“This can’t be happening.’ You were supposed to wait for me. I jump out of the still-moving car and start running to the front door. I jump on the bed and cradle your head in my arms and sob something terrible. ‘Please come back! I love you.’ I cry and scream into my pillow after they take you away in that horrible, black body bag.”
“‘How many embryos did you implant?’ I managed to squeak out, ’Two.’ There, on the screen, we saw THREE flickering heartbeats. It was a one in 10,000 chance.”
“We’d all been drinking at the beach. I fell to the ground and the person behind me ran over my neck. ‘She might not wake up.’ I had hit rock bottom.”
“When I thought about my future as a quadriplegic, I didn’t think my dream of becoming a husband or dad were going to happen, much less 5 kids before marriage! God brought us these girls for a reason, and I was determined to give them all the love they needed.”
“I was the woman in yoga class joking about sweating out the booze. I was the mom who planned pre-drinks. I was also the businesswoman, completely hungover, giving a presentation in heels.”
“Our daily lives have an element of ‘extra.’ Extra appointments, extra judgment, extra advocating, extra support. It also comes with extra love.”
“We looked like something out of a space movie. Shoe covers, face mask, visor, and two pairs of gloves. ‘There’s nothing more we can do.’ No more miracles. He was gone.”
“I get emotional watching mothers with their kids on their wedding days, wondering if I’ll ever get the chance.”
“I have to face the reality this is the end of the journey. Whatever I wake up to, or whatever I wake up with—that will be my new body. There is no next phase, there is no going back.”
“As she chased behind her new friend, her mother and I struck up a conversation, and at some point she mentioned her daughter’s autism. My daughter was two at the time. I was at the beginning of my suspicions she shared that same diagnosis. This stranger—this mom—was the first person I told.”
