“All he could say was ‘Son.’ I apologized for my shortcomings. Mom soothed me while dad weakly patted my head like I was a little boy. I realized how much they need me.”
‘Your dad’s been waiting for you.’ I cried like a child. I should’ve been there.’: Man finds ways to assist aging parents after medical emergency
‘Days before his 24th birthday, we received messages. ‘Jake has not shown up for work or class.’ His roommates hadn’t seen him.’: Woman navigates grief after losing brother to suicide, sister and nieces to car accident
“Exactly 2 months later, my sister and two beautiful nieces were killed in a car accident. I heard phrases like ‘everything happens for a reason’ more times than I can count. I was told my sadness was a result of my lack of gratitude and my focusing on the negative. I was encouraged to move on, to forget, to focus on the positive and live in gratitude with love.”
The Life Of An Abandoned Daughter
“I wait on the stoop in my dirty sneakers until the street lights come on. Until the sky turns shades of pink and red, the same color as my broken heart. I wait until I hear the train go over the track. I keep telling myself I’ll wait five more minutes. I wait until another car drives down my block. It’s not the right color.”
‘There’s a 1-week-old in the hospital.’ I instantly felt he was the baby we’d been waiting for all these years.’: Couple battling infertility adopt son from foster care
“We received a phone call. ‘There’s a family member trying to take placement of him.’ From the first moment we saw his little face, we were in complete and total love.”
‘I called her, sobbing. Her response? ‘I’m driving you. Do you prefer me beside you or in the waiting room? What can I bring over in the meantime?’: Mom shares true meaning behind ‘it takes a village’
“Without hesitating or thinking, she washes bottles. Folds a blanket. Holds James so I can use the bathroom. Her love is instinctual.”
‘The eyes staring back at me were MINE. ‘I can’t believe I actually found you!’: Birth mom finds son on Facebook after 33 years
“‘This is like a DREAM. There are a million things I want to say, and at the same time, I can’t find the words. Just know I love you.’”
‘We’ll love you as long as we have the opportunity.’: Family adopts daughter from foster care, ‘I get the privilege to guide her’
“’We DON’T get to make this decision. The court will move forward however they please.’ We always hear ‘the system is broken.’ It is.”
‘We butt heads. We push buttons. We don’t see eye to eye. I assumed my girl would think like me, talk like me, act like me.’: Mom gushes ‘you are all your own’
“I’m realizing I’m not raising another me. I’m raising a you. And what a beautiful thing that is.”
I Owe It To My Kids To Allow Them To See My Mistakes
“I am not a supermom, I am a human. My children will gain so much more by seeing my flaws and imperfections.”
‘I just want to be normal.’ In a moment of weakness, he used a drug he never had before.’: Woman widowed by addiction urges ‘end the stigma’
“All he wanted was to be the best father, husband, and provider he could be. I refuse to let addiction be his legacy.”