“Whether I’m sitting, standing, walking, running, my thighs touch. I don’t have eyebrow hair. At my height of 5’3″, my BMI is in the ‘overweight’ range. I never wear shorts anymore. You see, I’ve always been body-conscious.”
‘My thighs touch. No matter what, they stick together like glue. I never wear shorts, not even in hot as heck Florida.’: Mom urges self-love, ‘These imperfections are the least interesting thing about me’
‘Do you want to meet your birth parents?’ I remember hearing her shut her car door. I could no longer breathe.’: Woman adopted at birth reunites with birth family, ‘It was my journey to take’
“As an adopted child, feeling like you are ALONE is often just a part of the territory. Feeling that way when I’d been given so much was difficult and made me feel so guilty. With sadness and the ever-growing ‘birth family’ hole in my heart, I moved forward with my life. These ‘search angels’ did more for me than they will ever know.”
‘I send them back, I’m selfish. I keep them home, I’m depriving them of proper education.’: Mom weighs in on school reopenings, ‘We could all use a little extra love right now’
“I don’t want to take that mental health risk, so I’ll send them. But, now I’m greedy and don’t care about the teachers. Okay, so I’ll send them… but, we have to skip Thanksgiving, Christmas, and birthday parties. Now, my kids are upset. They miss their family.”
‘I thought you’d be more excited.’ I had a pit in my stomach. I wonder who it was that we lost.’: Mom navigates secondary infertility, rainbow baby, ‘It all lead up to one moment’
“I bought a shirt that said, ‘Shhh, I have a secret, I’m going to be a big brother’ for my son to wear but I forgot it. I am a very superstitious person and this was the first bad omen I felt. All the blood rushed out of my head.”
‘She’s missing a bone in her leg.’ We had an impossible decision to make. I kissed her little broken foot goodbye.’: Mom amputates infant daughter’s leg, ‘She’s our saving grace’
“The doctors hit us with a heavy blow. ‘She won’t be able to walk. Ever.’ We tried to memorize how she looked with two little legs.”
‘We need you to make us not feel crazy. We need you to keep us grounded. Loving someone with anxiety isn’t easy, but stick with us.’: Woman battling anxiety says ‘we love harder than most’
“We need you to remind us we aren’t actually dying. This feeling will pass. We are not crazy, and everything will be alright. Sometimes, we will need you to hold us close, but other times, we will want you to be nowhere near us. Loving someone with anxiety is not easy.”
‘What are you doing, baby?’ I resuscitated him, and we kept going. The neurologists’ faces looked bleak.’: Mom brings son with Ohtahara Syndrome home after months in hospital
“Tate was having some seizure activity. ‘He’s not going to get better.’ I crumbled all over again with strangers and secretaries staring at me. ‘Anyone else would be driving as fast as they could towards a hospital, and you guys are driving as fast as you can away from it.’”
‘I gently patted my son’s back when I heard a crackling, wheezing sound. ‘Something’s wrong, I just know it,’ I told my husband.’: Mom candidly shares journey with parenting PTSD
“I cried to the nurse on the hotline, ‘It sounds like he has fluid in his chest.’ I would sit nursing my son, crying endlessly in that rocking chair. Every breath my son took heightened my already over-the-top anxiety attack. I knew it wasn’t just anxiety. It was something more. This was the start of so many triggers.”
‘I cried all day, waiting for a call from our doctor. She needed to see us right away.’: Family discover 2 other children have complex heart issues after newborn’s complications
“I was secretly hoping for a girl, but the sonographer told us it was a boy. I looked at Austin, smiled, and said, ‘At least we make healthy boys.’ The sonographer’s reaction was a little startling. She said, ‘Well, wait…’ She couldn’t get a good view of his heart, but she didn’t know why.”
‘George was breached. I wasn’t allowed a c-section to save him. ‘If you leave this hospital, you’ll regret it.’ He was so close.’: Woman births miracle preemie despite all odds, ‘I’m so proud to be his mom!’
“I was allowed no monitors to check on my baby during labor. I didn’t have a clue whether or not he was still alive. I was left in the dark. At 23 weeks, I didn’t dare look as I pushed him out. He was put into a small plastic bag, intubated at my side. I told my family, ‘This is the end.’ We planned his final outfit, said goodbye. Just in the nick of time, he showed us he wasn’t going anywhere.”