“I got back to the car, it was gone. I had absolutely no clue where I was. I just wanted to sleep. Then, I heard him lock the door.”
‘In broken English he said, ‘I have a daughter. I don’t want to hurt you, but I need to please myself. Don’t scream because the police won’t help you. If you are good, I won’t hurt you.’: Woman recounts horrible ordeal in Mexico
‘His little voice begged me to wake up. ‘Don’t die, mommy. Don’t die, mommy.’ His hug, his kiss and his tenderness, lying next to me for hours as I sobbed.’
“Another fight left me to sleep in the guest room. My middle child, my baby boy, crawled into bed with me as my head throbbed and I couldn’t’ stop the room from spinning. Again. My loudest rock bottom came like a whisper – It was his touch.”
‘Rob messaged me. We decided to go out on a date. For the next few weeks, Rob and I were each other’s world. Or so I thought.’: Woman discovers her boyfriend is already married
“We stayed at his parents’ house several times, but never his. I began to suspect Rob had a wife or a girlfriend, and that’s why we never went to his place. He always had an excuse, and I always believed him. Then one night, he told me he had something to tell me.”
‘We got THE CALL. ‘Would you be willing to accept a 3-month-old baby with serious medical needs?’ We couldn’t say yes fast enough.’: Couple adopt baby with Microcephaly
“She was 6 pounds and 9 ounces of screaming, vomiting, wheezing delight. We couldn’t say yes fast enough. No one has positive news for us. Our girl had endured more in those first 3 months than most do in a lifetime.”
‘Mothers don’t shower often. Especially new mothers. When we say this stuff, we are met with horror. But it is the truth.’
“I remember finally getting the energy to shower, a place where I’d feel so tired that I’d read the shower bottles and stare into space while the water hit my back. I was a zombie. My husband came in and said, ‘It’s time to feed him,’ and I cried.”
‘After losing twins, we thought we’d paid our dues. Our life’s suffering was now complete. We were wrong.’: Mom loses ‘rainbow baby’ with heart defects, knows she will meet him ‘in heaven’
“We were overjoyed at my pregnancy. New life was coming! But scans and tests told us it’d come with major heart defects, a missing chamber, faulty valves, and an aorta split into 2 pieces. Blindness. Deafness. A cleft lip and palate. Still, doctors were hopeful. Until they weren’t. ‘He’s a sick guy.’ I was told this in a ‘why the long face? didn’t you expect this?’ kinda way.”
‘We didn’t talk enough, did we?’ My Dad would never walk me down the aisle or meet my children. That’s a very odd thing to discuss with your father when you’re only 23.’
“Having no family, no money and no home after believing your life was completely normal and well adjusted for 23 years can warp your entire view of life. I spent a large amount of time after the incident questioning what was reality.”
‘Congrats, it’s a boy!’ Not even 48 hours later, the doctor pulled up a chair. ‘You have a large mass in your chest that is likely cancer.’: Woman shocked with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma diagnosis days after giving birth, ‘I had too much to fight for’
“I sat in a hospital bed nursing my newborn son when I received the most unexpected, gut-punching news. ‘You have to stop breastfeeding. Soon, you will become toxic to your son.’ I couldn’t formulate any words. I was stunned to silence. Here we were, newlyweds for just 4 months with 4 children together, and now a very sudden chance I may not be around to help raise our kids to adulthood. I had too much to fight for.”
‘Hours began to pass, and still no Andy. I called him. It went to voicemail. Then I saw it. The paddleboard, empty.’: Pregnant widow still has no answers after husband drowned, ‘He will never fade from my heart’
“I was pregnant with our third child, and my hormones had gotten the best of me. I grabbed my phone and called 9-1-1. I started screaming his name, ‘ANDY, ANDY, ANDY,’ as I frantically looked on the shoreline that was covered in trees. I hear the sirens roaring, coming in my direction. My neighbor heard me repeating, ‘I don’t want to live without him, I want to die,’ as I knelt in the grass.”
‘I was homeless, suicidal. I walked into hell and found an angel. Her name is Sharon.’: Woman battling mental illness thanks strangers for saving her life
“I take the pills in my hand and go to swallow them, but something stops me. Cindy, my dog. I can’t leave her yet. For thirteen days, Cindy and I are homeless. ‘SOMEONE HELP US!’ I am coming undone. A woman steps forward, waving a flier wildly in my face. I suddenly feel HOPE.”