“As a young teacher, I am in $70,000 of school loan debt after finishing my bachelor’s and master’s degree. I had 5 years of experience and a master’s and was making $47,000, and as the primary income in my household, we were living paycheck to paycheck.”
“He may never be able to verbally communicate, and I can say with confidence – I’m okay with that. Cue the ‘gasps.'”
“Then I got up and made brownies, because I felt like brownies would make my family happy. Then I did the dishes because, well, I felt like I needed to do the dishes. Then I served everyone the brownies. Then I waited and collected their dirty brownie dishes.”
“’We need to get in the OR now,’ my doctor said. Then she turned to my mom. ‘You need to find Ryan. And pray. She has lost a lot of blood.’”
“Once my house had fallen quiet, the interaction at the park came flooding back. Tears filled my eyes as I pictured him under the tree all by himself. I felt mad at myself.”
“Daughter #1 – ‘Are you married?’ Daughter #2 – ‘Don’t ask her! You are supposed to look to see if she has a RING on her hand, right dad?!'”
“’Something wrong with the machine?,’ I asked after 20 minutes of silently looking at the ultrasounds. ‘No dear, I think there is something very wrong with you.’”
“Our daughter’s been asking to get her ears pierced for months. Once there, she changed her mind. She kept looking at me, apologizing. It didn’t feel right. My dad instinct kicked in.”
“Over the next 4 months, I was scanned every 2 weeks. I had to slowly watch my son break down. First, his little eyes, nose, and beautiful lips became harder to see. Then his tiny fingers and toes started to fuse together. Finally, it got to the point where he lost all of his features. It was torture. I just wanted the day to come so I could get him out and grieve. But I also didn’t want to give birth because I knew once he was out, he was gone forever.”
“Audrey isn’t an Autistic kid. Audrey HAS Autism. Autism shouldn’t be an adjective. It’s a noun. It’s a medical diagnosis. It is not the defining descriptor of my child.”
