“Y’all I have to brag on my husband big time! He made me soo proud.”
‘He carried her! I noticed an elderly lady having a rough time. I pointed her out to my husband. She did not have the strength to come up the stairs.’
‘I remember screaming, ‘What part of no don’t you understand!’ He looked at me shocked. ‘She’s harmless,’ he said. I had no idea what he had. I’d never seen it before.’: Woman overcomes addiction, twins motivate her to stay clean
“I didn’t kiss my kids goodbye. I didn’t tell anyone. I left without a second thought. I don’t know how many times they asked, ‘When is mommy coming home?’ A few months later, I found out I was pregnant with twins.”
‘There’s only one of me!,’ you scream. It’s okay to lose it. It’s okay to scream into a pillow. It doesn’t mean you’ve lost. Or you’ve failed. You feel like a bad mother.’
“The day you want them to nap, is the day they’ll be jump on couches. The day you’re going to clean is the day they’re going to throw toys, ask for millions of snacks and draw on walls. The day you have an appointment is the day they sleep in.”
‘You can’t do it, don’t touch him!,’ she’d scream at me. He was alive. I wanted to meet him. I blacked out after. I died and woke up in the ICU.’
“It was not over yet. This time it was different. This time CPS came to visit me. She told me I was mentally unstable, and there was an open investigation. My whole world flipped upside down. I begged to not let this happen.”
‘I felt like I was the only person I knew who was experiencing anxiety. So, why is it something no one wants to talk about?’
I stopped saying, ‘I’ll take care of myself when’ and started saying, ‘I’m taking care of myself because I deserve all of the love for myself that I share with others.’
‘My appendix ruptured while pregnant. ‘She is perfectly healthy,’ the doctor reassured. He was so incredibly wrong.’: Mom births baby with craniosynostosis, ‘she is perfectly imperfect’
“The ultrasound photos showed a perfectly formed body, 10 beautiful fingers and toes. Once born, she cried out one time and then fell silent and blue. Her nasal passages were blocked by bone and my placenta was torn to shreds. Avery’s condition was so much more complicated than any of the photos led us to believe.”
‘I love you to the moon. See you tomorrow.’ But tomorrow never came. ‘Paula, he was in an accident. He’s dead.’: Woman loses husband in motorcycle accident
“It was one of Noel’s friends. The friend who is supposed to call if anything bad were to happen. I answered with a laugh. ‘Hi, what happened now?’ He was a great rider and it seemed impossible that one day he was here and the next he was gone.”
‘He asked bluntly: ‘Am I allowed to hug you?’ I don’t love hugs. I especially don’t like men initiating physical contact. ‘Come on, it’s just a hug.’
“I cuddled up with my ferocious 5-year-old in bed. She said, ‘keep your hands to yourself.’ Then she smiled at me, and fell asleep. God, I hope for her.”
‘To the woman at the pharmacist. Not the one who stared at me like I was a disgusting pile of filth. The other woman, with kindness in her eyes. You didn’t know it, but you saved me.’
“I was ready to burst into tears. I was trying to talk to him, because being on your last week of pills is like standing on the edge of a cliff. Everyone heard me, even the pharmacist could hear the panic and my voice quivering.”
‘I was the gift that was traded in exchange. What killed me the most, was pulling my Sunday dress back down and walking out as if nothing had happened. I was 5 years old.’
“I finally ended my silence and told my dad. His response was, ‘I had a feeling that was what was happening.’”