“‘Her own family didn’t even want her,’ the judge told me solemnly, ‘She’s probably not going to live. Why would you even bother? Why do you care so much?’ I looked right back at her and said, ‘Because her life matters.'”
‘She was abandoned with nothing, not even a name.’: Woman starts orphanage for terminally ill kids
‘I’m lying on the ground crying. ‘I can’t bear this.’ His life will be over before it really begins.’: Mom advocates for son’s terminal illness, Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy, ‘Strength is more than muscle’
“How can I watch him learn how to feed himself, knowing all too soon he won’t be able to move his arms? I tried to imagine what life was going to look like with this diagnosis. ‘I just can’t do this.’”
‘I carry him. I know it looks silly. His toes dangle past my knees. But still, I carry his awkwardly long body against my own.’: Special needs mom says ‘he carries me, too’
“The world moves fast and demands so much. I imagine with my son’s disability, it is often more exhausting. When he’s reached his limit, I’m close to my own. But when I carry him, he somehow carries me, too.”
‘I received a rejection letter that read, ‘African American ‘fathers’ is such a tough sell. Your project will not be a good fit.’: Author denied book publishing due to ‘black protagonist’
“Imagine you’re a black author. You’ve written one of your best works about fatherhood. You’re super excited to get it published, only to receive a rejection letter targetting the color of your black protagonist.”
‘Will she have brain issues?’ The doctor held my hand and said, ‘I don’t know.’ I’ve never been so scared.’: Woman births baby with Spina bifida, Hydrocephalus, ‘We’ve been through so much’
“We were given options to terminate. ‘Am I being punished?’ I didn’t know if either of us would make it. All I could do was hide in my closet and cry.”
‘I was walking into the grocery store when a kid asked, ‘Are you a looter? Do you like looting?’ Inside, I was boiling.’: Man turns racist incident into teaching moment for local kids
“As I was walking away, I heard one of them say, ‘Man the ice cream melted!’ I could’ve kept walking, but I decided to turn it into a teaching moment.”
‘I was embarrassed to announce my pregnancy. ‘I have a 3-month-old. What will they think?’: Mom of 11 ‘thankful for each healthy baby’
“Who wants to watch 10 kids? The babies were coming closer and closer and when our third child was only 3 months old, I found out that number 4 was on the way.”
‘I was told, ‘It’s good you had a C-section. You had it easy.’ I did not get a lucky pass.’: Mom urges ‘please stop thinking C-sections are no big deal’
“I had a major surgery where my stomach was ripped open. I endured pain and tears for months. As a mother, I felt worthless unable to help with household chores. This wasn’t what I wanted for my birth.”
‘Molly wasn’t safe. The naive side of me thought, ‘She could never do anything harmful.’: Dad describes helping wife through postpartum depression, ‘Know it will get better with help’
“A few days had passed after her initial statement about ‘not wanting our child.’ I had always known her to ‘say a few things’ to get a reaction. She wasn’t safe.”
‘Want to join our team?’ I was just another potential sale. Spammed. Annoyed. Grossed out. Even ‘unforgivable.’: Woman criticizes social media marketing, ‘This isn’t how you actually support women’
“I saw their smiling faces with the captions being various forms of #girlssupportgirls on their photo. The difference made my head spin. They deserved to be blocked.”