The Lawson Family | Southern Oregon Family Photography

This family is beyond precious. Not only did we get to have a photo shoot in my front yard, better yet my husband and I got to share a meal with them and their precious new addition. They have hearts of gold and I'm thrilled to have been able to capture their love and that miracle child of theirs. Here's Kelli's story of how their little one made it to the world by God's grace.My name is Kelli Lawson. In September of 2014, my husband, Ben, and I decided to have one last getaway before our son was born. So on our three year anniversary, we embarked on an Alaskan cruise. It was breathtaking and the weather was amazing. Although, I had been having braxton hicks all week, I kept in contact with my doctor who then reassured me it was completely normal.But on the night of September 11th, my contractions were picking up, I was having more than one every minute. So I decided to take it easy and just go to bed early. I woke up in absolute horror, I was lying in a pool of blood. I begged God to please let this be an awful nightmare but I knew this was real. I thought I lost the baby until I felt him kick. I was not even 24 weeks along and if I was going into labor, I was nowhere near any of the resources needed to attempt to sustain his little life.I was taken to the cruise ship medical center where even the medical staff panicked because they were not equipped to handle this medical emergency. Things began to get worse as I continued to bleed into a bedpan more and more. It measured out to be over 500ccs of blood which is an equivalent of over two cups on top of what I had already lost in bed. As my blood pressure was dropping, I felt like I was dying. And I asked God, “Is this it? Is my husband going to lose his wife and his unborn son tonight?” Then Psalm 46:10 popped in my head “Be still and know that I am God”. And even though I thought I was going to lose my baby boy, there was peace.The coast guard came and I had to be airlifted off the ship and there wasn’t enough room in for the helicopter for Ben. And they weren’t able to land on the ship so I had to be strapped to a stretcher and hoisted up by a cable all by myself.I made it to the small town of Sitka where I waited to be transferred by a private jet to a bigger hospital in Seattle. And while I was there, a nurse gave me a beanie and told me to send a picture of my son in it when he is old enough to wear it.I wish I could say I had the faith to believe that God would sustain my son’s life, but when I made it to the hospital in Seattle, it turned out I had a placental abruption. And I was immediately given the option to terminate the pregnancy because things were not looking good. It was then I doubted that God would protect this life. I had already lost a baby before, how was this any different?In Matthew 14, we see Jesus walks on water and Peter joins with Him. But as soon as Peter began to focus on the wind, instead of Jesus, he began to sink. We found that to be true for our own lives. As we started dwelling on the chances of losing our baby's life, our hearts began to sink. But when we focused on Jesus, all of our fears were removed and there was peace.But by God’s unfathomable grace, He saw past my doubt and answered our many prayers. And on December 22nd, 2014, at the ripe, full term gestational age of 38 weeks and 2 days, our Malachi Truth was born. 100% healthy and perfect. Thank You Jesus.What a powerful story...and what an honor for me to capture these photos!