“No matter how hard I worked, how dedicated I was, or how much effort I put into my classroom, I was still considered ‘just a teacher.’ My parents did not raise a quitter.”
‘After 9 years of teaching, I decided to leave the classroom. No, I’m not talking about summer break.’: Woman leaves the classroom after 9 years, ‘I was slowly losing my spark’
‘Mommy, why was Charlie calling me Rich Boy?’ I want, more than anything, to give my children watermelon baskets.’: Mom teaches son ‘rich can mean many different things’
“The other day one of my son’s friends, who has been spending a lot of time at our house, called him ‘Rich Boy.’ At the time, my son really didn’t have much to say about it, but at bedtime something was on his mind that he needed help sorting out. ‘Mommy, why was Charlie calling me Rich Boy?’ I felt tears begin to sting my eyes and clenched my toes to will them back into place.”
‘I gave an ultimatum. ‘Get help or I need a divorce.’ Something jolted me awake at 1 a.m. The door to the gun safe was open.’: Widow finds forgiveness after husband’s suicide, ‘I meet his memory with sympathy’
“As soon as I woke, I immediately went looking for my husband. I don’t know how, but I knew something was terribly wrong. I searched room-by-room and when I got to the office, I saw it. A note on the desk. I remember screaming in my backyard, crying to the 911 operator. ‘Can you tell me about his erratic behavior?’ I watched the blood on my hands go down the sink as I tried my best to answer questions. Guilt washed over me.”
‘I calmly asked my son, ‘Do you feel safe?’ When he said he didn’t, I pulled the car over and held him.’: After meltdown mom says ‘we hope parents will know they aren’t alone’
“Nothing readies you for when your 8 year old has completely lost control; for when his behavior disorders become so powerful his brain is no longer acting as a part of his body but has now waged war on it. But today–thank God, today–I kept it together.”
‘I hopped in the driver’s seat instead of letting him drive. I gently pressed the gas pedal, no one in sight. Then everything went…silent.’: After car accident with son, mom says ‘don’t let the ‘wrappers’ in life get in the way’
“We jumped in the car to run some evening errands. ‘Stay there. We are sending help,’ she said urgently. The thing that defined our relationship was snack wrappers. It’s embarrassing to admit how much of our daily interaction revolved around me telling him to, ‘pick them up!’ It is always the unimportant decisions that change lives.”
Dear Teenage Sister—Social Media Doesn’t Show How Much You Are Loved
“I promise no app, no social media platform, or amount of internet followers will ever scratch the surface of your worth to your family and your true friends.”
‘HE STILL NEEDS ME to listen to his stories about school, friends, or some ridiculous meme. No matter how old he grows, I will ALWAYS be his mom.’: Mom says teen son ‘still needs me to love him, no matter what’
“Sometimes my teenager’s 6ft-tall stature and deep voice and shadow of a mustache and size 13 shoes trick me into thinking he might not need me so much anymore. Everything seems to be changing, but there is one thing that will never change…I will ALWAYS be his mom.”
‘We were at dinner when I said, ‘Hell, give me another drink. I may take up smoking too.’ Kinsley was as healthy as a horse and in a week span, she was dead.’: Mom loses daughter unexpectedly to flu
“I was happily drinking a margarita. They all looked at me like I was crazy. I replayed every second leading up to her death. I realized there was no amount of science that could save her, but why her?”
‘No prenatal test could predict your heart of GOLD.’: Mom celebrates the beauty of Down Syndrome in stunning photo shoot
“To EVERY marker of Down Syndrome the world calls broken, we filled in with gold.”
‘The monitor went crazy. Suddenly, there was a half dozen doctors in the room, bagging my son. ‘I’m going to watch him die, aren’t I?’: Boy diagnosed with rare Sturge-Weber Syndrome, ‘A birthmark changed our life’
“He was hitting his milestones. He was happy. He was supposed to beat the odds. One evening, we noticed he wasn’t himself. He wasn’t making eye contact and was whimpering non-stop. We thought it was the heat, so we gave him a cool bath and went to sleep. The next morning, his face turned blue before my eyes. He went limp. The ambulance came and took Noah away. I couldn’t believe it. My baby wasn’t my baby anymore. Watching him fight made me so strong. For him. For us.”