“Along the way, many people have asked, ‘Why keep doing this? It’s painful.’ They need to know they are enough. They need to know they are worthy of safety and love. For every child we have loved and lost, we would do it all over again, in a heartbeat.”
“The tiny newborn. The sweet toddler. The adventurous boy. The challenging teenager. The confident man. The doting father. She’s loved them all. And she knows that for as long as she lives, she’ll always remember how this feels.”
“I wish she understood, ‘It’s important to watch him sleep, even if it means staying up a few minutes more.’ I wish I hugged her, because the empty space she felt when he was gone would soon be regularly vacant.”
“By the time I was 14, I dreaded my period every month. I couldn’t leave the house in fear I’d leak through my clothes. The pain had me bedridden for days.”
“A young Marine, from way across the seas, stumbled upon us. And he has no idea the magic he’s brought my kids ever since.”
“There were so many unknowns. We were asked multiple times if we wanted to terminate. Everything about having our first baby felt not fair. We just wanted normalcy.”
“I was 36 years old. My focus became doing things that make me happy. There’s so much beauty around us if we open our eyes to see it.”
“My beautiful boy is not failing your system by fitting into his own mold. Your system is failing him, and others like him, by drawing a line.”
“I had a divorce battle on my hands and two children to raise. It turned out no one was going to get me out of this mess. It was down to me to sort it out.”
“I only had enough room on my life raft for our son. Caring for an addict and a child with severe special needs was not something I could do. You needed to help yourself first, before I could help you.”
