“Two children in Heaven, one here on earth; we were at peace. We signed the paperwork with the fertility clinic to finally close that chapter in our lives. Six months later, we were relaxing with a bottle of wine. Before I poured a glass, I ran upstairs. I was ‘late.’ I barely glanced at it, assuming it would be negative.”
“Jared and I met in the Army. For me, it was love at first sight. We started trying to have children right after we got married. At first, it was just fun. Then I started to get sick.”
“I was a first-grade teacher. My students didn’t know anything was wrong with the baby. It was difficult. They didn’t understand why I was out so often, why I wasn’t myself. I felt isolated. Alone. Misunderstood.”
“Our doctor couldn’t do the emergency surgery. My father-in-law did. I tried to enjoy every moment I had with her. Jason and I were surrounded by love, and so was our little girl.”
“My dad was a zombie. He groaned this horrendous noise. As tears rushed down my cheeks, I ran over. There was a surprise guest waiting to pick me up. ‘They are not sure your mom is going to make it,’ he said. ‘But everyone said it wouldn’t be like my dad!,’ was all I kept repeating.”
“He had extra wives, extra children, a different name. A formally dead girlfriend and now alive wife. My body froze. It hadn’t needed to be this way.”
“My boyfriend heard a loud crash. ‘Dana, are you alright?!’ No response. He rushed in thinking our shower curtain simply fell. It did. But me with it. I began to choke as he rolled me on my side and stuck his fingers in my mouth. My guard was down. I woke up in the back of an ambulance.”
“I was so afraid. I just knew CPS was going to take him, but a miracle happened. He was born completely clean. No drugs in his system. He was perfectly healthy. Neal and I cried and cried. We went home that following Monday and swore we would stay sober.”
“Can you imagine being 15 with a cane in high school? I was called ‘the blue cripple’ because my cane was aqua blue. My Spanish teacher saw my cane for the first time and yelled, ‘YOU HAVE A WALKING STICK? OH MY GOD!’”
“I remember thinking, ‘Did I do something wrong?’ Neither of them directly spoke to me. They made no point in hiding their conversation. ‘I hate when women seek attention. It’s like, that’s how she got into this mess to begin with.'”
