“A fat stack of personal information – copies of driver’s licenses, tax returns, medical records – everything we are taught to keep confidential, was GONE. ‘Lost’ in the mail. 3 weeks later, I got a call from our social worker: ‘You’ll never guess what just happened!’ We knew raising a child with special needs would bring challenges, but we also knew it would be a huge blessing.”
“He donated bone marrow to save the life of a complete stranger. He was excited. Elated. He barred me from telling anyone, he didn’t want to make a fuss. That’s the man I’m married to.”
“’Why is that officer on that man’s neck?’ It dawned on me, although we explained racism and expressed there are people who will hate them because of their skin color, we failed to put emphasis on how some of those people may very well be the same ones intended to protect you.”
“How can I watch him learn how to feed himself, knowing all too soon he won’t be able to move his arms? I tried to imagine what life was going to look like with this diagnosis. ‘I just can’t do this.’”
“The world moves fast and demands so much. I imagine with my son’s disability, it is often more exhausting. When he’s reached his limit, I’m close to my own. But when I carry him, he somehow carries me, too.”
“‘Miss Lehman, come on back.’ Finally. The moment I was waiting for. I had a whole list of symptoms written in my notes on my phone I read off to the nurses. They all looked at me with question marks on their faces. I could feel their energy. They thought I was just a young girl looking for attention.”
“I’m too much or too little of something, or I’m doing too much or too little of something I should or shouldn’t be doing. Sometimes you’ve got to call other people out and now it’s time for that.”
“As I was walking away, I heard one of them say, ‘Man the ice cream melted!’ I could’ve kept walking, but I decided to turn it into a teaching moment.”
“Who wants to watch 10 kids? The babies were coming closer and closer and when our third child was only 3 months old, I found out that number 4 was on the way.”
“I had a major surgery where my stomach was ripped open. I endured pain and tears for months. As a mother, I felt worthless unable to help with household chores. This wasn’t what I wanted for my birth.”
