“She was 7. As you can imagine, when I came home pregnant at 14, I was terrified. It was my choice to either silence her or lean in. I leaned.”
‘It’s important they can come to you and ask what a ‘BJ’ is and if it can give you an STD. Yes, I said BJ.’: Mom explains the importance of answering kids’ sex questions
‘They wipe away tears on the tough days, they laugh with them on the good days. They build a confidence in our children we could not do ourselves.’: Mom thanks special needs teachers for their hard work, ‘They don’t get enough credit’
“I will never forget that first day having to leave him. I came home and cried because I was afraid he wouldn’t be understood. But he came out full of smiles and handed me a picture. One I knew he couldn’t have done by himself. He’d done it with his special needs assistant. I will always remember she said to me, ‘Mom, we did it together. And he chose red. I think it may be his color.’ And she was right. It still is.”
‘While typing on a friend’s Facebook, ‘You’re so P-R-E-T…’ I realized I was part of the problem. When did ‘pretty’ become the best compliment I could give?’: Woman urges ‘remind your friend she’s bold, brave, and inspiring’
“At one point, we were little girls dreaming of the day when we would be smart, successful, bold, brave, and strong. We would become doctors and lawyers and presidents. Then, the world told us what really matters most for girls: how we look.”
‘I think I just bought a grief chair. I have a feeling it might become something one day.’: Woman’s impromptu purchase becomes symbolic of her grief after losing brother.
“I noticed this ugly wooden chair amongst some of the furniture for sale. I guess it just looked the way I felt, on the verge of snapping in some places. Much like grief, I was just going to have to live with this chair for a while. It’s become such a fitting analogy. At the end of the day, it was still just a broken place to sit.”
‘If you’re there, I need you to wake up. Your boys need you. Tell God you’re not ready.’ His eyelids fluttered. I blinked back tears.’: Woman says her husband is ‘truly is a walking miracle’ after motorcycle accident
“He had blood-soaked gauze around his head. ‘Is that a bone sticking out of his arm?’ Sean had been in a motorcycle accident. I sat beside his bed listening to the ventilator push air through his body. I need you. Your boys need you. I know you’re in there, but you have to show these doctors that. I’m going to go home. When I get back in the morning, you need to wake up.'”
‘She denied me pain medication. ‘Let’s get it over with. Your twins will be born and die.’ I was banned from seeing them.’: Mom births twin preemies, ‘I KNEW they were worth everything’
“The nurse wouldn’t let me hear their heartbeats. ‘It’s a waste of time. They will die.’ I couldn’t get up to pee or else Baby A would come out a little more. I felt so defeated. A new doctor walked in. ‘We’re going to another hospital and I’m coming with you!’ We were gone in seconds.”
‘She is simply too complicated.’ They didn’t see me as a little girl anymore. I was nothing but a body.’: Childhood leukemia survivor’s most important lesson, ‘Emotions are meant to be felt’
“I made a promise to myself. If I was cleared from having the chance of developing a second cancer, I’d get a tattoo. I met a lady who asked me a question that changed my life and perspective forever. ‘Why are you the way that you are?’ she asked. From then on, we became connected by the heart. We were able to help heal each other.”
‘I could feel her dark, navy lips saying, ‘Hi, Momma! I miss you!’ I couldn’t feel anything but the the weight of her dead body.’: Woman grieves 2-year anniversary of daughter’s death, ‘Grief will forever be part of our family’
“Grief looks like walking around Hobby Lobby with a beautiful, happy baby boy and tears running down my cheeks. How do you even pick flowers for your daughter’s grave? Can anything I buy show how much I love and miss her? My rainbow baby is making the cashier laugh. I wonder what she thinks I’m buying the flowers for, and if she can feel the grief roll off of me.”
‘Out of the blue, my 17-year career ended. I lost all three of my brothers by 40. It felt like a divorce’: Woman says ‘there is no way to compare grief’
“At 40, when the kids are older and kind of self-sufficient (somewhat), you should be hitting autopilot. You feel like your crap is together and BAM…ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE. Well, at least it did for me.”
‘Can’t you control him?’ People mistake his disabilities for a naughty child.’: Mom shares autistic son with global developmental delay, ‘ We celebrate every little milestone like it’s a lottery win’
“We waited for his buggy. We had to walk through passport control with him biting, hitting, and screaming as he does when he’s upset. On the plane, he was upset and screaming. We had comments like, ‘Should have brought my headphones.’ He is, in fact, disabled and not just being naughty.”