“They didn’t know in his first 2 months of life, he came close to death so many times. They didn’t see me standing outside his hospital room, frozen as the medical team performed chest compressions. They knew he was different. They just didn’t know why.”
“When my mom and siblings were asleep, I shoveled crackers in my mouth in the bathroom. I ate snack cakes on the kitchen floor. Food didn’t care I was depressed and anxious.”
“I sat in the doctor’s office and watched as each person passed me. I wondered who else might be awaiting life-altering news. I vowed no matter where life took me, it would never take me away from love.”
“There was hair on my pillow. I had to unclog the shower after each use. I’d be cooking and just see hair fall to the counter. I took the plunge.”
“’You know, he is very ADHD.’ What I found blew open my world. I saw my son, but more so, I saw myself.”
“I told her, ‘I want the biggest, most obnoxious-looking hearing aid possible.’ I was SO tired of telling people I was deaf.”
“Divorce is sad, but what’s worse is a little girl growing up thinking it’s normal for her spouse to put their hands on her because it’s ‘what Daddy did to Mommy.’ Now, they see love.”
“When I born, the doctor said, ‘You’re going to have your hands full with that one.’ Even from a young age, I never felt like a girl. I wondered what was ‘wrong’ with me.”
“I couldn’t work the same or train the same. I wasn’t ‘big Dave’ anymore! I couldn’t even be the same dad to my kids. I felt like I lost my sense of everything.”
“None of us had anyone else to relate to – until now.”
