“Just like that, everything changed. I knew I didn’t want to terminate my pregnancy. My only choice was to pray I stayed pregnant. I looked at the clock at midnight. It was officially July 3rd, my birthday. She was so small. Less than a pound. I held Rose in my arms. Tears ran down my face. I knew at any moment God was going to take her heaven.”
“I went on a crazy number of first dates. Internet dating, speed dating, blind dates, an array of apps. I knew what I wanted. I was ready to be a mom. After years of unsuccessful dating, I started to worry I was going to miss out on motherhood altogether. I needed to take matters into my own hands.”
“’When do you think you’ll have more kids?’ I spent every day thinking about it, worrying about it. It was exhausting. All our eggs were literally in 1 basket, and it failed, again. I shredded anything that said the birth mother’s name. ‘I WILL have a baby this year.’”
“The doctor abruptly gave Max a quick examination. WHAT?? Our world flipped off its axle. I cried incessantly. The overwhelming feeling of grief felt too much to handle. I said to my husband, ‘If anyone can cure this kid, it’s us! We were chosen to be his parents for a reason.'”
“He had tubes all over his body and when they put him on my chest, I barely felt the weight of him. I was faced with a baby labeled ‘Failure to Thrive.’ He looked strange to me. He was unlike any other baby I had ever seen.”
“There will ALWAYS be people in your life who will make your pain about them. Their hearts are so backward, they will not only be mad when you’re on the mountaintop, but they’ll be jealous of the attention you’re getting in the valley.”
“Your walk was tired, sore. Your spirit wasn’t. I saw you catch me looking. I saw you wink. It got me thinking.”
“My day was too perfect, too good. I remember turning to my boyfriend and literally saying, ‘This day feels too good to be true, nothing has gone wrong.’ Boy, was I in for a wild ride. Overnight, I became a second mother to my siblings.”
“I stared at the doctor with tears rolling down my face. ‘Go through with what? My child I have dreamed about since I was a little girl?’ She was asking me if I wanted to end my pregnancy because my son had a birth defect that was not life-threatening.”
“The children are the reason she stays, but the children are the reason she wants to go. Her message was not asking me for help or what I thought she should do, but you how I found the strength to do it all. I was that woman 12 months ago.”
