“Thank you for restoring my faith in humanity.”
‘Our waitress says, ‘Your bill is already covered.’ Who would pay for a family with a whining baby?’: Mom ‘astounded’ by strangers’ Valentine’s Day act of kindness
‘We placed my son in the back of a black SUV and said goodbye. I lost all hope. Just before I drank myself to death, I found out I was pregnant.’: Mom’s harrowing journey to recovery, ‘It’s up to you to break the cycle’
“Right after I turned 15, I met the absolute love of my life. Apparently, we were never really exclusive. In the summer going into my senior year, I got pregnant. I learned alcohol numbed the pain. After my daughter’s father left without telling me, I started partying more. He had no more fight in him. Days after his 4th birthday, we brought him home on hospice care.”
‘How was your trip?’ It broke my heart. Their schoolhouse was an open room separated by wooden dividers. The roof leaked every time it rained.’: Woman’s trip to Liberia was ‘eye-opening’ and ‘enlightening’
“This was the tough part for me. Thinking back to how I grew up, and seeing how drastically different it was from them, broke my heart. As a kid, I remember asking for updated decor for my room or a new, more comfortable bed to sleep in, and my parents working their butts off to make it a reality for me. But these kids didn’t have that.”
It’s Hard To Find The Balance As A Mother—There’s Only So Much Of Me
“I don’t even recognize myself. I look tired. I look like I’ve let myself go. I look angry. I look really rushed. I know I’m a good mom. I don’t doubt myself in that department. But I also feel like all I am is a mom sometimes.”
‘I’m positive you’re depressed, and that’s just from this one conversation.’ I froze inside.’: College student shocked by depression diagnosis, ‘It’s good to know people aren’t supposed to operate like this.’
“My family is very against medicine and doctors. My parents still don’t know I went to the doctor, or that I attend therapy regularly now. I don’t know what they would do, honestly. It’s ridiculous I need to hide going to the doctor, especially when it’s for my brain. My roommate was sharing how she couldn’t get out of bed. ‘It’s like someone placed you into a blank room, with no furniture or door or windows, and they expect you to thrive in it.’ It all clicked.”
‘This baby is nothing but a miracle.’ I had no fallopian tubes. They were literally GONE.’: Woman with missing reproductive parts pregnant with ‘miracle baby’
“My obstetrician had to do another ultrasound just to see it with his own eyes.”
Anti-Vax Group Told Mom Not To Give Her Child Tamiflu, He Died 4 Days Later
“When group members told her to treat the symptoms with everything from breastmilk to thyme, to elderberry, to sliced potatoes; the mom agreed.”
‘It appears your baby did not develop a left forearm or hand.’ My whole body was shaking. It was surreal.’: Mom celebrates child born with limb difference, ‘In our eyes, he was perfect’
“Our brief phone call couldn’t have been longer than 5 minutes, yet it changed everything we knew or expected for our future. I had been hoping that they were wrong. Terrified of the unknown, I put off buying anything for our baby. I smiled throughout my baby shower I didn’t even want to attend.”
‘I miss punching out. I miss the thank you’s and ‘you’re doing a great job.’ I miss not having to awkwardly stumble through, ‘What do you do?’: Stay-at-home mom shares candid reality of ‘high stakes’ motherhood
“This work leaks into every part of my life. There’s not a minute that’s safe. It calls in the middle of the night, during hair appointments, and workouts. Vacation doesn’t exist. I miss getting ready. I miss the compliments on my outfit and hair. The hot coffee, and people who got my jokes. When my brain operated well enough to form them. But I know the one thing I’d always miss more than work, are my children.”
‘After rehab, I manipulated my mom into dropping me off at a bar. ‘I’m not an alcoholic.’ I got drunk and high that night.’: Woman overcomes heroin and alcohol addiction, ‘God put me on this earth to make an impact’
“I knew nothing about heroin. But I did it. That missing feeling I had inside of me for so long was gone. It felt warm and like I was being hugged. It felt like I had arrived. In my mind, I was a heroin addict, not an alcoholic. I got drunk and got high that night. I would share needles with whoever. I found out I had contracted Hepatitis C. One of my best friends, who I used with, had been sober for 18 months. If she could do it, so could I.”