“‘We’re by NO means equipped to care for someone else’s child. We don’t even have OUR OWN kids.’ I knew I couldn’t just let that dream pass me by.”
“‘We’re by NO means equipped to care for someone else’s child. We don’t even have OUR OWN kids.’ I knew I couldn’t just let that dream pass me by.”
“I wish there was a simple fix. A magical playlist to erase her anxieties and ease the panic. I can’t take this burden from her, but I can wrap her in my embrace. For as long as she’ll let me, I will be her stand-in lullaby.”
“I stood there, speechless. Then he said something that shook me to my soul: ‘If my daughter was still here with us, I’d do the same for her.’ I sat in my car and cried tears of gratitude. Never would he know what this actually meant to me.”
“I struggled to go to school each year. I’d feel nervous when I was separated from my mom in a new place. ‘I don’t feel good.’ It was my way of saying, ‘I’m anxious.’ I never put a name to those feelings.”
“The strength of our relationship is built into every bit of wood, every nail, and screw, within our tiny home.”
“I actually felt the needle scrape the bone and went straight to work after. When a coworker called me lazy for not offering her help, I was beyond myself. I posted on Facebook, finally exposing my secret to the world. That was the first step.”
“Nobody was putting an end to it, not the teachers, principal, not even other kids who witnessed the bullying.”
“I looked down at her hands and knew something was off. The mom in me knew. ‘So she’s going to be small? No big deal!’ We could tell there was something else he wasn’t telling us.”
“Decorating the tree with my favorite Hallmark ornaments. Christmas music ringing through the house. Sledding down the neighbors’ driveway. Sipping hot cocoa from mugs adorned with snowmen. Driving around town in search of the best lights. Those moments? They last a lifetime.”
“I’d scratch and pinch at the sides of my stomach. ‘Is this in my head?’ I experienced cold spots on my legs. When I moved my neck, I’d feel a rush of electricity through my legs. It was invisible to everyone but me.”