Rebekah Pope Photography Blog

This past September, I met little Kayla and her Mom at the Memphis Zoo for a Littlest Heroes Project session.  She was just a little sweet heart and a brave little girl.  Here is Kayla’s story in her Mommy’s words.

At just twenty-one months of age, our little hero Kayla was presenting with flu like symptoms in June of 2008 for a few months. After receiving an MRI on June 23, 2008 it was obvious that Kayla had a large brain tumor in the right frontal portion of her brain. She was immediately transferred to Kaiser Sunset and on June 24, 2008 she received a craniotomy to resect as much of the tumor as they could, and most importantly get a biopsy. They were only able to safely resect twenty percent of the tumor. About ten days later we finally received the diagnosis of ATRT (Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumor) and began exploring our options immediately. All the current research seemed to lead us to St.Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis Tennessee. After talking with the representative and sending all of Kayla’s medical records to St Jude to be reviewed she was accepted into their research program. It just felt right, so we accepted. The agreement was made on Monday July 14 and we were on a plane to Memphis from California by early Wednesday morning on July 16, 2008.

She has been an inspirational fighter throughout her treatment here at St.Jude. Kayla has endured six rounds of chemo and another Craniotomy within these last four months. Each time she has bounced back full of spirit, and even though she is only two years old now it seems that she understands the task at hand and through it all she has stayed positive even through the pain and tears she has found a way to bring us sunshine through the rain.

Her second surgery revealed that they were able to miraculously remove about 90-95% of the tumor. The next step in her treatment is to prepare her for Radiation. So far we have been blessed with pretty good news following her treatment for this rare Cancerous form of Pediatric brain tumor and we have been so thankful for all of the love and support from both the Doctors and Staff here at St.Jude and our family back at home.

The process has been overwhelming to say the least, but Kayla is continuing to fight this battle and so we support her by keeping our spirits high and placing her care with St.Jude and our Faith in God.  May all of you be touched by our Little Hero as we have been and may God watch over you as he has our family.

With Love, Kayla’s Family

Please keep Kayla and her family in your prayers as she bravely fights.

Here is a quick sneak peek from a family session I did today.

Only one word describes this image - BEAUTIFUL!!  Beautiful Mom, beautiful baby and beautiful love. 

I am busy trying to catch up with my editing, however, I just have to share this outtake from a recent session.  I just love the look one sister is giving to the other.  It’s almost as if she is saying, “What are you doing?  Why are you crying?”

While editing some sessions, I found this cool image I took of my kiddos, niece and nephews.  We were enjoying a beautiful day at the Memphis zoo.  This image was taken in front of the Chinese exhibit where there are two pandas and other animals from China.  The zoo is a must see if you are ever in Memphis!