“Weeks from our wedding I was told, ‘You have cancer.’ He arrived at the hospital reeking of perfume. ‘I found someone. I’m in love. She’s pregnant.’ He left our fairytale for the woman I sat next to at his company dinner. She’d just rubbed my pregnant belly.”
“My water broke at 22 weeks. I spent weeks on bedrest at home with 4 kids under 4. We spent 8 weeks separated, me in a hospital bed, begging God to bring my boy into the world healthy.”
“That one shocked me. It snuck in my comments, buried amongst thousands. This person had pity for my son. Pity for our situation. They saw him and saw sadness.”
“Did she know her smile could light up a room? That I would still remember it like I saw it yesterday. Did she know her greatness, her never-ending legacy that can’t be replaced? That she is missed so fiercely it changes the composition of our hearts. Does she know how much I loved her?”
“She is alive,’ I kept telling myself. ‘I should be grateful.’ But I wasn’t. I was angry.”
“I see families torn apart, siblings separated. Children abandoned, biological parents unable to conquer addictions. People say, ‘I couldn’t foster. I’d never be able to let them go!’ It will be sad. We will grieve. In the end, I will be okay. But will they?”
“I received a call. ‘Can you take in her 2-year-old sister?’ She looked up at my wall of pictures and said, ‘Addy.’ She recognized her! I knew I had to keep both siblings together.”
“‘It typically takes days for an answer, but you don’t need to wait. She chose YOU!’ I broke down in tears. ‘You’re never going to believe it…we’re going to be parents!’ I’m an adoptee with an adopted African American daughter in a racially diverse family, but she is still my daughter. Love knows no boundaries.”
“We want to raise happy and kind kids who feel loved and appreciated in this world. Yelling makes your voice heard, but your message is silenced.”
“There was an ache in my chest as I waited for his return. My experienced hiker, my beloved husband, wasn’t answering my calls or texts. All of this life we loved together vanished in a moment.”
