“I looked at the ultrasound picture with his hand balled up in a fist. In that moment, I knew. I felt guilty that my choice to potentially pass on this genetic condition could cause one of my children to have a less than perfect life.”
‘I think he has what mommy has!’ He had white chunks of skin around his fingers and toes’: Mom and son diagnosed with Ichthyosis genetic skin condition
‘No one will miss you.’ I said goodbye to my kids. Everything went white.’: Woman thanks husband’s ‘mistress’ for ‘saving her’ after abuser attempts to take her life
“He briefly took his hand off of my throat and forced the barrel into my mouth. This was my gun, and I couldn’t stop him from turning it on me. I said goodbye to my kids, in my head. I thought of them coming downstairs to find me dead. His phone buzzed, and he stopped. His mistress was at the house. MPs, SWAT, NCIS, and a case worker. Every military wife in the neighborhood was outside my home, gawking.”
‘I kept bleeding, I had pain. They assured me it would ‘be over soon.’ I just didn’t feel right. I went to another OBGYN, and I got in THAT DAY. It sounded so morbid.’
“I called my husband sobbing, feeling like there was an elephant sitting on my chest. Not only did dissolving a pregnancy, a baby with a heartbeat, feel so morally wrong, I felt like a complete failure. After all, it was absolutely my tubes that were the problem.”
‘My healthy, 39-year-old husband said he felt ‘off.’ In the ER the doctor met me in the hall with tears in her eyes.’: Healthy, 39-year-old husband dies suddenly from ‘catastrophic’ tear in aorta
“Yes. He was gone and I had to sign paperwork to take him off life support. My mom showed up and she was hysterical. I thought to myself, ‘pull yourself together, I need you to be strong and support me.’ She immediately pulled me out into the hall and said, ‘Your sister died last night.’ What.”
‘Things look good, TOO good.’ For the first time ever, I was pregnant! We tried to hide our excitement.’: After adoption, woman discovers she is pregnant with triplets
“We received word that we would be able to adopt! Finally, my dreams were coming true. The night before my first scan, I started bleeding. My dreams of being pregnant were crushed.”
‘I knew something was up. She walked over to the couch, sits down, turns the TV on and I realized. It’s freaking Bachelor season.’
“It’s the grand opening. It’s like a crazy hormonal circus for married chicks. You bet your right freaking leg she can Instafollow, Snapchat and Facestalk 24 random women, working with nothing more than a first name a grid reference of 200 square miles.”
‘When they come out, everyone is gone. ‘What are we going to do?’ ‘I don’t know.’ They both begin to panic.’: Kids without smartphones forced to problem-solve, realize it made them ‘more likely to succeed’
“Their father is nowhere in sight. They have no way of contacting their parents. Michael is getting nervous. ‘We’re going to ask that policeman if we can use his phone,’ she says bravely. They approach the officer. Michael is afraid to speak. So is Emma.”
‘My world was spinning. How is this possible? He didn’t realize it at the time. His heart was a ticking time bomb.’
“He hadn’t been feeling well. First a case of the flu, then what we thought was walking pneumonia. He ate well, worked out, quit smoking. What had he done wrong to deserve this? Little did we know, the journey was about to begin.”
‘When I wiped, I felt something coming out. I got a sick feeling in my stomach – I knew what was about to happen.’: LGBT couple battle infertility, miscarriages, loss of triplets to have rainbow baby
“I laid on that cold bed, put my feet in the stirrups and prayed. After moments that felt like forever, my doctor looked up at me. ‘You’re having twins!’ We were in shock. But seconds later, our doctor had a weird look on her face. She said, ‘Wait! I think I see triplets!’”
‘I’ll catch you.’ My husband was chasing me. It was 28 degrees outside. I ran 2 miles, barefoot, to the police station, for my life.’: Mother finds courage to leave abusive husband after realizing this is ‘not love’
“The next morning, I tried to sit up, and that’s when I knew something had happened. My husband was sleeping like a baby next to me but his knuckles looked bruised and swollen. I scanned the room for my phone, and noticed it placed neatly on his bedside table… only mine was smashed beyond repair.”