Your Story
CPAP machines, chords, wires, and tubes. Rachel Smith didn't want pictures of her daughter in the NICU. This was not how Ella Grace's story was supposed to begin. Both mother and daughter almost died in a difficult pregnancy and were rushed from Thomas Hospital in Fairhope to Women's and Children's in Mobile. Rachel was in ICU for two weeks, Ella Grace was in NICU for a month and a half. Wanting to quickly move past a birth and delivery that didn't go as planned, Rachel didn't take pictures during their days in the hospital. A few were taken by her husband, nurses, and friends.
"I didn't want to remember that struggle. I didn't want that to be our story," Rachel said. "That was the hardest time of my life, but I learned so much about myself and God. Ella is healthy and perfect. She is in first grade and I cherish the few photos we have of the beginning of her life because it is an important part of our story. It is hard as hell and it hurts. But that baby who was two pounds is growing up. I tell her she can do anything because God brought her from there to here.
Rachel's husband gave her a white Canon camera, encouraging her to take pictures and document the life of Ella Grace. Rachel studied the manual and also started taking pictures of families with babies in NICU.
"I wanted to serve families where the mama withdraws and feels alone because I was her," Rachel said. "I tell parents don’t be afraid of the tubes, the wires, and the heartbreak. You will come out on the other side and one day sit down with your baby. There will be a time when you can embrace your story and help someone else through theirs."
The first baby she photographed in NICU stirred flashbacks. The smells, the soap at the sink, seeing the same nurses. Photographing the moments in NICU became healing not only for the mothers but also for Rachel. She now shoots pictures at birth, documenting the first moments a mother touches her child.
“I get to love the mothers and tell them they are going to be okay.”
Saphronia Dansley's first time to cook and feed the homeless was in October 2019. She hesitated when she felt God tugging her into the Maysville and Crichton communities where she has lived because she didn't know how she would be received. She made a trial run with a 40 hotdogs and potato chips in brown paper bags. Her first stop was behind a gas station, and at each stop, people were grateful. They told her, "I was just telling God how hungry I was" or "I haven’t eaten since the day before yesterday."
"They called me preacher lady and made each other straighten up and put cigarettes out," Saphronia said. "They made us pray before they ate. Some held hands to pray. They were so appreciative. I cried the first time after I was finished."
Feeding the hungry reminds her of how hungry she used to be. When she was little, her family ate red beans for three months for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with no salt or pepper. They also ate grits for three months, sometimes mixing in potted meat. There was no stove, so they cooked on a hot plate and washed dishes in cold water with Octagon soap.
She was also molested from the second to sixth grade and robbed of her childhood. Her parents kept her in the house because men offered her father sex with their daughters if they could have sex with her.
Saphronia’s house went into foreclosure and she could have been homeless with her kids. From poverty to sexual abuse, Saphronia says she can put herself in anyone’s position. That pain and compassion drove her to start Bread of Heaven ministry and she dreams of opening a homeless shelter in Maysville where she can treat all people with respect and dignity.
"I see my face on everyone I serve and know they can come out of this because I did," she said. "I want to help people because I know how hard life can be.
“Hearing what others are going through also makes you thankful for what you’ve got."
Sammy Eaton has been blind for almost seven years. One eye has glaucoma. High blood pressure busted a vessel in the other eye. His vision is dim, like looking through thick wax paper. He was a missionary in Haiti when his vision became so dim he could barely see. He came back to the U.S. for surgery but nothing could correct it.
"I was blind and my missionary work was over," he said. "It felt like the end of the world."
Sammy went to the Alabama School For Blind in Talladega for 18 months. He was depressed, but reading The Blind Doctor: The Jacob Bolotin Story about a blind man who became a doctor got Sammy off the couch and changed his thinking. His vision became starting a food truck but the trailer he bought years ago was just a shell. Sammy didn’t know how to build a food truck, but researched and learned how to do much of the work himself. He takes the bus to Lowes to buy the parts he needs and friends help with measuring and the jobs he can’t do.
"I had to figure out how to nail a nail without popping my hand," said Sammy, who also goes to dialysis three days a week. "I learned not to hit it so hard the first time. My hands are like my eyes and I feel everything to know that it is right. I designed everything on the trailer from scratch and go behind and check the work I didn’t do."
The trailer is parked in the yard next to the house where he was raised in Prichard. Every day he goes out to the trailer and says, "yep, you are coming." He says out loud the things he sees in his head.
"I run my hands over the trailer and see the beautiful people lined up to get their orders," he said. "I am going to cook for parties and special events and make money, but I am also going to use this trailer to give back to the community. I can see myself giving hot meals to the homeless.
Sammy's eyesight is dimmer than when he started, but he has almost reached his goal of selling food from his Cowboy Sammie's Concessions truck at Mardi Gras.
"I want people to be encouraged. No matter what, find your vision and go for your dream. Just try. The secret to winning is to keep running."
I met Sammy, Rachel, and Saphronia in the same week. Each using their hard times to help someone else and give back. Hard times are part of your story and my story and can't be left out. They are hard as hell and they hurt, but they are where we look back to see how we have come.
"Don’t be ashamed of the places you were weak," Rachel tells mothers in NICU. "Don’t be ashamed of the places you need to ask for help because that is going to be your greatest ministry. God will use your darkest times to be the light of hope for someone else.”
(The picture is one Rachel took of Oliver. He is now growing big and strong.)
