“Things looked good last night. Someone could ‘drop-in’ and I wouldn’t be ashamed. My house was cozy and my mind was calm. Man, does a clean house make my mind calm. But then the boys woke up in a needy mood.”
‘I cleaned my house. A solid few hours. I did the tidying thing. The vacuuming thing. Heck, I even did the wiping the finger prints off of every surface thing.’
‘I received a text from my mother: ‘Can you come home after work please, I want to talk to you about the results of my CT scan.’ I raced home. My heart sank.’
“To this day, I thank God she was in that room. ‘There is no heart rate on the monitor,’ she said. We pressed the emergency button and the nurses and doctor came running in. The minutes that followed were very scary, very intense.”
‘After spending $13 on low brow tacos, my wife and I went Christmas shopping for our kids. This was our date for the month. This is parenthood. Sexy.’: Dad hilariously grapples with kids’ holiday wish lists
“Our son’s wish list added up to just over $5k. I’ve never wanted to make someone live on the streets until now. Play-doh was on everyone’s list. We won’t be getting any of it because I’d rather slam my head in a car door.”
‘I remember this guy said I had a ‘tight rig.’ I never ate much, I glorified my thinness. I was valued. I was funny, I felt pretty.’
“I met a guy, we fell in love and wanted babies. 3 kids, 2 vaginals, 1 cesarean, postpartum depression, antidepressant weight gain, and life later, this is my rig. I hated it. I would say it was broken. It’s not the person I valued anymore.”
‘Suddenly, everything changed. He became irritated with me. Then he said something I never thought I would hear: ‘I want you to leave.’: Woman learns lesson about ‘sacrifice’ from husband recovering from surgery, ‘That’s what good men do’
“The day he kicked me out of his hospital room, they had a conversation. She asked him how he was. She told him she missed him. His next text was simple.”
‘I went to the appointment, and my life changed. Was I about to die? No, I can’t. I’m not ready! This doesn’t run in my family, and I live a healthy lifestyle.’
“My aunt and grandma went with me to talk to my doctor to try to get further understanding, but to be honest, I didn’t hear a thing she said. My doctor was in tears because she couldn’t understand either.”
There Were 2 Missing From Our Thanksgiving Celebration This Year
“Our brother, who lost his battle to cancer, and our mom, who is still with us, but lost within herself.”
‘You don’t need to do it all this holiday season. We would try to squeeze it in, feeling rushed. But we weren’t enjoying it. It didn’t make me merry. I wasn’t feeling festive, I was frazzled.’
“We have never gone to take pictures with Santa. Indeed, we never made a big deal about Santa, at all. He only ever brought our kids one gift and filled their stockings.”
‘I got a message from a complete stranger offering to be a surrogate for us. I was in shock. I had no idea where she lived, who she was, nothing. I was nervous to tell my husband.’
“She was 26 years old. I felt such a strong connection with her even though we were only communicating through messages. Secretly, I knew in my heart we would go down this path.”
‘It looked like she was doing a stomach crunch. Both arms and legs came together in the air. This went on for hours.’: Mother thrilled to have her ‘happy baby back’ after Infantile Spasms diagnosis
“We first noticed a weird movement when she was 5 months. Doctors said, ‘It’s just gas. Change her to soy milk,’ and, ‘It’ll pass.’ It wasn’t until her dad decided to search ‘spasms,’ that we began to gain insight into this nightmare. Something in me snapped. She was using our daughter for her own research. ‘I’m so sorry baby,’ her dad always said. Through all this, Salma has never shown signs of giving up.”