“My mom kept calling me. I ignored her. Next thing I know, I’m waking up to paramedics in my face. I overdosed. If my mom had gotten home 5 minutes later, it would’ve been too late. I would’ve been gone. Something told her she needed to walk home from work the very moment I didn’t answer her calls. Someone was looking out for me.”
“My arms weren’t doing what I wanted them to. They felt clumsy and my thoughts seemed to be in slow motion. The next thing I knew, I was collapsing onto the floor of my closet.”
“There is no way you can prepare yourself to bury your child. We both were trying to keep it together, but it was obvious we were falling apart.”
“No matter how many bad days I have without you in my arms, it is another day closer to being together again.”
“Our relationship started off tense, territorial, and hard. She accused me of everything and I thought nothing of her. But I realized, she is not my enemy. Her addiction is.”
“I was in the bathroom. She didn’t know where I was. She went outside into the yard looking for me.”
“I had an addiction to peeing on sticks. It’s a real thing. My husband made me pee on the test that says ‘pregnant’ or ‘not pregnant.’ HE didn’t believe the lines. Sure enough, our bingo babies were conceived! What came next was unexpected and scary. I had a postpartum hemorrhage after each baby was born and they could not get it under control. ‘Am I dying?,’ I remember asking my mom. I kept thinking, ‘How did I go through all this and not be able to see my babies grow up?’”
Young people carry several extra burdens, especially when their disability is invisible.
“We stick out in a crowd and draw attention anywhere we go. There are occasions when the pointing, stares, and whispered comments are invasive and annoying. People reach out and touch our children’s hair without asking. We’ve even had to step in and stop strangers from taking selfies with our kids!”
“I’ve always thought of myself as pretty cool under pressure. But the first time I got that call that my wife’s water had broken, something changed.”
