“I raced to my mom’s house. They’d just gotten back from the cruise so I could finally share the good news. ‘YOU’RE GOING TO BE A GRANDMA! My husband and I went to the hospital to meet our son for the very first time. We were greeted by security. ‘I need your ID’s. Where are you folks headed?,’ he asked. ‘We’re going to the NICU to see our son!,’ Jarvis said proudly. We literally became parents overnight. Families DON’T have to match! They are built on LOVE!”
“He spoke with a friend about how sad he was, how he felt like a loser, and how badly he wanted to stop using. He just needed LOVE.”
“I’ll never forget the way my heart dropped when someone said, ‘I’m not pro-termination. But in complex situations like these, sometimes it is appropriate.’ With heartbreaking honesty that rips my insides apart now, I’ll tell you – I went home and googled abortion procedures. A Christian woman who loves Him with all of her heart — I googled it.”
“Having many kids makes parenting into a super long marathon. And that is no joke when you may no longer be in your 30’s. But the blessings? They are no joke either.”
“One night after I got home from the gym, I felt a tiny lump the size of a dime on my right nipple. Like most men, I assumed it was a cyst or ingrown hair. My wife pushed to get it checked out. Lo and behold, I was drinking my morning cup of coffee, still in my PJs and trying to wake up, when I got a call. ‘Michael, our biopsy results came back and you have cancer.’ I went to work that day looking like someone walked over my grave.”
“When I woke up, I noticed I had an email from my mom. Usually, those entail some kind of funny joke or forwarded message, but this time, she needed information. Specifically, my kids’ social security numbers so she can set up accounts for them to be ‘transferable upon (her) death.’ Wait, what?”
“I had gotten a cold and he told me, ‘I need you to take care of yourself sweetheart, I need you for this adventure.’ Shortly after we hung up I sent him a text, which I found out was moments before the accident. I asked him, ‘Do you know how much I love you?’ He never got to read it.”
“I felt so embarrassed. I started putting makeup on my scars and wearing only tube top bikinis. I started wearing a bra all the time and wouldn’t remove it during intimate times with my husband. I went from cancer free and ecstatic about the surgery results, to mortified to even show my breasts.”
“I wanted to crawl out of my skin. I looked around embarrassed, hoping no one else heard him. This was it—I was going to let him have it. All those years of pretending people’s comments didn’t hurt me were going to come to an end. But then he looked at me with a warm glow, ‘We never could have kids.’”
“I was in line for the fitting room when the lady in front of me commented she really liked the pants I was holding. ‘Thanks, I’ve really been needing to buy some post-pregnancy work pants,’ I said. ‘Oh, where is your baby while you work?,’ she asked. Nonchalantly, I replied, ‘He goes to daycare and really loves it.’ As she walked away, she mumbled it. When she said it, I knew she just didn’t know.”
