“Instead of no. Not right now. Maybe another time. Sometimes when I realize I’m operating on autopilot, I stop and ask myself, ‘Why am I even saying no? Do I even have an actual reason?'”
‘Sometimes, they need to hear the okay.’: Mom reminds us ‘how frustrating it must be to always have your ideas turned down’
‘My faith is solid, but it’s something I fight hard for.’: Mom shares how she remains faithful during ‘life’s roughest storms’
“Sometimes I don’t feel like praying. Some days I don’t feel like reading my Bible. Some days I don’t even want to get out of bed. Suffering tries to steal my faith daily.”
‘There’s nothing we can play with.’ They solemnly looked around the backyard.’: Mom of boys with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy shares how their resiliency turned ‘pity to praise’
“My boys just stood there watching. It was like they suddenly realized how much their lives had changed in recent years. They used to be able to climb and go down the slide. They used to be able to keep up with their little sister… but not anymore.”
‘My husband said, ‘He has a tumor.’ How had we missed this? It was hiding in plain sight.’: Mom of 5-year-old cancer survivor raises awareness, ‘We don’t expect it to be OUR kids, until it is’
“I took Axton to the bathroom to pee. It was the first of many earth-shattering moments when I watched in horror as he peed blood. ‘He should be fine with some Tylenol and rest.’ I knew in my gut something was seriously wrong.”
‘Our communication device broke today. His voice was whipped away in an instant.’: Mom to son with autism shares reminder ‘we all take speech for granted every day’
“I could see the panic set in, and it was awful.”
‘Positive? How is that possible? Our youngest only 10 months old, I stared blankly at the pregnancy test.’: Mom candidly details journey with 3 under 3
“Oh, God. I was going to have 4 kids, 3 under age 3. How was I possibly going to handle two toddlers AND an infant while coaching our eldest through virtual learning? I called my friend of 20 years, shaking and sick to my stomach with the test in my hand: ‘I don’t think I can do it.’ She said simply, ‘You can. And you will.'”
‘My husband said, ‘It’s a girl!’ I was terrified. How could I connect with such a huge mother wound?’: Girl mom, child trauma survivor urges ‘you can break generational patterns’
“Finding out I was pregnant was an initial shock. I had vowed I would never have children. How could I mother children if I didn’t have a mother example to rely on? After the initial shock, I became ecstatic about the possibilities – until I realized I had a 50-50 chance of having a daughter!”
‘I sobbed, ‘What have we done?’ We unpacked the U-Haul, no friends in our new town.’: Daughter chases dreams with help from father’s last words before suicide
“I was leaving everything behind for a childhood fantasy, a job in a K-12 campus I’d never even seen, and a house I’d only looked at online. I cried on the road, wondering if I was making the biggest mistake of my life. Then I heard my dad’s voice echo in my mind from those 31 years ago: ‘You can be anything you want, anywhere in the world.’ And then I lost him. To suicide.”
‘I found myself staring at a friend of mine, same age, same amount of kids, in a bikini and thought: I need to get in that kid of shape before summer.’: Mom challenges true meaning of success
“I used to think successful people were the ones with the high-profile careers, the most put-together houses and children, the ones who look good from the outside. I was wrong.”
‘Wouldn’t you rather just have another baby of your own?’ I easily told him no. I knew God had a plan, and it included these kids!’: Mom of 5 shares grueling sibling adoption journey, now family of 10
“We were told we had too many children already and wouldn’t be considered. I was given disappointing news a lot, but I wasn’t phased. I knew these were my kids.”