LJ Herman is a former editor at Love What Matters and lives in Colorado. LJ is a concert, ticket and technology enthusiast. He has seen the Dave Mathews Band over one hundred times and counting.
‘My heart raced as I ran towards the kiddie pool. Taking a clue from my children’s guilty faces, I expected the worst. ‘Where is she?!’ I demanded.’: Mom performs ‘chicken CPR’ to save drowning chicken
“‘She’s just taking a nap after her swim.’ I snapped out of my idiotic bliss. Call it divine inspiration, Mother’s Intuition, or simply, ‘Hey dummy, pay attention to your kids.’ I was suddenly struck with the thought of, ‘Huh. Why do they have a towel in a large Tupperware filled with water?'”
‘When I saw my car for the first time since our accident, all I could do was shake like a leaf, and sob. I cannot believe my babies and I walked away from this.’: Mom urges car seat safety, ‘Make sure they’re safe EVERY time’
“We were t-boned while making a left turn, and pushed into a light pole. A few weeks before the accident, I posted a picture of the kids sleeping in my backseat. Someone commented and asked if Andrew, my 4-year-old, was still rear facing.”
‘I text him. ‘I’m so sorry, do you need me?,’ he asked. ‘No. You wanted this.’ We’re fighting again. We lay in bed. We cry. I cannot give him what he wants.’: Mom suffers miscarriage, thanks best friend and partner for ‘saving’ her
“When I get home, all his things are gone. Like he was never there. I don’t make it two steps past the house door. I lay there and I cry. I cannot move. I cannot breathe. I do not want to be here. This is going to kill me.”
‘I’ve never doubted how much you do. But I underestimated it. I was you for 48 hours and now I understand why you lock the door at night to have that shower.’
“For 5 years you’ve never left the kids to cry. You never want them to be alone. I did that wild scream you did. I know where it comes from now.”
‘I get my hair colored. My natural hair color is mousy brown, I think. I can’t be fully certain. I haven’t seen it since I was 15 or so. But it’s dark. I do know that much.’
“In my heart, I am supposed to be blonde. I wear fake lashes. I own roughly 47 different shades of lipstick, so clearly, I care about the way I look. But here’s the thing. Nobody is going to stand up at the front of the church at your funeral and talk about your looks.”
‘Do you understand what I am saying?’ she asked. I stared at her, trying to process. My oldest son, at 15 years old, fell suddenly ill. It began as a terrible rash on his arms and legs.’
“In the middle of those sleepless nights of waiting, worry, and prayer, I became increasingly curious about my family history. Little did I know the role it would play in my life when my son finally received a diagnosis.”
‘I noticed the truck speeding up. I knew I was going to hit him. ‘This accident could have ended very differently.’: Girl survives near-fatal car accident thanks to seatbelt, ‘I have forgiven the man who caused my pain’
“I wanted to take his hand and say, ‘It’s okay…I forgive you. I know you didn’t mean for this to happen. But it did. And it’s okay. We’re okay,’ but I never did.”
‘I laid in my hotel room bath, sunk my head underwater, closed my eyes. I wondered what life would be without me in it? I cried.’: Woman stresses importance of mental health awareness after abusive relationships, suicidal thoughts
“He’d be on dating apps talking about the women he’d hooked up with the night before. I still loved him. I’d confront him. ‘Why do you do this?’ It would always escalate into a big argument. Our neighbors called the police to our house because of the noise.”
‘During my pregnancy, my dad came to me in a dream. He was holding a baby boy wrapped in a pale blue blanket. He walked towards me. It’s the only memory I have of them together.’
“We had chosen to wait on finding out the gender until birth, but I knew when waking up that the little boy inside me would be a boy. I’ll never hear you tell him you love him or sing him to sleep. He will never see you on the sidelines, cheering him on. But I know you were taking care of him before it was my turn to.”
‘Today, I witnessed someone tell a mother of 4, ‘You must really have your hands full.’ I winced. There was nothing positive about it. She half smiled, walked away. I couldn’t stop thinking about it.’
“To others, her kids are work. But they are so much for than that. What could’ve been said to to this mom that would’ve not left her with a half smile, but actual joy in her heart? I realized that only ONE word in the statement had to be changed.”