“The moment I met him, I felt like I was living my life too. Truly living. Maybe he did what he had to do. I had no control. I had no hand to play. Sometimes you lose, like I did when he ended the game.”
‘It’s safe to say I lived. But I never lived the way he did. How could I hate him for flying without me?’: Woman says lost love ‘made me stronger despite the hurt’
‘I was starting to struggle. I was afraid to drive, fighting to stay awake at the wheel. Something had to give.’: Sleep-deprived mom switches to night weans, ‘I was happy to breastfeed again’
“My whole family was paying the price. I began to struggle more with anger, anxiety, and depression. I had to get more sleep. I was happy to breastfeed again.”
‘Our new normal needs adjusting. Extend your arm; we cannot continue to settle for convenience.’: Woman urges ‘be the change you wish to see in the world’
“Every day feels more like 1955. But now, instead of writing about it in history books, we pick up our phones and tape it. We drop a heart reaction and get on with it. Another hashtag nobody prepared us for.”
‘He is dead.’ There was blood on the rug and table. This was the place he died, where he took his last breath. It was unreal.’: Woman mourns death of brother, ‘My life will never be the same’
“‘I sat in my room, talking to him and waiting for my husband, a start of what was sure to be another boring day of quarantine thanks to COVID-19. ‘I saw something on the news about a shooting.’ He was certain it was my brother. I picked up my phone to discover a 3-minute voicemail from my dad of nothing but screaming and chaos.”
‘On the days the world feels a little too scary and a little less safe, I will always be there to wipe away the tears.’: Mom comforts daughter though ‘scary times’
“As your mom, I wanted to tell you that everything would be okay. That the world as you knew it would return to normal soon. But the truth is, it probably won’t. I held you as the first teardrop formed in the corner of your eyes. And, in a blink, the flood gates were unleashed.”
‘She didn’t sign any papers. Maybe I wasn’t given up. Perhaps, I was taken, or she was told I died.’: Adoptee searches for biological mother, answers to her past
“We were nationally unwanted children. It is not always the romantic picture of children being ‘saved.’ My only connection to my past is my genes.”
‘The ultrasound tech got quiet. He dug into my stomach. ‘We can’t find her limb. Termination is always an option.’: Special needs mom says daughter has ‘changed my life for the better’
“We were newlyweds. I took a pregnancy test, honestly not expecting it to say PREGNANT. I felt a rush of emotions. ‘What are people going to think?’ The morning after the ultrasound, the nurse said, ‘Her esophagus isn’t connected to her stomach.’ She went in for surgery at 4 days old. ‘We found something else.’ How could the doctors have missed this? ‘We need to cut both sides of her chest.'”
‘I decided not to push reading with our second daughter. I don’t believe college is the main goal. I don’t think college is for everyone.’: Mom advocates for homeschooling, ‘It prepares our children for the real world’
“It’s my belief ‘unschooling’ prepares our children for the real world more than any classroom ever could. My biggest fear of walking into homeschooling was teaching our daughters how to read. It seemed so overwhelming. Our daughter wasn’t happy either.”
‘How much longer before my 8-year-old son grows from cute to a threat?’: Mom urges ‘please raise your children not to fear mine’
“I want to cherish these sweet moments of his childhood. Soon, I can no longer protect this beautiful black boy from being seen as weapon. Soon, those ‘cute’ and ‘sweet’ compliments will fade, and none of it will matter because he is BLACK.”
‘She told her daughter, ‘I’m sorry.’ She gave her a kiss and handed her to me. She left without her baby.’: Woman becomes close to birth mom during adoption, ‘There is no love without loss’
“Within a couple of days, she said, ‘If you want to choose me, I want to choose you.’ It became official. I was shaking. I’m not blind to the fact that in order to call her mine, there was a lot of hurt that had to take place.”