“Please don’t be scared. On the day you get to meet your beautiful babies, you will have more love than you’ve ever known what to do with.”
‘I know it may not feel like it at first, but you were chosen to be a special needs parent for a reason.’: Mom to late son with Down syndrome urges ‘love them a little extra for me’
‘Where are you right now? If you’re still there, you need to get out! You need to tell your mom.’: Woman finds happiness after years of abuse, neglect
“We went from talking almost every night to talking almost every month. ‘Shelainea, you need to tell your mom.’ The divorce took a toll. She changed for the worst. ‘You shouldn’t be going through my phone!’ I couldn’t believe she was doing this to me.”
‘My children BEGGED me to quit. I clung to my right to drink the trauma away. I woke to my pills missing.’: Mom of 2 overcomes alcoholism, ‘My kids celebrate my sobriety with me’
“I moved in with a handsome British banker after 8 months of dating. All the while, he was lying about having a wife. I didn’t see sobriety as anything but a death sentence.”
‘My OB said, ‘If you’re having feelings of harming yourself or your baby, you need to go to the mental institution immediately.’: Mom urges ‘we need as many postpartum check-ins on mama as we do on the baby’
“A few weeks after my first child was born, I called my OB in desperation. ‘I don’t feel good,’ I said. ‘I’m not connecting with the baby. I’m so tired, I don’t think I can do this.’ The most common gift I received after childbirth was alcohol.”
‘I expected him to tell me, ‘Yeah, I’ve noticed. You’ve got to do something about that anxiety.’ He didn’t though.’: Mom grateful for husband’s love when sharing insecurities
“My husband and I had a day date this past weekend. I predicted he would say something like, ‘Why don’t you try to get a better routine going, be a bit more organized, and plan more?’ He didn’t, though. And then, he went a step further.”
‘Is there more than one?’ He said, ‘It’s TRIPLETS!’ The worst was happening. I rode in the ambulance in fear.’: After multiple losses, family welcomes adopted son on ‘Double Rainbow Day’
“It was like a dark cloud was overhead. ‘Should we try one more time? Is it too dangerous?’ I started praying for a sign. And boy did I get one. We took a shaky step. Then another. And another.”
‘Tonight, I saw a post that said, ‘What would women do without us?’ Everything. We would do absolutely everything.’: Woman urges ‘don’t ever forget what you’re capable of’
“Today, I mowed my yard with my almost-two-year-old on my hip.”
‘Is your Internet not working either?’ I spit my coffee out. Um, excuse me, what? My head was literally spinning.’: Mom shares hilarious first virtual day of school, ‘You are not in this alone’
“I hear both my husband’s and my phone start pinging like crazy and knocks on the door. I had to choose to either laugh or cry. It was the first day of virtual learning.”
‘They commented, ‘Should have aborted,’ on my photo. He is living in a world where he’s so othered, people think he should not be breathing.’: Special needs mom responds to ableist bullies
“One day, I hope when the world sees my son, they see Anderson. One day, I hope they see his humanity.”
‘I was relaxing by the pool, scrolling through my phone, when my heart stopped. My son was considered a ‘curse.’: Mom adopts boy with Spina Bifida, ‘We are the blessed ones to have him’
“He was sent to live in an orphanage. At only 4 years old, they were preparing him for an Adult Mental Institution. We had no idea what his name was. We didn’t even know his birthday. Every time that phone rang, I ran to it. I was on pins and needles.”