“I finally got to hold him skin to skin. It took everything in me not to cry the entire time. He was perfect. He was everything. When I woke up, people were running everywhere; our doctor was giving orders. ‘His blood pressure is dropping.’ I wasn’t going to lose him, I couldn’t.”
“He was moaning and groaning. I asked everyone in the room what had happened and what was going on. The head nurse shared that my Dad awoke around 3 a.m. in excruciating pain. That one instance led to my dad’s demise. And it was all my fault. That is what the enemy wanted me to believe.”
“I poked out my belly as far as I could and wanted to believe so badly there was still a life growing inside. This was supposed to be the first picture to document my first pregnancy. At the time, I did not know.”
“I was 19-years-old when I watched my parents shoot up heroin at our kitchen table. This is a picture of what I have left of my dad. I held my father’s hand as they told him there was nothing they could do.”
“Why did we have to wait until 12 weeks? That was a stupid rule. After the wedding, we ended up telling pretty much everyone. Family, friends.Then I woke up to use the bathroom. When I looked down, I saw blood.”
“It’s not glamorous. Most of the time it’s quite the opposite. Messy. Ugly. Difficult. Painful. Exhausting. You will get burnt out and want to quit. But don’t you dare forget your why. Remember, it’s so worth it.”
“Once Noah was born, the whole room was creepily quiet. Finally, one of the doctors said, ‘It looks like the baby may have a disability.’ Suddenly, the family I thought would love him didn’t even want him because he wasn’t ‘perfect.’ Neither did the next. Then, we found Jerene. ‘Are you interested in a special needs adoption? We have a baby boy who needs a family like, yesterday!’ Already 5 children of her own, her response was, ‘Why not?’ I was bawling.”
“There were 12 of us under one roof and not enough to go around. I remember braiding one of my classmate’s hair, in order to make some extra cash. I sat and wondered what her life was like.”
“I remember sitting on my kitchen floor crying. ‘Most children with this condition lead normal lives.’ My world was caving in. I was a carrier. I caused my baby to have such a horrible condition.”
“What the people at church did to me was beyond what I even knew until MANY years later. I was a good kid. But I look at it differently now. I wasn’t bad; I had an illness.”
