“Rory, my nonverbal son with autism, doesn’t make eye contact. At times, he approaches other moms with hair like mine. Sometimes, he approaches other dads who are tall and thin like his dad. For a long time, I thought he didn’t really know who we all are.”
“You know it isn’t good when the doctor sits down at eye level with you. Josh and I took turns holding Holden and crying. We could feel how they all pitied us. We prepared to fight.”
“At 6 weeks old, her breathing became worrisome. She had spells of turning blue in the face. She sounded like a baby piglet. The skin around her neck sucked in with every breath. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but she was just different.”
“I vented to a friend. I asked her, ‘What is wrong with me?’ She wrote back. There is only so much one can take.”
“At 12 years old, everything shifted. My life as I knew it changed forever. Our family physician called us late one night when he saw the test results. ‘I just don’t know what to make of this.’ Even the lightest touch of a cotton ball could bring me to tears. My foot was drastically changing colors and temperatures.”
“Whether I’m sitting, standing, walking, running, my thighs touch. I don’t have eyebrow hair. At my height of 5’3″, my BMI is in the ‘overweight’ range. I never wear shorts anymore. You see, I’ve always been body-conscious.”
“I don’t want to take that mental health risk, so I’ll send them. But, now I’m greedy and don’t care about the teachers. Okay, so I’ll send them… but, we have to skip Thanksgiving, Christmas, and birthday parties. Now, my kids are upset. They miss their family.”
“The doctors hit us with a heavy blow. ‘She won’t be able to walk. Ever.’ We tried to memorize how she looked with two little legs.”
“We need you to remind us we aren’t actually dying. This feeling will pass. We are not crazy, and everything will be alright. Sometimes, we will need you to hold us close, but other times, we will want you to be nowhere near us. Loving someone with anxiety is not easy.”
“Tate was having some seizure activity. ‘He’s not going to get better.’ I crumbled all over again with strangers and secretaries staring at me. ‘Anyone else would be driving as fast as they could towards a hospital, and you guys are driving as fast as you can away from it.’”
