“Ten minutes went by…then 30 …then 45. I was in a total panic. Instead of the screen showing he was waking up from anesthesia, it said he was still in the O.R. There was a look of concern in his surgeon’s eyes. ‘For some reason, half of his skull expanded faster than the other.'”
“He had a sudden meltdown and we couldn’t keep him calm no matter what we tried. This flight attendant asked if she could hold him. I warned her he might get aggressive and try to gouge her eyes.”
“She told me their names, and I gasped and yelled, ‘You’re kidding right??’ Probably not a response she was expecting. Like what are the chances of that??”
“Your tears validate their pain, their loss, in a world that has most likely ignored it.”
“I go full-fledged panic mode. Something is amiss. I can smell it. Holland: ‘I DONT NEED A POTTY!’ Ben: ‘BAHAHAHAHAHHAA! She doesn’t need a potty, Mom! Our clubhouse ALREADY HAD a potty!’ Golden Retriever: *whimpering slightly* I climb up the ladder. My children are pointing to… A dog bowl.”
“His 6-year-old brother stepped in. He said, ‘What’s wrong? Haven’t you ever seen a kid in a wheelchair?’ I’ve lost count of the number of times a parent has told their children, ‘Stay away from that child!'”
“I lived by the, ‘it doesn’t happen to normal middle class families.’ I was wrong. CPS was involved and Ryder was placed in their custody. After a long conversation with my husband we knew we had to get involved for Ryder.”
“My father made me feel guilty about it. He said I would destroy our family. That he would get deported to Mexico and my family would lose everything we worked so hard for. He told me to say I made it up because I was a rebelling teenager angry at my father. So I lied to them, I told them exactly what he told me to say.”
“I started counting every calorie, I ignored my hunger, and I’d work out without eating much or anything after. I’d weigh myself whenever I could sneak into my parent’s bathroom. The scale dictated my happiness, the size of my clothes measured my worth. Hopefully I can sustain this starving myself thing for the next ten-ish years, I’d think to myself.”
“I went to the only place I knew I could actually be alone, and able to talk without little ears around. I sat in my car, in the driveway and I dialed my phone, my mom answered, and we had the conversation. The one that you never want to have.”
