From the loss of a child, couple eyes new life ‘mission’

Chris Short held his baby in his hand.

Peyton’s tiny foot barely measured against a digit of his father’s finger.

It had been a hard road. But the grieving was really only now beginning.

Chris and his wife, Deborah, already had four children from their 17 years of marriage. Five, though unexpected, seemed like a good final number for the Louisiana natives and Bluffton residents.

But there were problems.

Fluid built up around Peyton’s body inside the womb. The prognosis was not good.

It was going to take a miracle for him to be brought to term.

“Sometimes you see the miracle,” Deborah said. “Sometimes you don’t.”

‘God took care of us’

It was Christmas 2014. Friends and neighbors looked after the Shorts’ children as Deborah gave birth at Coastal Carolina Hospital.

But what was meant to be a joyful holiday was one of their most difficult moments.

Peyton was already dead.

They knew that. The portable sonogram told them as much on Dec. 8.

That was Deborah’s 40th birthday.

She remembers those moments for their loss but also for what she gained.

“I don’t know when he died, but we share a birthday,” she said. “That was the day he was born into Heaven.”

Her faith gave her the strength to survive a loss that some never recover. And it gave her the promise that they would eventually be reunited.

“This world is a blip; eternity is forever,” she said. “God took care of us, even in the loss of our son. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t immense pain. The pain and the suffering were real, and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. But we were actually OK.”

Chris chimes in.

“...She took it that way,” he said. “But as a father, you’re supposed to fix everything.”

There was nothing Chris could fix. But a chance moment in the delivery room that day opened new doors for him and the family.

When the hospital staff failed to get a usable image of Peyton, Chris took out his phone and snapped a photo of his child in his hand.

The black and white image changed everything.

Surviving on faith

When the Shorts arrived in Bluffton six years ago, Chris didn’t have a job and money was tight. They survived on faith.

It was the same faith that took them from LSU to Athens, Ga., to Birmingham, Ala., and Greenville, S.C., and even up to Baltimore, Md., as Chris sought the right job to provide for his family.

Soon after the family moved to Bluffton, Chris landed a job delivering medical supplies. Some deliveries went to gated communities. Others went to homes where he could see through the floor to the dirt underneath. He traveled the unpaved roads of Hilton Head Island and the back roads of Bluffton, seeing the poor neighborhoods many tourists don’t.

He felt God pulling him. And he told his wife everything he saw in his travels.

“He began to show me,” Deborah said. “I had driven by but I hadn’t seen it like he saw it.”

They spent years “chasing money” across the United States to ensure their children had all they needed. But now they felt a pull that felt stronger than the need to simply work to pay bills.

“At the end of the day, it’s not just about money,” she said. “We’re made for something more.”

They decided to do missionary work. They even researched a township outside Cape Town, South Africa.

Like the Lowcountry, it’s home to the very rich and the very poor. Unlike Beaufort County, Cape Town is home to roughly one million inhabitants.

They did their research. They knew they could make a difference there, even if it was small.

And then Deborah got pregnant.

Discovery through Their grief

In the weeks and months after Peyton’s death, Chris found refuge in photography.

Every family beach outing included his waterproof camera phone. Add the right moment with the right lighting, and he could walk away with a breathtaking image.

Throw in a tweak from an app on his phone, and it could even resemble a pencil drawing.

Feedback on photos he shared through social media gave him the encouragement to continue. Some of his images posted to The Island Packet’s Facebook page garnered more than 400 likes apiece. He even created a fan page — “Pluff Mud Photography” — to share his latest work.

Chris believes the loss of Peyton, as painful as it was, helped him realize his gift.

“He helped unlock in me something I’m decent at and will allow us to do missions,” he said. “We never wavered in going to Africa.”

And now, after a year of processing the family’s loss, his gift is going to help them fund their trip.

A gallery showing of Chris’s work was on display through the end of April at Lowcountry Community Church, where the family attends. He hopes others interested in their own prints will contact him through his photography Facebook page.

Going where God calls them

While their trip is currently set for a two- to three-year commitment, they describe their South Africa mission as “indefinite.”

“We may never come back,” Deborah said of the family of six. “We don’t really know. But our hearts’ desire is to stay in ministry.”

Chris said God used Bluffton to change him and open his eyes to those less fortunate. And Peyton showed him how he could help others.

“We moved here six years ago,” he said. “I didn’t have a job. Bluffton has changed my state of mind. Moving to Bluffton led to going to South Africa.”

They hope to share their struggles with those they meet in Cape Town and show them there is hope. And Chris plans to use donated phones and cameras to teach the local children how to document their own lives, perhaps unlocking their own hidden talent for photography.

The Shorts are Louisiana natives but have grown to call the Lowcountry home. So why pack up and travel nearly 8,000 miles to a new home, new country and new way of life?

Deborah answers with conviction.

“We had to go where God was sending us.”

This story was originally published May 1, 2016 at 7:00 AM with the headline "From the loss of a child, couple eyes new life ‘mission’."