasons, but one of those is that they are the foundations of any small town.  Lose one or the other, and your town could be in big trouble!  Last year we completed the construction of a brand new high school that is both beautiful and state of the art.  This year we are blessed by the construction of a brand new hospital.  Pretty uncommon for a small rural community!

Jim serves on the Heart of Texas Memorial Hospital Board of Directors.  One of his fellow board members, Dr. Richard Lane, is a true artist and photographer. His focus is wildlife and landscape photography and he has thousands of photos from all over the world that take your breath away!  He graciously donated his work to help decorate the new hospital facility.  We were honored to be in charge of planning and producing that artwork.  Last week we received dozens of gallery wraps and roundouts and were overrun in our studio.  Today was the day that we were able to open and hang those beautiful pieces!  Here is a glimpse of the beautiful facility and amazing art from Dr. Lane!

Dr. Richard Lane

Dr. Lane & I

There will be an open house Sunday, February 6th from 2:00 – 4:00 pm.  If you are in the area, please come check it out.  We would love to see you!