After achieving great success with ”The Honest Body Project”, photographer Natalie McCain decided to do something more serious and really touching. She did a photo shoot with mothers and their kids with special needs. Mothers are posing with their children diagnosed with autism, cerebral palsy and Down syndrome and each photo tells a unique story and shows never-ending love.
These women open their hearts and talk about their pain, fears and their never ending fight. Natalie’s new heart touching project is called “Defined by Our Hearts”, a special needs series, and it shows the never-ending love of mothers towards their children with special needs.
“My son is not defined by his needs. He is not a “special needs child”. He is a child… with needs. He is defined by his heart, by his sweet demeanor, by his free spirit, by his playfulness… his “needs” will always be secondary to the person he is. I don’t view my son as having what society categorizes as “special needs”. It is not because I am in denial. I am grounded and aware person. I just happen to view all children as unique and having their own set of specific needs. I know that mindset is not well accepted in society and no matter how hard I might fight for my reasoning. I know my son will be lumped into a category. I just happen to find it incredibly sad that people are defined and categorized by their ability level. I want to fight the world for him. I know that is not a good plan, but I will always be his biggest and best advocate.”
Take a look at some of these beautiful photos:
“As we continued through our pregnancy, we decided it was time to announce our son. It was so hard to tell people face to face so after we told close family and friends; we decided to do it through social media. We named our son Eli and announced how he is “extra special” to the world. We could finally breathe easier and were able to accept the diagnosis after the announcement. In the meantime I joined multiple support sites where everyone shared the same fears I had. The same stories. And then I realized it was going to be okay.”
“Some days are awful and I want to curl up in bed and cry. I remind myself that things could be much worse.”
