Florence, SC Family Photographer: Paul, Gillian, Owen, and Layla

Owen. I love this kid. I’ve loved this kid ever since he was a tiny little baby who was born just a couple of months after my own cute son. My first memory of Owen is at a childhood friend’s home. There were several of us moms there and we had all recently had baby boys. Those baby boys were all crawling and rolling around on the rug in this great big den, and they were seriously the cutest things EVER. Every single one of them. Just a rug full of cute baby boys. I remember that it was Mak’s first time to ever wear real shoes. It’s funny the memories that stick with you, right? And now those baby boys are TEN. Unbelievable how fast that happened. What’s even more unbelievable is all that has happened in those ten years. All of those baby boys that were at that first little play group now have little sisters. Some have a few little brothers, too. There have been countless birthday parties, Sunday School activities, and various school functions. None of them are necessarily the tightest of friends, but they are all buddies and every time I see them I think of that first afternoon play date and it makes me smile. And, of course, we all know the one really big thing that has been a part of Owen’s life for the past year and a half…stupid, STUPID cancer. I’ll never forget where I was when we got the news that something was very wrong. We were at Disney celebrating Mak’s birthday, and all of a sudden there it was…one of those cute baby boys had an unbelievable diagnosis. It was like a giant punch in the gut to me, and I could never even imagine what it was like for his momma. SO much has happened since that day. I can’t believe all that this young guy’s body has endured. And his spirit, his heart, who Owen truly is…it’s more than a kid should ever have to battle. We’ve all seen his journey, there’s no need to catalog it here. The Plasmans have been so transparent with all they have gone through, and that has spoken to me so much. I tend to keep the ugly stuff under wraps. Nobody wants to hear about that, right? But that’s so wrong. Jesus does NOT intend for us to struggle alone. He gives us Himself and He gives us friends. He gives us other believers who will cry out in prayer when we are too weary to do it ourselves. I know that Gillian hasn’t shared everything they have gone through during this whole process, but she’s shared a lot and for that I am thankful. And I am SO thankful for where Owen is right now. He’s back in school. He’s playing baseball again {his favorite}. A few weeks ago I was upstairs in the young kid’s room at church and I was able to look down at the 5th and 6th graders. Owen was there and he spotted me spying and he started jumping around and making goofy faces at me. And because I’m a hormonal, overly emotional woman I couldn’t keep the tears from welling up. Praise GOD for this boy’s life. Praise God for this family!