“I’d sit on the sidelines during PE while my peers played and had the time of their lives. I felt envy toward able-bodied children. I was that awkward girl in a wheelchair who didn’t know anybody. I didn’t fit in. One morning, I awoke to muscle loss in my hands. ‘But how will I create my art?!’ I had to find a way to make life happen.”
“This sweet little 3-year-old also had a 2-year-old sister. They were looking to have them adopted together. ‘How could I adopt just ONE?’ I decided to drown out the noise of others.”
“I don’t know about letdown or leaking when a baby cries. I don’t know about raw or chapped nipples. I don’t have battle scars or badges of honor that are inscribed with, ‘Breastfed my baby until 2.’ None of it. But tell me, my sweet baby, did I love you any less?”
“I just hope you know how grateful I am for you even when I’m tired, worn down, and I don’t show it. Most of all, I hope you know I love you big even in those I-don’t-like-you moments.”
“My family had a good thing going pre-COVID. Now, our lives have been thrown into a figurative blender and turned on with the lid off. No one can feel stable wiping a kid’s butt when you’re on a conference call while the pasta is boiling over.”
“We sat in a circle on a bedroom floor. ‘Last night daddy went swimming. His body died. He won’t come home ever again.’ One week after the funeral, I received a call: ‘You have cancer, and not the run-of-the-mill kind. It travels distantly and doesn’t always respond to treatments.’ The rubble of my life had just caught fire.”
“Even when you stop asking for kisses and cuddles. Even when you don’t want to hold my hand anymore. Even when you don’t want me to sing you to sleep anymore. You will always be my little boy. This bond between mother and son, it’s something special.”
“I knew full-well my sexuality wasn’t a phase, but I still assumed I’d end up with a man. Little did I know, the love of my life was waiting for me where I least expected her to be. ‘Will you go on a date with me?’ I’d given up on finding a soulmate. She was miles out of my league 一 the most perfect person alive. I was freaking terrified.”
“I am not a working mom or a stay-at-home mom. I am both. Somehow, someway, us moms always make the impossible happen.”
“I had major ‘imposter syndrome.’ I was obsessed with telling myself I wasn’t good enough.”
