“I have spent 3 hours looking up bento boxes, protein to carbohydrate to sugar ratios for those little compartments, and how to make the food look like a happy koala in a tree. Who started this stuff? Who sets the standard like this? Stop it.”
‘Because of you, I have to make chocolate chip muffins hidden with vegetables and mixed in with fairy tears.’: Mom begs other parents to ‘lower the standards. You’re only hurting yourself’
‘Hudson’s brain told him to swallow a lot of pills. We are thanking God our boy is here with us still.’: Family advocates for open discussion around mental health after son’s suicidal thoughts, ‘Do not be afraid of this.’
“Our child is not physically sick… he is mentally sick. We see no difference. He needed a hospital. He needs prayers and support. When he returns to school, please treat him like any other friend who just got out of the hospital. High fives full of welcome backs and ‘I’m glad you’re okay.’ Please don’t be afraid to talk.”
‘Up until that point, I’d lived a charmed life. Then tragedy struck. It was isolating. But they also didn’t throw a ‘pity party’ for me.’: Man credits resilience for getting him through ‘each of those dark days’
“My life was quickly thrown upside down. The love of my life was suddenly killed in a car accident. I handled it with anger and bitterness. The economy began to crumble. I quickly became the best possible cab driver I could be. Shifts were 12 hours long. I pulled my boots up and reinvented myself. Then everything changed again. The ginger ale sat on the kitchen counter, slowly turning into a bomb. At the exact second Shelly passed the sink, the bottle exploded. I was horrified. What a battle it has been.”
‘Be careful not to startle him with sudden sounds.’ ‘A loud sound could kill our boy?!’ We were terrified.’: Baby boy with extremely rare LQT Syndrome, Microcephaly, Deafness defies all odds
“While rocking Azariah to sleep for his nap, he went stiff in my arms. I turned the light on and things changed drastically. He started to convulse and foam at the mouth. I ran downstairs and called 911. Two minutes went by and he was turning blue. I lay him down and gave him 3 breaths. ‘How in the world did this happen to OUR son, why OUR son?’ No one else in the world was known to have the same genetic deletions.”
‘I get told I’m ‘too much.’ I can’t whisper. I laugh at my own jokes. I suck at keeping plans, and I spend more money than I save. But all of these things make me, ME.’: Woman urges ‘stop letting people extinguish what sets your soul on fire’
“You will be told you are too honest. Too real. You may be told your dreams are silly or stupid. You may be taunted, laughed at, or mocked for stepping out of what is ‘expected of you.’ Sorry not sorry, but you can’t confine me to a box, and girl, you shouldn’t either! You have a light that is too bright to be hidden. Stop letting people extinguish what sets your soul on fire.”
‘They kept tapping his feet saying, ‘Wake up, little baby, wake up.’ I left the room. I knew he wouldn’t come back. We’d missed him by minutes.’: Mom describes losing son to ‘what was believed to be a virus’
“His only symptom was a fever that lasted no more than an hour or two. I gave him some Tylenol he spat out. He went to sleep soundly. He was perfectly fine. His fever was completely gone, he was in great spirits, and his coloring was healthy. This was not a sick kid.”
‘The cop opened the trunk. Jack quickly put his hands up. ‘Don’t shoot!’ There, in the trunk, lay my friends.’: Man reminisces on the old days with his true friends thanks to StoryWorth
“It was the 1950s. Sitting at Mae’s Grill with my buddies, a girl I’d recently broken up with called. ‘Shoot, you’ll end up going back steady with her.’ ‘Like hell I will!’ They didn’t believe me. When I picked up Joan to talk, my pals were in the trunk to hear it all. ‘Don’t make noise!’ I warned. Next thing I knew, the state trooper was at the side of my car. ‘I hope you don’t have any beer in the trunk!'”
‘We were babies when we said our vows. Or, at least, that’s what everyone said. Nobody told us things would feel broken beyond repair.’: Woman realizes ‘nothing precious is ever truly broken’
“What absolutely nobody told us was at some point, no matter how much we loved each other, there would come a time when things felt broken beyond repair. We had seen couples split. Even couples we admired. But we figured that kind of brokenness was for people who didn’t love one another as much as we did. Like I said, we were young.”
‘She started hysterically laughing. ‘So far I’ve found 3.’ After already having twins! Complete shock.’: Mother births twins, then triplets, then twins again, ‘We were completely dumbfounded’
“It was EXTREMELY rare. After hearing the news, we walked across the street and got pedicures, because what else do you do when you find out you’re pregnant with triplets? After already having twins! I don’t think we said a word to each other the entire time – we were completely dumbfounded.”
‘He scoffed at me. ‘Why are you depressed? You have a husband who loves you! Stop that. You’re fine!’: Woman opens up about battle with mental health, postpartum depression
“I was at work. One of my customers said, ‘How are you?’ I wanted to be honest. Test the waters on speaking how I really feel. ‘Ya know, I’m not doing too great. I’m dealing with serious depression. I’m not okay right now, I’m struggling.’ He scoffed at me. I replied, ‘I wish it was THAT easy.'”