“He was sobbing. ‘Abigail…’ My heart dropped. ‘Dad, what the heck is going on?’ He responded, ‘I think your sister was arrested. She called and said the cops were after her. Then the call dropped. I haven’t heard from her since.’ She was last seen at the Denver International Airport. My dad escorted her to security where she was catching a plane to rehab. The reality of what happened hurts too much to face. I find myself getting so angry at her. She was so close. She was on the plane.”
“To the person from my hometown who started a rumor that I was on fertility drugs. To my youngest child’s doctor who asked the question I had been asked a million times. ‘First child?’ ‘Nope! 3rd child, first pregnancy!’ then had the gall to say, ‘but having your own is different, isn’t it?’”
“The meds had stopped working – time was running out. The call came at just the right time. I remember doubling over, nauseous with the news I’d just received: ‘They have a match for lungs.’ I needed to be transported to Boston IMMEDIATELY. I crouched down by my hospital bed, struck with the magnitude of the situation. As prepared as I was, nothing could get me ready for this moment. I couldn’t catch my breath.”
“I have witnessed this tragedy unfolding right in front of my eyes. Our children are in a devastating emotional state! No, ‘they all are just born like this’ is not the answer. No, ‘it is all the school system’s fault’ is not the answer. As painful as it can be to admit, in many cases, WE, parents, are the answer to many of our kids’ struggles! We must make changes before this entire generation of children will be medicated.”
“I finally gave in and made the call. I cut the doctor off. ‘My water just broke.’ Right there in the middle of my kitchen. His tone quickly changed. ‘Get to the hospital ASAP.’ We were snowed in, at the worst possible time. The woman at the desk asked me, ‘Are you pregnant?’ I wasn’t sure how to reply. Do I explain, ‘Yes, I am in labor with my dying son,’ or just let it alone? They wheeled me into the operating room. ‘Oh you just had a baby! Congratulations!’ Those words stung very deep.”
“I started gushing so heavily, my entire bathroom was covered in blood. It looked like a murder scene. Was I having a miscarriage? ‘I’m sorry, but it’s Stage 4.’ I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I instantly broke into uncontrollable sobs.”
“We went on vacation to Disney World. I got the flu. Looking back, I’m so glad they had that time together. Just a girl and her dad, taking on the world. When we got home, he couldn’t walk without help. The ER doctor thought that he was having a reaction to Tamiflu. He looked just as shocked as I was and said, ‘It’s everywhere.'”
“Immediately our midwife called in the doctor. Within 3 minutes of meeting our precious Oliver, he was taken off my chest and over to the incubator. I didn’t know how to feel. My midwife was still trying to get me to stop bleeding as I struggled to see my baby. There was no time to process, research or pray. Here he was, our firstborn. We had no idea how to be parents, but then to throw in a special needs child, we were numb.”
“A man sat next to my daughter on the bus. It wasn’t busy, yet he chose the seat next to her. She stood up, moved over to me. ‘Aw, you don’t need to be scared. Cat got your tongue?’ He leaned in close. I felt her press into me. ‘She doesn’t want to talk,’ I explained firmly. ‘You should teach her some manners!’ he admonished me. He spluttered something along the lines of ‘back in my day.’ Everything about her body language screamed STOP, but he wasn’t listening.”
“We fluffed up the coat and zipped it up snugly on her petite frame. She twirled, danced and giggled inside the purple puffs. Then she stopped to look up at me, so sweet, so pure. It struck me that she couldn’t actually see herself. She wasn’t looking in a mirror. I felt the tears pooling behind my eyes.”
