“As she began eating her birthday dessert, my daughter looked at me. ‘How do we get cheesecake to Heaven? I think my brother and sister would like some.’ Through tears, I smiled. Our family is missing two of our children, but it turns out, they are never far away.”
“We’d never want our children to run on empty. Put themselves last. So, what are YOU doing? Life isn’t meant to be a series of checklists and drive-bys. Stop trying to fill up everyone’s cup and take a look at your own. It’s empty, isn’t it? That’s not living, sister – that’s just going through the motions.”
“When my marriage imploded, I didn’t shed a tear. Up until the split, I had been a stay-at-home oilfield wife. I home-schooled the children. It started to hit me. Great big tears poured from my eyes as I walked across the stage. I turned to my kids in the crowd. We did it, together.”
“‘Go home and enjoy the time you have left,’ our doctor told us. Brad could not reckon the idea of leaving me as a single mom. But, I could not reckon the idea of not having a piece of him here with me on earth. We decided to take a giant leap of faith.”
“We want friends who reach out and invite us, but we aren’t willing to be the one who takes the first step. We want friends who forgive, but we aren’t willing to be forgiving. Someone has one opinion you don’t like? Bye.”
“I remember my husband crying. He never cries, so I knew it was serious. I had a new baby and two small children at home. All I could think was, ‘I’m gonna die. I’m not gonna see my kids grow up.’ I’d started bleeding at 6 weeks pregnant. I had 20 ultrasounds and everyone said the baby was fine. But I knew something else was going on.”
“I found her the day my son was born and the room was filled with everyone except her, but I looked down at my son’s sweet face and knew – they had already met before he came down from Heaven.”
“Seeing my sweet baby girl laying in a huge bed, much too big for her, made me fall to my knees. A nurse said to me, ‘Get off the floor, it’s so dirty.’ I was angry at her, I was angry at the hospital chaplain placing his eerie hand on my shoulder with no real comfort. No parent should have to write their child’s eulogy, or decide between a casket or an urn. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.”
“I text my love and apologize. ‘I love you. I’m sorry I’m so emotional. I’m sorry we aren’t out having fun.’ I finally convince him he can go back downstairs, I’ll be ok. I lay back down and continue to cry. He sent me a LONG message. ‘You’re not ‘broken.'”
“The weekend before New Year’s, we got the shock of our life. The phone rang. Skeptical, my mom IGNORED it until I convinced her to answer. ‘Could you use a kidney tonight?’ Watching my daddy sit in the dialysis chair 4 days a week and get 2 big needles in his arm made me sad, but I never gave up! I was determined to help him.”
