“I lost the brakes on the bike. I went headfirst and instantly, I was paralyzed from the chest down. There were fundraisers, such as dances and bake sales. Individuals stepped up to support my family. There were even anonymous donations to help make our home accessible.”
“Our rock-solid marriage has been tested to its limits.”
“I got a phone call. ‘Parker’s in early heart failure. The disease is attacking his heart.’ He was just days shy of his twelfth birthday. I went into the bathroom, sat on the floor, and cried my eyes out. We were losing him.”
“At the store, Tegan spotted a man who looked like Santa. She reminded him she sent him a letter asking for a kidney for her little brother. ‘Thank you for making my wish come true.’ It appeared Santa was about to cry.”
“Seeing the smiles on the children’s faces in the pictures reminded me of waking up on Christmas day in my hospital bed. Even hooked up to a drip, I’d open my presents. I wanted to make a difference.”
“One night, I woke up crying in pain. ‘Please just cut my leg off!’ I lost my childhood, my innocence. Just as life started to feel normal, my scans weren’t coming back clear. There was something in my lung and no one knew what it was.”
“I practiced 2 hours the day before, but when I got to class I couldn’t remember ANYTHING. I ran out of the classroom and cried. I HAD to acknowledge my pain.”
“We dropped my husband off at the doctor and BAM! Our ability to have more children was gone. I remember thinking, ‘It’s crazy such a massive, life-altering decision can carry out in only minutes.’ I mourned the loss of the kiddos we didn’t have but I had moved on… Or so I thought!”
“Noah was unstable and constantly suffering through seizures. We didn’t realize until a few days later his kidneys had failed. They were shocked he made it.”
“I felt so overwhelmed, like I was going to mess something up, and I hadn’t even started yet. There’s a weight of carrying someone else’s child that’s much heavier than your own.”
