“I came home from school. No one was home. I went up to my room, and opened my window. ‘If I jump, who would even miss me?’ All of a sudden, I was overcome with emotions. ‘My beautiful daughter, do not do this.'”
‘He told me to unblock my ex’s number. At 2 a.m., he messaged me. ‘I know I’m not supposed to be talking to you, but I wanted to reach out to see how you were doing.’: Young woman’s faith helps her survive sexual assault
‘Here am I, leaving my house for prom. Yes, MY house I shared with a roommate. I had no one to zip me up. I wrestled with my dress for half an hour, finally getting it zipped with a coat hanger.’
“God only knows where my mother was, we didn’t even share a zip code, much less a zipped dress. I hopped in my car, which you can see was chalk full of clothes, because to be honest, I lived out of it half the time. Didn’t I look so happy?”
‘I spent the first 7 years of my life in a refugee camp. Today, I became the FIRST person to graduate college in my family.’: Woman shares success story, ‘Anything is possible if you work hard and believe’
“My parents sacrificed so much for their kids. They moved to the USA with $0. Even if I gave them the whole world, it would never be enough to repay them. I hope to continue making them proud.”
‘I’m sick of getting dinged for test scores when my students don’t have food at home, or clothes that fit. I’m so sick of it, that I’m leaving the field.’: Teacher decides to leave her profession
“Teaching was tenable when I was a 22-year-old single renter. It no longer works when I have a family and a mortgage. I’m not looking to have a crazy affluent lifestyle over here. But the fact is, I can only afford to live in the neighborhood where I teach because I’m married.”
‘My husband and I took a trip. It was our first vacation together in 2 years. Long before his heart, and our world, stopped.’: Woman reflects on reconnecting with husband after heart condition diagnosis
“When I met my husband, the most stable man I’d ever encountered, I immediately said ‘I do.’ But we hadn’t even made it to year 7 of marriage yet, and I was itchy. Here’s why. Prior to this dream vacation, I woke up to my nightmare.”
‘I awoke with a voicemail from the doctor. ‘How did I miss this?’ I raced to the hospital. I got teary eyed, and said to him, ‘I love you, you are going to be ok.’
“I asked, ‘How could that happen so fast?!’ I screamed, ‘You can do this. Fight. I need you. Theo needs you. We can’t do this without you.’ I held his hand but, in my heart, I knew.”
‘At 4 a.m. we got THE call. ‘YOU’RE HAVING A BABY! Mom’s water broke! How fast can you get here?’ With tears streaming down her face, she handed him to me and said, ‘Meet your son.’
“We were 7 hours away! We woke up the friends we were staying with, told them what was happening, brushed our teeth, and hit the road! We started calling family from the car. ‘Wake up, we’re having a baby!’”
‘My husband and I watched in horror. ‘Don’t worry, he’s going to be okay.’ I nodded, but all I could think was, ‘NO, my newborn just had heart surgery, NONE of this is okay.’
“Every day I wonder – is today the day we get the call there is a heart for Max? Is today the day my son gets a second chance at life? He is still fighting hard. We refuse to give up on him.”
‘They ran towards him. ‘Daddy, are you gonna die?’ Deployment was 10 months. We planned a surprise. I never mentioned it. I didn’t want to get my hopes up.’
“He told me he was scheduled to return home five months early. I was excited but if you know the military things are always changing. We told our boys we were going to the airport to pick up my sister. He planned it all out.”
‘There was an 18-month-old Caucasian little girl. ‘Do you want to move forward?’: Mom adopts siblings, births baby with Down syndrome
“I looked at him as he read it. The biggest smile came over his face as he wrote, ‘YES!’ The next month – I was pregnant.”