Alex Boerner

PHOTO ESSAYS: Life: A Gift of God's Grace

At the age of 27, and four months into her second pregnancy, Diane Hubbard was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma, a form of breast cancer. Being strong in their faith, Diane and her husband, Rob Hubbard, rejected doctors' opinions that she have an abortion. Instead they chose to face the high-risk procedure and endure the cancer treatment and pregnancy simultaneously.

Diane holds onto her son Gabriel while the two sit with Rob Sunday morning at chuch at the Life For Youth Ranch. Rob, who is the minister at the ranch, had the day off from preaching due to a guest speaker visiting for the weekend. The Hubbard's faith has played an important role in their journey through the pregnancy and cancer.
  
Diane sits anxiously in a recliner while receiving the chemotherapy treatment that she hopes will rid her body of the cancer that has already caused her to require a masectomy.
  
Exhausted from her third round of chemotherapy, Diane crashes to sleep while Rob picks up around the house. Diane lost a lot of energy while simultaneously going through pregnancy and cancer treatments. Often times Rob did not know how to handle his wife's situation. "If I could take just half of the pain away from her, I would gladly do it," he said.
     
  
Gabriel, a normally rowdy two year old, reflects the mood at the Indian River County Department of Health where Diane applied for Medicaid to help with the payments of her maternity care and chemotherapy treatments. The Hubbards were initially rejected Medicaid on the basis that they made too much money working at the Life for Youth Ranch where Diane's husband Rob is the Minister and Diane is a counselor.
   
Diane and Gabriel pray in a hotel room in Orlando, FL while on a weeked getaway to celebrate their anniversary.
   
Diane watches and listens as Rob talks on the phone with their bank regarding some bounced checks. Rob and Diane could not escape the financial difficulties that came with Diane's pregnancy and treatment for cancer. Their insurance through the Life for Youth Ranch did not cover Diane's pregnancy, and the bills for chemotherapy treatments were stacking up.
     
  
Diane holds up an outfit given to her at a baby shower held by other women who live and work at the Life for Youth Ranch. Along with their prayers for Diane's successful treatment and birth of a healthy baby, the small community at the Life for Youth Ranch have supported the Hubbards by keeping an eye on their son, Gabriel, during their frequent trips to hospitals and treatment centers, and by filling in for the couple during hours they couldn't be at work. "We came to this camp to minister, and found out we were the ones being ministered to," said Rob.
   
Diane shows her frustration after Gabriel made it difficult for her to give him a bath and get him cleaned up for dinner.
   
The night before Charisma was born, Rob talks on the phone with their obstetrician, Dr. Andrew C. Leavitt, after Diane complained about what felt like a constant contraction. Diane, who was doing everything she could to keep her mind off the pain, argued when Dr. Leavitt told them to go to the hospital immediately. "I hate that place," Diane said that evening. She did not expect to have the baby the next morning, and after spending much of her time in hospitals over the past few months, it was the last place she wanted to go that night.
     
  
Shortly after giving birth to a healthy baby girl, Diane feeds her new daughter, Charisma, with her one remaining breast. At the urgent recommendation of their obstetrician, Rob and Diane made a late-night trip to the hospital where labor was induced after Diane began feeling contractions. Diane will have to have her left breast removed eventually, but will continue to breast feed Charisma until that time.
   
Diane feels the little bit of hair that has started to grow back on her head after about a month and a half since her final chemotherapy treatment.
  
Gabriel wraps himself up in the curtains that are being used to separate what will be the new baby's room from the rest of their home. The Hubbard's live in a small house provided to them by the Life for Youth Ranch and had to make room for the new family member.
     
  
With the most difficult of their struggles now successfully behind them, Rob nuzzles up to Diane in an affectionate moment that shows some sign that things are beginning to return to normal. Diane will begin radiation therapy in a short while. “Normalcy will set in when summer camp starts. That’s the last time things were normal,” Rob said.
   
With the baby born and her cancer in remission, Diane spends a sunlit moment out in the woods of the Life for Youth Ranch with her new daughter Charisma while running errands with her husband Rob and son Gabriel.