“No one visited or called or even sent a message to see how I was doing. It all started when I had an emergency C-section.”
‘Everyone disappeared. Quickly I became ‘old news’ and no one cared anymore. Everyone except my family.’: Woman becomes septic after having gallstones, is now tube fed but ‘appreciates what I have instead of focusing on what I’ve lost’
‘I begged my parents for help. I showed my mom my cut arms and nothing happened. I was in seventh grade.’: Woman dealing with self-harm, depression since childhood, is ‘hopeful’ for a time where ‘I don’t need medicine to help me anymore’
“I grabbed this object, one of those things used to scrap art or whatever it’s called, and I went crazy. I swore I’d never cut again, never try again. I’m sure you can imagine how that went”
‘Why couldn’t I just be the mom I’d pictured and do it right?’ I was going to love motherhood, every single second.: Mom suffers from depression/anxiety, finally realizes ‘I’m the mom I’m meant to be.’
“I cried, ‘Why does this feel so hard?!’ Maybe you’re thinking, ‘Duh, everyone knows motherhood is difficult.’ Still, I continued to be disappointed. No, not every day. But I was so focused on the mom I WASN’T, I didn’t take time to focus on all the things I was doing RIGHT.”
‘I know it is the best thing I have ever done for my family. Divorce is not a tragedy.’: Mother of two reflects on the positives stemming from her divorce
“I was with my husband for 13 years. I’m 30, which means our relationship began when I was only 17. At the time, we were madly in love. However, there were so many drastic changes from when I was 17. I needed to make changes in my life. One day, though, we just sat down and had a talk about how unhappy we both were.”
‘We chose RV life, RV life didn’t choose us!’: Family of 4 upgrades to an RV, ‘The only word we could use would be ‘freeing.’ You don’t realize how much things weigh on you.’
“The questions started to roll in and the eyebrows started to raise. ‘You live in what?’ We decided to live full time in our RV, for multiple reasons. We wanted to try it out. Going through our items one by one took a lot of weight off of us. We felt like we could breathe again. We could easily question, ‘What happens after this?’ The beauty is, we don’t have to know all the answers!”
‘I’m too scared to tell you because you’ll get mad.’ They’ve been cowering every time I ask, ‘what happened here?’ They’ve been lying!’: Mom implements ‘safe zone’ for kids after realizing she’s been bullying them for bad behavior
“I erupted like a volcano, spewing anger at her tiny 4-year-old body. I can hear the bully I am being. Then she matter-of-factly said, ‘I was too scared to ask you for a piece of paper so I colored on the table instead.’ The very first thing I said was, ‘thank you for telling me the truth.’ I noticed how mean I’ve been. I have realized I’m being unfair. I needed a change.”
‘I’ve failed. I can’t do this. I’m too old. No one will ever want me. I’ll never be good enough in anyone’s eyes.’ Mom recalls struggles as a single mom, urges ‘You are made for more’
“I see you: It’s early morning. Your hands grip the edge of your kitchen sink; head slumped as the last few peaceful moments of the morning diminish to dust in the rays through the window. You grasp for air in your lungs. Razor waves of all the anxiety in your life grate against your throat with each breath you take. I know you’re tired.”
‘I was scared to open the ambulance door. ‘I’m here, everything will be OK. We’re getting you help.’ A tear ran down my son’s face.’: Mom loses ‘gentle giant’ to ‘freak accident’ after gun falls from cabinet, ‘The investigator had never seen anything like it’
“I texted my son and asked, ‘Are you ok?’ Right at that moment, my husband said, ‘Get home now, Cody is bleeding. He is hurt bad.’ The pistol was put way up high in a cabinet. He must’ve been trying to hurry and the gun fell. The investigator said the only explanation he could give us was it was God’s plan.”
‘I was separated from my husband, left a toxic job, and lost most of my friends. Then I thought of the women in my life.’: Woman realizes she is a ‘strong woman’ because she was raised by ‘stronger women
“My great grandmother had 9 children. My great grandfather had spent time in prison for bootlegging, and drank heavily. How she was able to keep it together with 9 kids, no money and an alcoholic husband and stay sane is completely beyond me. My grandmother then made something of herself after losing her husband. She was determined. She was beautiful but tough, sometimes just downright mean, but she was who she was and if someone did not like it then, ‘they can leave.'”
Why I Allow My Kids Fail
“I am here to steward if necessary, but not to do the work for him.”