“She had no idea how much I had been counting down to this milestone. The last birth of our last baby. I had a ‘geriatric uterus’ this pregnancy, being 35. I’m tired and these kids are expensive!”
‘I was still in the stirrups, getting stitched up, talking to my OB. ‘I never have to do this again.’ I rejoiced. Until one day.’
‘Right after my grandmother died, I found my mom in her bedroom writing down her thoughts. Through her tears she said: ‘You can read this when I’m done.’’
“I remember all the times I left my home on May Avenue, watching momma wave to me as I pulled away. I know how important that last wave is.”
‘My ‘friend’ said, ‘Come on, of all people, you should understand why someone would want to abort a cleft baby.”
“It was a shock. I didn’t know what I was looking at. There was clearly something wrong on his face, but I had never seen something like that before.”
‘If you ask my boy, he’d tell you, he has two dads and two moms. All 4 of us kept Jaden’s needs before our own. A loving, crazy, enormous, blended family.’
“Kristen was young. So young, I had my reservations. I learned very fast that just because another woman was parenting my child, didn’t mean she was taking my place.”
‘I was having a hard time finding the words – probably because I haven’t had any sleep – to express to my husband why I’m not in the best of moods in the morning.’
“So, I sat down with my coffee and drew him this visual.”
‘My husband and I arrived at the hospital to await our baby’s arrival. I had no idea the very bed I was settling in would soon become my death bed.’
“I became frantic. Something terrible was happening. I told my husband to find help immediately. He needed to prepare himself that he may leave the hospital with a baby, but not his wife.”
‘To some, Maddie was just a junkie — when they saw her addiction, they stopped seeing her. And what a loss for them.’
“Though we would have paid any ransom to have her back, any price in the world, this disease would not let her go until she was gone.”
‘This 3-year-old was kicking and screaming and flopping around. ‘Say something kind to her,’ I thought. But then I thought, ‘No, it’s none of your business. LEAVE THE POOR STRANGER ALONE.”
“She looked up at me, blinked twice, and then visibly melted. Tears started streaming.”
‘I’m taking pictures of my jewelry, when my husband walks in and goes, ‘What in the world is going on?!?’ I immediately start crying.’
“I realize the madness I’ve created. It’s just never-ending. I’m not really sure why I’m crying, what day it is, or what’s going on.”
‘This week in preschool, my son was teased for wanting to play with a baby doll. I repeat: he was teased. By 4-YEAR-OLDS.’
“I discovered this because when he got home he informed me that ‘boys don’t play with babies.’ And my head just about EXPLODED.”
