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Living With Sickle Cell: No Matter What Life Throws, Anything Is Possible

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Photography By: Felecia Causey I Lakeisha McClendon have Sickle Cell Anemia and I am here to tell my story. I was almost a year old, when my mother discovered I had Sickle Cell. It was very difficult as a child because you were not able to tell your parents what was really going on. Times were hard due to doctor appointments, hospital visits, or just dealing with the pain at home. As I got older, I started to understand more of my condition and I really watched my dad suffer from it until his death in 2001. I started living for him and myself, by fighting back but at times Sickle Cell had me. They discover I have Scoliosis, so I go every two years to see an orthopedist to keep an eye on it. Had my gallbladder removed in my senior year of high school. I receive blood transfusions three times out of the year. My last hospital admit was in August of last year and I am hoping not to have any this year. The last crisis I had was three weeks ago where I could not even work. Our pai

God Made Me Strong In Ways I Never Knew I Could Be

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Photography By: Felecia Causey My name is Christian Long, I’m 24 years old, born November 3 rd in 1995. I’m from Millbrook Alabama. I’ve worked as a Liberian at the Millbrook Public Library for two years and four months now. I found out I was pregnant on July 9 th,2019 that changed my entire life! I was really in shock so I laid down and took a nap and when I woke up I took another pregnancy test that was also positive. I was so happy but so unsure at the same time so the next day my best friend who was also pregnant took me to the Wetumpka Pregnancy center where I received another test and certificate congratulating me. After I talked to those women they made me feel so much better about everything and I was really looking forward to meeting my baby. I was sick my entire pregnancy I couldn’t keep anything down, not even water and I lost 10 pounds but when I found out it was a boy I was just so overjoyed and happy because I know how much little boys love their mommy’s. We

Keep Telling Her She Is Beautiful

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Written By: Felecia Causey Photography By: Felecia Causey Thanks to my amazing models and their parents! I recently came across a viral video, where a little girl thought she was ugly and cried. It absolutely broke my heart. As a mother to a daughter I make sure that she knows that she is beautiful and I love her everyday . We live in a world where girls are being criticize about their hair, from not just strangers, but also friends and family members. With a world that constantly teaches women and young girls that their skin color should be a certain color or their hair must be straight, not curly, puffy, or twisted, and it may become very difficult for them to just fit in. Why have a child feeling like their skin or hair isn't beautiful? She grows up questioning why she doesn’t have hair or skin like someone else, instead of teaching her to embrace the “uniqueness” that she has. “Am I ugly” The heartbreaking words to hear any child say. There are so m

I'll Do It All Over Again For My Daughter

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Photography By: Felecia Causey In the Summer of 2016, I went into my scheduled OBGYN appointment with intense abdominal pain and horror. After several tests I was diagnosed by my physician that there was an abnormal sized cyst on my left ovary. Following my initial surgery for the removal of my cyst, my physician once again found endometriosis spots all over my cervix. After a year of surgeries and the recovering process. My physician uttered to me that “due to how extensive my treatment plan was, my chances of having my own kids were unlikely. I was torn into pieces and felt as if my womanhood was taken from me. After a year of feeling like this a miracle had taken place and made my doctor questioned Science. On April, 14th 2018, I found out I was pregnant.  I knew the risks and I was terribly scared. I was filled with mixed anxious and worried emotions but although all those feelings I was experiencing I somehow just knew that this baby was my miracle baby. I went in

I SURVIVED: I Had Cancer, It Didn't Have Me

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Photography By: Felecia Causey It has been almost five months since I started this journey on October 3, 2019. I am currently a week away from ending chemotherapy. I will always remember that day like it was yesterday. “I am sorry what did you say?”, I remember that playing over and over in my head because I thought I had heard wrong. Matter of fact I knew that I had heard wrong, there is now way she just said, “I am sorry Ms. Colvin, the results did show you have breast cancer.” I didn’t panic at first, I was very numb. The first person I called was my Mom and at that moment the tears began to flow. I called all my immediate family and broke the news to them. I got tired of repeating myself, so I did the most current thing to do, I posted the news on Facebook. I was like I am 37, I am not even at mammogram age yet. I just knew that I was going to die and there was not anything anyone could tell me differently. Mind you, I was not given a poor prognosis, everything was in my fav

We Prayed, GOD Answered!

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Photography By: Felecia Causey Photos Also Provided By Nicole  Hey, we are the Jones' , Jeremy and Nicole, and this is our story of getting our beautiful daughter in this world. Our journey began in 2016, going into our marriage, as we actively and determinedly attempted to conceive the old-fashioned way. Despite six months of buying ovulation tests, pregnancy tests, using over the counter medication and of course laying upside down after intercourse, we were unable to conceive so we figured something was not quite right. We continued our journey by purchasing an at-home sperm fertility checker for Jeremy which the results determined that he was fine, so I scheduled an appointment with my OBGYN which is where I learned that I have stage 4 endometriosis, so getting pregnant naturally, was virtually IMPOSSIBLE. This news was bitter-sweet as we were happy to know exactly what was hindering us from conceiving, but we also knew what faced some challenging obstacles ahead. Two