I LOVE to take pictures and am a firm believer in the fact that life is worth documenting.  Some of my greatest treasures are photos of my loved ones.  So when someone tells me one of the photos that I took of them is their favorite, I consider it such an honor.  I find so much joy in documenting the special moments and faces in people's lives which pass all too quickly.  Both in my mind and with my camera I am always recording life.  I love every minute of it!

When I was fifteen I started to lose the sight in my right eye.  I had a benign brain tumor called Fibrosis Dysplasia that was encroaching on my optic nerve and destroying my vision.  Fortunately it was not a life threatening tumor; unfortunately it was sight threatening.  When I had an operation to remove the part of the tumor that was causing me to lose sight I ended up completely blind in my right eye.  Being fifteen, and an optimist by nature, I didn't think it was such a big deal as long as I could get my driver's license.

Being blind in one eye has never prevented my need for a creative outlet.  After high school I decided to go to college and study Graphic Design.  I was working for a newspaper as a Graphic Designer and was determined to eventually work for Martha Stewart.

However, in October of my final year of college, I was told the benign tumor that had destroyed the sight in my right eye seven years earlier was now threatening the good optic nerve.  I was shocked.  Facing the fact that I could end up living my life blind was difficult to take on, even for an optimist.  All I could think was, I'm so young and I don't even have children.  What if I can't see my children?  The best thing about the first operation was it prepared me for the second.

For the second operation I was incredibly blessed to find myself in the hands of truly amazing doctors who were respectfully honest with me.  I was given two options.  Continue with my life, and see just as much as possible before the tumor eventually destroyed the sight in my good eye, or to take my chances and have another operation in an attempt to clear enough of the tumor away and save my vision for the rest of my life.  The downside of going forward with an operation was that there was a real possibility I could wake up blind.  After putting all of my faith in God, and in those doctors, I decided to have the surgery.  One month later I had the operation and awoke to the outcome I had prayed for.  I could see.

From that day on my view changed.  For every thing I see, I will be forever grateful that God put those doctors on my path in this life.  I know without them my view of this world would be so incredibly different.  Without the experience of the journey, my perspective wouldn't be as clear.

The best part of my story is that eight years to the day I decided to have the surgery, God gave me the best gift ever.  A beautiful boy we named Sawyer.  His due date was actually three days earlier.  Being very pregnant and growing larger by the second, I thought at first he was overdue.  It wasn't until my husband reminded me of what had happened eight years earlier that I realized how perfect his timing was.  Of all the people, places, and experiences I will ever witness in this lifetime I will be most grateful to God for letting me see that boy.

I understand first hand how incredibly scary it is to hear the words “you might lose your sight.” I understand what an amazing gift sight is.  To see things that I once took for granted is truly like seeing them for the first time.

There are 37 million blind (27.5 million of those are needlessly blind) people worldwide and millions more struggle with the possibility of living their lives blind.  75% of global blindness is treatable or preventable.  90% if the world's visually impaired live in developing countries.

I never thought I could be a part of saving someone else's sight, or helping them cope with the loss of sight, but I can through The International Eye Foundation.  This is why a percentage of every photograph purchased on this website will go directly to The International Eye Foundation.

I was truly blessed to receive the gift of sight, and if I can pass it on, you bet I will!

You can too!  Please visit The International Eye Foundation at  http://www.iefusa.org/

If you wish to make a donation directly to the IEF, please visit http://www.iefusa.org/donations.shtml