“Predators take advantage of a moment a child is mad at their parents, and builds a wedge between them. Predators are patient. Children from our own communities are being plucked away from innocence and safety. This is more likely to happen from a false relationship online, than being randomly kidnapped.”
“I knew everything that was wrong with me. I didn’t need a list to point them out in black and white. I’d known since I was little. And I was over it. 35 years of that mess was enough. So, I deleted everything, and I started blank.”
“I got married in the hospital chapel with our closest friends and family. Little CJ got to come out of the NICU to be the tiniest ring bearer in history. His nurses brought him in a little wagon with all his tubes and machines in his preemie tux.”
“I was 22, pregnant with my first baby boy. I should’ve been ecstatic, preparing to welcome my sweet boy. Instead I was attending appointment after appointment to find answers as to what was wrong with him.”
“The next day I received a call. It was a voice I hadn’t heard in a while. ‘Hey, remember me?’ It was my dad! I rushed to the hospital in tears. My dad, my best friend, was dying.”
“I had a missed call. My husband then got a call. We looked at each other… ‘Answer it!’ ‘Louis, are you with Audrey?’ ‘Yes, she can hear you.’ The words she spoke stopped time for me. Everything she said next was hard to process. I was shocked. It all felt right. We felt a calmness that can’t be explained.”
“I looked at her puzzled, so she continued. ‘And. You are happy he is here AND you are happy you don’t have to see him right now. You don’t have to choose.’ After we left our session that day, I couldn’t stop thinking about that one little word.”
“We were going to pick out my wedding dress. It was just three months until my wedding date and my grandma was still feeling decent. Then, my worst nightmare was coming true. I made the decision to have our wedding in the hospital in less then 24 hours.”
“I want them to know they will lose people. People they love, people that are important to them. But just because we lose someone, doesn’t mean they are gone.”
“This year, I’m laying it all down. I can’t. The truth is, I’m in the weeds. Some years aren’t meant to be record-breaking. Some years are meant to survive.”
