“I sat between two teenage girls. They were getting louder, being obnoxious. She repeated, ‘Why are your legs so fat?’ The woman next to me berated her for being so rude. I could still hear them giggling. I could feel my face burning. I couldn’t get off the train fast enough. The first thing I did was call my husband, crying, barely able to get my words out.”
“People often refer to my disabled son with angelic, heavenly labels. I’m his mom. I’ve seen things. I know better. When we project this ‘heavenly’ identity onto people with disabilities, we unknowingly strip their humanity and make them more ‘other.’ My son just wants to be loved for exactly who he is.”
“’We did find a few things wrong.’ They rushed him into emergency surgery. ‘There’s something wrong with the baby’s heart.’ Once again, we were faced with the possibility of not bringing him home. Once again, he beat all the odds and baffled all the doctors.”
“Tears dripped from between his little fingers. He climbed into my lap like a small child. ‘If I could take the hurt away, I would,’ I said. My 11-year-old replied, ‘I know, but you can’t take the gay away.’ This is why moms like us lose our children.”
“Truth is, divorce gave me my life back.”
“In 6 weeks that I’ve been home, I haven’t slept more than 4 hours at a time. My days revolve around changing diapers, nursing and pumping, and trying to figure out why my baby is crying. And while my motherly instincts are loud and clear, we are nowhere near a daily routine yet. I couldn’t imagine going back to work right now.”
“I wondered where my mom wound up. I was hurt, I felt anger but I don’t know if I was ever actually angry at God directly. I was angry at my situation. I wondered why I had lost my mom and my dad by 14.”
“One of the nurses came in the room and said to me, ‘If you guys were my kids, I would tell you to go straight to the children’s hospital. Something is wrong with your baby.”
“The doctor spoke the words ‘unsurvivable injury’ over and over and over again. I was in denial and almost laughed at the report. ‘Do you want to donate the organs? You’re ruining the chances by keeping him alive.’ How could this doctor be so concerned with saving one life, but so inclined to let another go? After 10 minutes, a police officer walked over with a Ziploc baggie of Christiano’s belongings.”
