Every Picture Tells A Story
This is my beautiful friend who inspires me so with her strength, spirit & unshakable JOY. I captured these photos for her but... these are HER words, HER portrait, HER story... and an important one that needs to be shared. Because EVERY picture does tell a story... & when we share them we connect in such an incredible way that it would be a complete disservice to so many not to share.
"Because every picture tells a story.
When I was in the thick of treatment, barely getting out of bed most days, I saw another woman post some headshots that she had done in the midst of her treatment and they struck me. She was beautiful. She was so strong. Instantly I thought, I need to do this. But there was another part of me that screamed no… it was too vulnerable, too much. But at the end of the day, I knew I didn’t want to have any regrets. So I reached out to a dear friend, and she was super encouraging and thrilled with the idea and more than willing to help. And now, I’m forever grateful!
These aren’t just pictures. They are a huge part of my story. Yes, the short hair is evidence of the chemotherapy I endured for four months that killed my cancer; the scars that lay where I once had breasts that are my battle wounds that helped save my life, the large X that’s used to help determine where I will receive radiation, the mediport that has saved my veins, the twenty pounds that I’ve gained from all the steroids and chemo induced menopause.
But you know what else I see? I see joy. The kind of joy that doesn’t make sense.
I see strength. Not of my own, but a supernatural strength of the spirit that never runs dry because it comes from Him.
I see hope. Knowing that my hope doesn’t lie in my present circumstances, or this physical body. My hope is a person, and His name is Jesus.
In these pictures I see the story of a woman who has experienced the faithfulness and realness of God in the lowest of valleys. A woman who has experienced Him closer than a brother, even when the only form of prayer she has are tears. A woman who has known true heartache and pain, some of her dreams shattered, yet still has Hope. A woman who is learning the tightrope walk of holding both intense grief and real hope at the same time. A woman who has experienced being held up and carried by the body of Christ, even by people she’s never even met.
That’s what I see, and that’s what I hope I never forget.
Because every picture tells a story."
-- Andrea Bouchard
"Because every picture tells a story.
When I was in the thick of treatment, barely getting out of bed most days, I saw another woman post some headshots that she had done in the midst of her treatment and they struck me. She was beautiful. She was so strong. Instantly I thought, I need to do this. But there was another part of me that screamed no… it was too vulnerable, too much. But at the end of the day, I knew I didn’t want to have any regrets. So I reached out to a dear friend, and she was super encouraging and thrilled with the idea and more than willing to help. And now, I’m forever grateful!
These aren’t just pictures. They are a huge part of my story. Yes, the short hair is evidence of the chemotherapy I endured for four months that killed my cancer; the scars that lay where I once had breasts that are my battle wounds that helped save my life, the large X that’s used to help determine where I will receive radiation, the mediport that has saved my veins, the twenty pounds that I’ve gained from all the steroids and chemo induced menopause.
But you know what else I see? I see joy. The kind of joy that doesn’t make sense.
I see strength. Not of my own, but a supernatural strength of the spirit that never runs dry because it comes from Him.
I see hope. Knowing that my hope doesn’t lie in my present circumstances, or this physical body. My hope is a person, and His name is Jesus.
In these pictures I see the story of a woman who has experienced the faithfulness and realness of God in the lowest of valleys. A woman who has experienced Him closer than a brother, even when the only form of prayer she has are tears. A woman who has known true heartache and pain, some of her dreams shattered, yet still has Hope. A woman who is learning the tightrope walk of holding both intense grief and real hope at the same time. A woman who has experienced being held up and carried by the body of Christ, even by people she’s never even met.
That’s what I see, and that’s what I hope I never forget.
Because every picture tells a story."
-- Andrea Bouchard
