“I’d been dating this guy. He was respectful to me. The kind of guy any mom would be thrilled to see their daughter dating. Then he broke up with me. I had to make the pain go away. I swallowed the entire bottle. I didn’t count, I just took. I called my mom to tell her what I’d just done. By the time she arrived, I was slowly drifting in and out.”
“We agreed my best friend would be their godmother. But after they were both diagnosed with autism, I felt the overwhelming urge to free her from that responsibility. Taking on two children is a lot. Taking on two children with special needs even more. She didn’t agree to autism—none of us did. So, I messaged her.”
“The language ‘women have periods’ is not entirely inclusive.”
“I was scared boys wouldn’t want to date me because of my arm, and I was scared of going in public because I did not want strangers to ask questions. I remember one time a kid got angry with me and said, ‘You one-armed freak!’ It hurt. People would say, ‘You are so brave! You are so inspiring!’ It was annoying! I wasn’t doing anything different than the other children.”
“Tonight, a group of passerbys saw Finn playing in the sand. At first they saw his back, blonde hair, sun-kissed skin and the sweetest little baby butt. They were all smiles, ‘oos and ahs.’ Then he turned around, and they saw his chest. An immediate look of concern hit their faces. I’m not sure what came over me.”
“Beckett hadn’t heard for the first 13 months of his life and BAM. He was suddenly hearing. I cried on the way home, if I’m being honest. I received nasty, angry messages. I was ‘playing God’ by wanting to give him the gift of sound. Wanting our son to be able to hear us tell him ‘I love you’ was NOT a selfish thing.”
“Everywhere I turned, his ex’s belongings were in all the rooms. Pictures on Facebook showed memories made in what had now become my kitchen and my living room? Every time his ex’s mail came to the house, my body would run hot and cold at the same time. His daughter would start every new conversation with, ‘When she lived here, we did…’ It was eggshells for me.”
“While camping, we came across a family with 4 boys. You could tell they weren’t camping – they lived there. I told my husband as we laid in our tent, ‘I have this weird feeling I know them. They are meant to be in my life.’ Later at church, a member asked if we’d take in 4 boys. My husband just got laid off. ‘Absolutely NOT.’ I was exhausted. When I then learned who the 4 boys were, my heart began to beat so fast.”
“I overheard fellow soccer parents talking. My son was called ‘hot.’ I use this word in lusty conversations about Brad Pitt in the 90s. Hot is Ryan Gosling’s abs. HOT is not what I think when I look at my son. He’s always and forever going to be my little boy, no matter how quickly he evolves into the young man people are noticing.”
“I pried the toy out of her arms, her screaming like I actually removed a limb, me trying not to hurt her, wondering if she was actually Thor because of her freakishly strong grip. I hauled Aspen out of the store underneath my arm, her legs kicking. I looked at her in the backseat, and wondered if I’d done the right thing.”
