We were blessed to have a photographer from Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (NILMDTS) present to take pictures of Joy. NILMDTS is a non-profit whose mission is to " introduce remembrance photography to parents suffering the loss of a baby with a free gift of professional portraiture". They train and educate professional photographers who volunteer their time and talents to people in situations like ours. I think I mentioned it before, but Melissa Distel is the photographer who took picture of Joy for us, and we are so grateful for her service to us.
I would love to share some of the photos of Joy with you, with two caveats:
1) The pictures are watermarked. Not because I don't trust "you" (the you who I know in real life) but because I have seen firsthand others' pictures being taken and used in hurtful ways for purposes other than what they were intended for. I'm sure someone could remove these watermarks if they wanted to, but hopefully they'll just move on to an easier target. I tried to put the marks on in a way that wasn't too distracting from the picture itself.
2) I decided not to share any close-up photos of Joy's face. The skin on her face was very dark, and her eyes were very prominent because of the malformation of the eye socket and the absence of the cranial bone. (Here's a drawing if you'd like a visual.) I'm not ashamed or embarrassed of how my daughter looked, but those images are not something that I'm willing to put on the internet, for reasons I described in #1 above. I kind of feel like Wilson in "Home Improvement" (I hope some of you get that reference) but decided that this level of sharing was what I was comfortable with. If you're curious (which is fine!), there are many pictures of babies with anencephaly here. I'm also happy to share more pictures of Joy with you in person if you so desire.
So without further ado, I present Joy Marie Salesky. I hope that you can sense the love and the peace that was present during these precious moments with our daughter.
Mother and daughter:
She had big feet, just like Liam did.
These keepsakes (and others) were provided by the hospital. This little leaf picture hung outside the door of our labor suite to let the staff know that it was a less-than-ordinary situation. I'm not sure exactly what situations they are used for, but I was shocked to see how many there were during my labors with both Joy and Noah.
She had my "finger toes" as Eric affectionately refers to my long toes.
I hope you are blessed by seeing these pictures of our time with Joy.
