“’I don’t know what’s wrong, but please fix him!’ She was treating my son like a mole that could simply be removed and thrown in the trash. I knew I had to protect him. Handing him over to the surgeons knowing I may never see my baby boy again was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. We are better people because of Eli.”
“You don’t know God! You don’t know what He can do!’ I know doctors have knowledge, but maybe, just maybe, God has other plans. And they were wrong! I am proud of Addie and her fighting attitude.”
“Look at this sweet girl’s face. This is what you could lose. It’s not worth it, trust me.”
“For 20 years, I drank. I missed birthdays, sports, parent-teacher conferences. My kids never knew if they were getting the calm, sober mom or the angry-drunk mom. Guilt ate me alive and my sobriety turned me into a new person: the yes mom. Volunteer as a coach for my daughter’s softball team? Sure thing! Soccer team needs a manager? Oh, me, me. I’ll do it! I was in over my head. I thought this PTO gig would make it up to my kids, but I was DONE.”
“Not the glamorous kind that wear pink on Wednesdays, but the kind of girl who felt so insecure with herself she took it out on the girls around her.”
“’What a freak. Stay away from that little weird girl.’ People can be cruel. But my husband said, ‘Look at her. You have a beautiful daughter.’ She gives her siblings a run for her money. She is different, not less.”
“I entered a self-portrait competition at school at age 8. I was so excited, I dug out my best coloring pens. ‘I don’t know why you’re bothering, it looks nothing like you. You’re never going to win,’ my mother said. These words hit hard, but I entered it anyway. Deep down, I wanted to prove her wrong. When I won, she shrugged her shoulders. ‘They probably just felt sorry for you.’”
“I assumed everyone overthought every detail, rehearsed conversations in their head, and had moments of panic so intense they had to sit down. But one day, I talked to my doctor. ‘Adrenaline is great when you’re outrunning a bear,’ she said. ‘But when your brain sends that same amount of adrenaline when you’re sitting at your desk, that’s anxiety.’ So now, I take this pill every night.”
“My husband told me without hesitation, he’d get a vasectomy. I thought, ‘Yeah sounds good, but we’ll see if he’s really down for the cause when that time comes.’ We prepared for snip snip day by getting him a bag of frozen peas and tight underwear. He was nervous, but ready. My OB knew of our plan, but kept asking, ‘Are you SURE?’”
“‘We aren’t going to be daddies.’ I couldn’t see any hope on the horizon. Then, in the most amazing twist of events, she asked if we’d consider her sister as our surrogate. ‘YES!’ We were blown away. I was jumping. We all sat around the table, and voila! TWO LINES. I shouted, ‘You’re pregnant!’ We did a huge group hug.”
