“Helicopter moms – I never understood you… I get it now. We never thought it would happen to us.”
‘It has to get worse before it gets better.’ Some parents never see ‘gets better.’ We almost didn’t. We almost lost our baby.’
‘She is due in 9 days. You have been chosen by a birth mom. I threw up the entire day before this meeting.’: After infertility struggle family adopts baby girl
“Here I was standing in my own delivery room, holding my baby on my chest. As I looked down at my sweet baby girl’s face I thought, ‘You were worth it. You were worth it all.’”
‘I cleaned my house. A solid few hours. I did the tidying thing. The vacuuming thing. Heck, I even did the wiping the finger prints off of every surface thing.’
“Things looked good last night. Someone could ‘drop-in’ and I wouldn’t be ashamed. My house was cozy and my mind was calm. Man, does a clean house make my mind calm. But then the boys woke up in a needy mood.”
‘I received a text from my mother: ‘Can you come home after work please, I want to talk to you about the results of my CT scan.’ I raced home. My heart sank.’
“To this day, I thank God she was in that room. ‘There is no heart rate on the monitor,’ she said. We pressed the emergency button and the nurses and doctor came running in. The minutes that followed were very scary, very intense.”
‘After spending $13 on low brow tacos, my wife and I went Christmas shopping for our kids. This was our date for the month. This is parenthood. Sexy.’: Dad hilariously grapples with kids’ holiday wish lists
“Our son’s wish list added up to just over $5k. I’ve never wanted to make someone live on the streets until now. Play-doh was on everyone’s list. We won’t be getting any of it because I’d rather slam my head in a car door.”
‘We have been living with my parents for 3.5 years. Never in a million years would I have imagined we would move in with my parents, 2 months before the triplets were born.’
“Bringing in a very pregnant daughter, son-in-law and triplets was a lot to ask, and we knew that. My dad said, ‘This is an opportunity for me to be there for my grand babies, the way I wasn’t able to be there for you.’ I cried.”
‘I remember this guy said I had a ‘tight rig.’ I never ate much, I glorified my thinness. I was valued. I was funny, I felt pretty.’
“I met a guy, we fell in love and wanted babies. 3 kids, 2 vaginals, 1 cesarean, postpartum depression, antidepressant weight gain, and life later, this is my rig. I hated it. I would say it was broken. It’s not the person I valued anymore.”
‘The morning of her adoption, as the sun crept into our room, I watched her sleep. I studied the curve of her lips, the fullness of her perfect cheeks. This is the moment everything changes.’
“The judge pulled me aside to thank me, one less little person in the system. There is a refreshing light-hearted joy in the courthouse. A day where balloons bounce and smiles are had. For a moment, the cycle of dysfunction is broken.”
‘Suddenly, everything changed. He became irritated with me. He snapped at me. Then he said something I never thought I would hear: ‘I want you to leave.’
“The day he kicked me out of his hospital room, they had a conversation. She asked him how he was. She told him she missed him. His next text was simple.”
‘I thought maybe my husband fell, or something was wrong. When he finally came in, he said nothing. I grabbed his hand and whispered THANK YOU. I could see in his eyes he knew why.’
“He could not bear to know when the boys finally got up, they would see him lying on the ground. Sure enough, Alex was the first to get up. ‘Mommy, Mommy, come look,’ he said. Panic set in.”
