Erin S.

I would like to nominate my good friend Erin for your consideration.  You see, Erin has had a tough few years and I can’t think of anyone more deserving!  Four years ago Erin and I became first-time-Moms a few months apart.  We were constantly calling and texting advice and encouragement throughout our pregnancies and first few months of motherhood.  We also had both recently bought our first DSLR cameras to capture all those little moments we never wanted to forget.  We’d always joke how nice it would be to actually know how to use our camera! 

In August 2009, four months after Erin had Owen, she was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma.  At only 27 years old, with a newborn, the news was devastating to Erin and everyone around her.  She was scared….we all were scared. But if anyone is a fighter, I knew it would be Erin.  I’ll never forget even during her hardest moments of chemo and radiation Erin was always positive about her future, about Owen’s future.  I remember one day her quietly saying “I just want him to grow up with a Mom in his life” and my heart sank, unable to fathom what that fear would feel like. 

That year was rough.  Erin was very, very sick.  But through it all she documented with pictures, which was another thing I commend her for.  She never shied from the camera and wanted to remember that time in her life.  She wanted Owen to have pictures of all his “firsts” even though many of them happened during those chemo months when she felt so awful.  She finished treatment and the tumor had tremendously shrunk, but the doctors wouldn’t deem her cancer free for two years post treatment. During those two years there was much uncertainty.  They weren’t sure if they’d be able to have more children, and they so desperately wanted Owen to have a sibling.  It was a waiting game.

 I can happily say the two years passed, and Erin was officially in remission! She was given the go-ahead to try for more children, and a few months later got pregnant.  In January they welcomed a baby girl, Ella, into their family.  Once again, we are making our kids put up with our incessant picture taking, and still wish we could learn all those settings on our cameras.  Because at the end of the day, those pictures are all we have left of the tiny little moments that go by way, way too fast.

Mackenzie M

I am writing on behalf of my wonderful wife in the hopes that she qualifies for the camp scholarship

I am a pastor, which makes my wife a pastor’s wife.  For the past 11 years I have been the student ministries pastor for a church in Brea, CA.  I started the job shortly after we got married and so over those years, on top of ministry, my wife and I have dealt with getting life started together (awesome!), miscarriage after miscarriage, infertility testing, finding out she can’t have children, starting the adoption process, have doors shut on us including flying to Sacramento to adopt a baby girl only to find out that once we got there, the birthmother had changed her mind, finally adopting our first son and then three years later, adopting our twins.  Throughout the ups and downs, the good times and bad, my wife was always a support to me.  Even when things for her were at their darkest, she still made sure that I was able to do what God had called me to do.  Being gone for weeks at a time on mission trips and camps while she was at home by herself, grieving (before our kids) or at home taking care of three kids under three (and two only months old), she never complained (too much J).  She did the hard work so I could invest in the lives of students and she never asked for anything in return.

While on my trips and other times away, I would always get pictures from her on my phone of her and the kids blowing me kisses, playing at parks and just loving each other.  Her photography made me smile, cry, laugh and share with others about how blessed I was to have my wife and kids.  Over the years, Mackenzie’s gift and passion for photography has grown.  She is always looking up ways to get better, classes to go to, books to read (and now camps to go to).  Now it’s my turn to do what I can so she can do what she loves.

At the beginning of this year, the church we have been serving at for the past 11 years asked my wife and I to plant a church in the city of Fullerton.  My wife is once again, completely supportive of this change and has even taken on the role of unofficial photographer for the new church.  At every meeting and every event, you can find her talking to people, taking pictures, capturing moments and loving every moment of it.  I know that you’ve probably gotten thousands of requests and I know that there are thousands of incredible stories out there but for all my wife has done and sacrificed for me, our family and people around us, I had to try to get that scholarship for her.  It is the very least I could do.

Megan H.