Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

 
The Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation (NILMDTS) administers a network of more than 5,000 volunteer photographers in the United States and nineteen  International countries. At a family’s request, a NILMDTS Affiliated Photographer will come to your hospital or hospice location and conduct a sensitive and private portrait session. The portraits are then professionally retouched and presented to the families on an archival DVD or CD that can be used to print portraits of their cherished baby.   

This organization is very dear to our hearts.  We have never had this happen to us, but we are parents and this experience has taught us to hold our children a little tighter each night and to be a little more patient with each child.  If you know anyone who needs this service, please forward our information to them or visit www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org.

 

 

 

 

 Below is a little something written by the mother of this little angel……….

 
“Our son Dylan Gabriel was born with a condition known as VACTERYL, a series of birth defects that would ultimately take his life.  We didn’t know how long we had with him, we just knew that the time was limited.  A social worker in the hospital we were at suggested that we contact the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (NILMDTS) foundation, an organization of volunteer photographers that come out to hospitals and take pictures of terminally-ill or recently passed infants and their families for free. She even went ahead and coordinated some time for a photographer to come visit.

Our NILMDTS photographer, James Hill, took time away from spending Father’s Day with his own family so that he could take pictures for us. He was an absolutely amazing person and photographer. He came into our hospital room and just immediately started snapping shots with Dylan. We were able to have his tubes removed for the pictures. The hospital also had a beautiful garden area, where we had the opportunity to take some really great outside shots.

James met Dylan just a few days before he passed away.  Both James and Michelle graciously (and quickly) turned around a few pictures for us to use at the memorial. We were e-mailing back-and-forth until after midnight one night.  They are such genuinely good people, and I mean gooddown to the core (the kind of people that my husband and I strive to be). We received the most beautiful gift from them right before Christmas, that they simply decided to do out of the goodness of their hearts. They’d taken one of the pictures that James shot of Dylan and created the most beautiful canvas print from it. 

Although this was not a desirable circumstance upon which to meet, we will always think fondly of James and Michelle.  The pictures that we have of Dylan are the most beautiful images I’ve ever seen.  I would definitely recommend James Adam Hill Photography for any photography need.”