“I have been Mama to 12 over the last 4 years. Our family is twisty and tangled. A story of commitment, choice and tragedy.”
‘One mom wrote me after relapsing, again. She was feeling such shame, afraid I would think differently of her.’
‘I hate he’s not here to carve pumpkins, or yell out ‘Happy Halloween’ and cackle. He was just gone.’: Grieving wife says husband ‘never let us down,’ so now it’s her turn to step up
“He painted her room at her whim. He hung trophy shelves and pretended to be a monster during her sleepovers. He danced to ‘Hannah Montana.’ And then, he was just gone. She started to grow up. She didn’t go fishing anymore. The posters came down. She retired from gymnastics. She changed.”
‘When they first came out, their hair was fluorescent yellow. I’m talking bright NEON yellow. If you could have seen my eyes the moment I met them for the first time!’: Mom births identical twins
“She was laid on my chest immediately. I couldn’t even say anything at first because her hair was shocking for me to look at! My other two girls were born with dark brown hair. This little girl? I mean it was glowing!”
‘I woke her up at 2 a.m. and realized she couldn’t move her arm. I asked her to raise her arm, and realized it was paralyzed.’: Mom details daughter’s journey with Acute Flaccid Myelitis
“My 4 children came down with a regular, common cold. They all took the same medications, had the same symptoms. While 3 of my children continued to improve, my youngest daughter became extremely worse.”
‘Nobody thought I had a problem, I was just the life of the party. I was reaching out for help, but doctors didn’t believe me. I was even suicidal on my wedding day.’
“I knew something was terribly wrong. I was in law school about to collapse on the floor of my dorm room when I realized my life would never be the same again. It was like an all-night-long strobe light party in my brain.”
‘My neighbors change these skeletons every day for Halloween. I think I finally need to share them.’: Woman documents neighbors’ amazing Halloween efforts
“I started to snap photos to compare all of them. My neighbors’ names are Bob and Bill. They were so excited.”
‘They said, ‘You’re lucky you don’t have kids.’ I had just had my first miscarriage.’
“I went back to work the next day taking orders at a drive-in while someone was complaining about their kids. I explained to them I had just miscarried, and I WOULD gladly take their place.”
‘Imagine if we stopped beating ourselves up and just saw ourselves as our children see us? As everything.’
“So, when you’re asked, ‘what did you do all day?’ ‘Save the world,’ is an acceptable answer.”
‘In the blink of an eye, they were killed. I am a teenager, time and time again being informed of funerals for people I know.’: Woman recalls loved ones lost, ‘We are all one unexpected tragedy away from heartbreak’
“In the blink of an eye, the word suicide is a part of my vocabulary and my family story.”
‘I couldn’t grasp how we went from a happy new family of 5 to our world being turned upside down! Our sweet, perfect baby girl went into brain surgery at just 9 days old.’
“In her 34 years of work, she had never seen a brain bleed so severe, didn’t know what kind of quality of life she would have, and said she would be in a vegetable state. She had a terrible bedside manner, and came off as harsh and unfeeling to me.”