“We were t-boned while making a left turn, and pushed into a light pole. A few weeks before the accident, I posted a picture of the kids sleeping in my backseat. Someone commented and asked if Andrew, my 4-year-old, was still rear facing.”
‘When I saw my car for the first time since our accident, all I could do was shake like a leaf, and sob. I cannot believe my babies and I walked away from this.’: Mom urges car seat safety, ‘Make sure they’re safe EVERY time’
‘There’s no quick fix. There WILL always be a next panic attack, a next day of self-harm or cloud of doubt. I started to feel I wasn’t enough for him. I couldn’t pray away the dark times.’
“There’s nothing I want more than to see his beautiful smile. But part of being in love with someone struggling with mental health is dealing with the ugly. It’s true what they say. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel. But there’s also a damn dimmer switch in that tunnel too.”
‘I gave birth to a beautiful Chinese baby in which I share zero genes with. HE DIDN’T GET THE MEMO.’: Mom recalls ‘painful and exhilarating’ journey through surrogacy
“I now had a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old, and I was newly divorced. ‘How were you able to give up the baby?’ I felt like I signed my life away. They needed to make sure I wasn’t going to go crazy.”
‘I text him. ‘I’m so sorry, do you need me?,’ he asked. ‘No. You wanted this.’ We’re fighting again. We lay in bed. We cry. I cannot give him what he wants.’: Mom suffers miscarriage, thanks best friend and partner for ‘saving’ her
“When I get home, all his things are gone. Like he was never there. I don’t make it two steps past the house door. I lay there and I cry. I cannot move. I cannot breathe. I do not want to be here. This is going to kill me.”
I’m Happily Child Free, And I’m Not Any Less Of A Woman Because Of It
“My friends were planning their future prince charming and the number of kids they want when they grow up. I scratched my head and proceeded to tell them about the countries I wanted to visit. I always hoped my ‘maternal instincts’ would finally kick in.”
‘I’ve never doubted how much you do. But I underestimated it. I was you for 48 hours and now I understand why you lock the door at night to have that shower.’
“For 5 years you’ve never left the kids to cry. You never want them to be alone. I did that wild scream you did. I know where it comes from now.”
‘I didn’t know this was the last time. I miss you.’
“I didn’t know that all the days of you asking me for my time, would turn into me asking you for yours. I didn’t know how fast the years would fly by.”
‘If I drink beer, maybe they’ll like me. If I smoke this, maybe they’ll like me.’: Childhood bullying victim shares journey to self-love
“I thought the bullying would stop when my mom died of cancer, but it returned full force. I remember being yanked off my feet by my ponytail, blood running down my leg. I still wasn’t good enough, so I dropped out. When I returned to school at 31, a mother of 3 kids, I thought the same failure awaited me again. I was absolutely terrified.”
‘Hun, whatcha doing? You ok?’ Silence. ‘Hun…?’ I tried turning the knob. Locked. My heartbeat grew faster.’: Woman struggles to overcome husband’s death from heroin overdose
“We went to bed, said our ‘I love you’s.’ Exhausted. He rubbed my back as I drifted off to sleep. At 5:00 a.m., I awoke to use the bathroom. I guess he couldn’t sleep? He wasn’t in bed. He must be downstairs. The TV wasn’t on. No living room lights. Just a faint glow from the bottom of the bathroom door. I couldn’t save him.”
‘After the diagnosis, we found out we were pregnant. ‘We don’t have enough time! How am I supposed to raise my children without him?’: Woman honors late father-in-law after passing from tongue cancer with special name for new daughter
“We were excited and broken. For much of my pregnancy, I struggled knowing that my baby would never meet the greatest man ever. He had this thing where he nicknamed each child on delivery day. Pistol, Bullet, Slug, and Cricket. There was so much anticipation for him to walk into that delivery room and call him by his ‘name’.”