‘I am meant to be a heroin addict forever.’ I truly believed it. ‘What happened to me?’ That damn needle.’: Woman overcomes opioid addiction, fulfills childhood dream of becoming pro wrestler, ‘I’m living my wildest dreams’

“Senior year of high school. I felt sick. It spiraled completely out of control. I’m sniffing heroin and smoking crack cocaine like it’s going to get me into Harvard or something. I looked at my father and told him, ‘I need help.’ My dad wanted nothing to do with me, he was done. That really hurt.”

‘I have only 38 more months left of school.’ ‘What?’ I went for my coffee. ‘It’s 6:30 a.m. I can’t deal with this right now.’: Mom wishes she had known each time would’ve been ‘the last time’ with her kids

“This morning I was running around like a chicken without her head. ‘Peter is it really only 38 more months?’ A sadness came over me, but my mom brain was busy ticking off my daily to do list, thinking his bus really does pick him up ridiculously early for a school day that doesn’t start till 7:55.”

‘This is the mask of a Type 1 Diabetic caregiver. You’ll find us at 3 a.m. just trying to keep our child alive.’: Mom to son with Type 1 Diabetes claims ‘we are the strongest mothers you will ever meet’

“We are supported to teach our kids to dream. But their dream is a cure. Firefighter, pilot. ‘Too risky,’ we tell them. The anxiety of death is real. Instead, we train them to get a job with ‘good benefits,’ a conversation no parent should be having with an 11 year old. You’ll find us at 3 a.m., wide awake, just trying to keep our child alive.”

‘You won’t ‘get over it.’ And you shouldn’t. My grandma still gets choked up about her angel baby.’: Woman suffers twin miscarriage, ‘I talk to our babies every day’

“I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen my grandma emotional. 50 years after she lost her baby, she sat across from her two granddaughters and bravely told the story through teary eyes. Her face was glowing, every emotion so pronounced. 50 years later, and my ferociously strong and stubborn grandma is still grieving. You and I will grieve our babies forever, too.”

‘Can I see my boy for one more goodbye?’ A nurse gave him his first and only haircut. He was truly perfect.’: Couple loses son to stillbirth, anxious about new pregnancy, ‘My first is in heaven, I’ll meet him there someday’

“We rushed into the emergency room. I was bleeding so badly I thought I was going to die right there in the hospital alone. My husband was stuck checking me in for what seemed like forever. The events that happened next took place so fast, but as I look back on it now, the initial care I was given makes me so mad and sad. Once she finally realized the severity of what was happening, she ran for back up. I wanted to follow him right up to heaven. I begged God to take me too.”

‘I want to help him.’ I’ll never forget his boss’ words to me. I didn’t want people to know.’: Family struggles with husband’s alcohol addiction, ‘We were broken’

“When I walked in, he looked at me. I could see the fear in his eyes. He whispered through his tears, ‘I’m scared, I don’t want to go.’ Everything in me wanted to protect him, to hug him and tell him he could stay. That we could figure this out together. With tears streaming down my face and a strength I never knew I had, I said, ‘You have to go.’”

‘Mutation.’ Really? I did not get severely burned, I did not get into a car wreck. I cannot wipe it off.’: Woman learns to accept birth mark ‘again’ after moving to new town

“I have a facial difference that I cover daily. I haven’t had the courage to show my facial difference. Why? Because the town I live in now, well, most of them have no idea it’s even there. I’m worried I’ll be dubbed ‘the girl with the birthmark,’ like I have so many times before.”

‘I didn’t want to be a single mom. Sadly, that choice was taken away from me. I could hardly eat, sleep, or go about my day.’: Teen mom loses boyfriend in car crash months before birth, graduates with 4.0

“At first, I saw just a blob on the screen. I didn’t think much of it until the ultrasound tech zoomed in. I saw arms, legs, eyes, fingers…this was a real freaking baby in me! I didn’t know whether to cry or laugh, be happy or sad. I never felt a connection to this thing inside of me until I saw it. As time went by, I was counting down the days until I could meet my son. He was the only thing that kept me going.”

‘They’d remind me, ‘You’re doing everything right, it gets better!’ But the words haunted my soul’: Mom ‘angry’ over urgency to breast feed, says son ‘became a baby I did not yet know’ after formula

“I felt disgusted with myself. Why couldn’t I just put the pump down? I knew this decision would allow me more time to hold my baby, yet I was still holding on to this expectation of myself. I didn’t want to be strapped to a machine that was yielding no results…. Yet here I was.”

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