“I felt something in my new mama heart I couldn’t explain. It didn’t take long for me to start seeing the writing on the wall. But Jack was still our beautiful, kind, intelligent little boy he’d always been.”
‘Their birth story was both beautiful and a parent’s worst nightmare.’: Woman loses baby to Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome, surviving son diagnosed with autism
‘I looked him in the eyes and said, ‘I will die a slow painful death.’ He nodded.’: Widow diagnosed with ALS 5 years after loss of husband, ‘My legacy will not be fear’
“I was under the impression I’d met my quota and wouldn’t have to endure something that painful ever again. One morning, my left foot started dragging behind me. I was petrified.”
‘I opened Google and typed ‘pink discharge pregnant.’ Everything indicated it could be normal.’: Mom spreads miscarriage awareness, ‘Women are suffering in silence’
“Suddenly pain started. I felt a clot and a little relief. The bed, my jacket, and my underwear were all soiled.”
‘After 10-hour surgery, we walked into a room of alarming bells. Nurses rushed in. ‘She’s a fighter!’: Mom inspired by daughter battling spinal cord tumor
“At 16 months old, I watched her vomit all over herself from chemo and go back to smiling. Maybe it’s a metaphor for how messy life is: clean it up and get back to what makes you happy.”
‘But you don’t LOOK disabled.’: Woman urges ‘disability is not a bad word’
“A patient fought through pain to avoid people looking at her for using the equipment she actually NEEDS.”
‘Something was terribly wrong. She wasn’t crying. ‘Your girl is very sick.’: Mom loses 19-day-old baby to Trisomy 13, ‘God will turn these ashes into beauty’
“I went for car drives and SCREAMED. I felt so much bitterness and anger. No one could tell us how long she’d live. Maybe just a few more hours, maybe months… we had no idea.”
‘You should put her up for adoption.’ They thought my ‘deformities’ would ‘severely handicap’ me.’: Woman born with amniotic band syndrome is ‘not limited in ANY way’
“‘We just don’t know what to do.’ They thought I’d never be able to walk, run, or have normal brain function. I HAD to believe in myself.”
‘My 7-year-old said plainly, ‘Momma, there’s no heartbeat.’: Mom describes loss of child, ‘He made me aware of my strength’
“’Momma, I have an idea! What if after the doctor helps you have this baby, Jesus gives us a 6th one!’ He was hurting, too. I was so lucky to have raised this young man.”
‘I gently lathered shampoo and rinsed. I felt a fullness in my fists, countless strands in tangled clumps among the suds.’: Woman with alopecia urges ‘losing hair doesn’t equal losing value’
“Over the following weeks, fishing clumps of hair from the drain became part of my routine. People commented, ‘What a waste of a body.’ This disease isn’t cruel, the stigma is.”
‘I licked her skin to see if it was salty. I cried, thinking my tiny baby was going to die before 20.’: First-time mom to daughter with cystic fibrosis says ‘she’s THRIVING’
“The bad seemed to outweigh the good. Hospital stays, lung transplants, endless medications, isolation. The first thing her team said was, ‘Don’t believe anything you read online.'”