“When I asked IF the length of my daughter’s skirt affected her education and ability to learn, I was told, ‘Yes.’ When I asked HOW, I was told, ‘School policy.’ I pointed to 3 staff members wearing shorter skirts than my daughter. She looked at me dumbfounded and didn’t answer. This isn’t about my daughter or her school. This isn’t a child issue, or even a parents issue. This is SO MUCH more than being about ‘just a skirt.'”
“I remember hearing someone scream ‘say something, say something!’ and all I could say was ‘help.’ I remember him running over to me and saying ‘I have help on the way, it’s going to be okay.’ I don’t remember anything after that.”
“When I was younger, I wanted to be everything. Smartest, prettiest, funniest… I desired to be the total package. I yearned to be the best possible version of myself. Quite frankly, it was exhausting.”
“My heart was pounding as I stood in the middle of the airport. My two boys aged 3 and 4, gazed up at me with sleepy eyes. It was 6:00 a.m. We were flying home to the USA. I was trying to act calm. The woman at check-in gave me a bewildered look when I told her we had no luggage to check. I was terrified I was going to be asked if I had their father’s permission to take them out the country. I didn’t.”
“I planned our wedding in less than 2 months. I was pregnant, so I didn’t care what my hair looked like on our special day as long as it was out of my face so I could quickly vomit. We were married on a Sunday and went back to work on Monday. I wasn’t wearing my dream dress. But my loved ones surrounded me, and when I said ‘I do,’ I believed in the person I was choosing to lead me into our new life.”
“As I was driving home from the ER this week for the 50th time (I’m a boy mom – don’t judge) looking at my youngest in the back seat, my mind was racing. Here’s another broken bone, that means another doctor visit, another possible surgery, another doctor bill. My mind was going everywhere. I only need to take 4 hours off work. If they do surgery, I’ll need the full day off. I’m an awful mom. And then it hit me. Get your big girl panties on. It’s nothing terminal. I silently cried the whole way home.”
“As I scrolled through his pictures, what I saw stopped me in my tracks. A few weeks before his death, Chase had gone to a basketball game. There was only one member of the team showing in both pictures. It was Nick, my fiance and now husband. I’d always had the feeling Chase approved of Nick, but this seemed like a message from Heaven that I was on the right path. I was marrying the right guy.”
“The doctor was cold, rude, and uncomfortable. He ignored my husband every time he tried to speak and suggested we ‘put him up for adoption.’ Yet, NO ONE agreed he had Down Syndrome. We looked at his little almond-shaped eyes and back at each other and just KNEW. Our lives didn’t ‘fall apart.’ We didn’t ‘mourn’ the loss of a ‘perfect’ baby. We were just so in love.”
“I was about to move out, but I found out I was pregnant. I was running on fumes. I felt like I’d made a huge mistake becoming a mom. I wasn’t good at this. I drank to cope. My marriage ended explosively. I finally decided enough was enough when my daughter started copying everything I do. She reached for my beer, and I remember deciding, it was time to be done. For good. That was 8 months ago.”
“For years I referred to ‘losing Lochlan’, like he was still lost in a department store and I just needed to go pick him up.”
