“From the moment I started school, I was always the biggest kid in class. At one point, I was pulled out of school for 8 weeks. Rumors started. I heard a group of girls talking about how I should have never come back. I was a ‘pig.’ Trying to fit in and make every test an A+ began to get harder and harder. I was desperate for love and acceptance. My life quickly spiraled out of control.”
‘You’re lucky I’m with you, because you’re really fat.’ I was always the smart girl with a pretty face, never the total package.’: Woman overcomes bullying, depression to carry out weight loss, ‘I transformed into a warrior’
‘Baby, when I hear you say you’re pregnant what I actually hear is ‘life destroyed.’ He was right. The Universe had been playing this cruel joke on me for 4 years.’: Woman ‘grateful for every fallen tear’ after infertility struggle
“Surprisingly, the doctor pulled me into her arms, ignoring professionalism and boundaries, and held me. She whispered in my ear, ‘I heard you talking in the change room. I know how badly you wanted this. Don’t give up yet.’”
‘HI MOMMY, I’M BABY A.’ My eyes landed on, ‘HI MOMMY, I’M BABY C.’ Triplets, they deserved more.’: Mom credits unexpected triplets and husband with her helping to find sobriety
“I was working at a strip club in Detroit, trading my body for drugs, deteriorating into nothingness. I sought refuge in another rehab and shortly after leaving, I found out again I was pregnant. I went in to see my OBGYN, and cried over the possibility of an evil man being the baby’s father. I called my husband who knew the circumstances of my life and our relationship. He was willing to be there for me in whatever way he could.”
‘Keeley?,’ you whispered. I peeked back in. You were grinning that huge grin. ‘I love you, Keebee.’ I’m not happy to admit I got annoyed. Now, I think you were just preparing me.’
“I remember my mom on the phone telling me to ‘Get out, get out. Close your eyes, don’t look’. You knew I was coming home first that day. You knew.”
‘I was ‘late,’ but strange things happened. I told Danny I was going to take a pregnancy test. ‘That CANNOT be 2 lines. What is going on?!’ Neither of us could believe our eyes.’
“It’s 3 a.m. and I am yelling from the bathroom: ‘Danny! Wake up! I just listened to a message and she’s in labor! We missed ALL of the calls!’ We were panicked and had a 3 hour drive ahead. ‘How close are you? I don’t know if she can wait much longer!'”
‘I met him on a dating site. I had a lot of creeps asking me inappropriate questions. Jimmy was the ONLY one who didn’t. He changed my life completely.’: Woman says despite her disability, ‘I am living my life to the fullest’
“28 years ago I was born with a spinal cord injury due to my doctor using forceps, and came out basically dead. Doctors told my parents I would be like a vegetable. But they were wrong. Then, I met Jimmy.”
‘We went out to eat. There was a family sitting beside us, obviously disgusted. That hurt. My ‘life choices’ interfere with their views.’: Gay dad of 3 adopted kids says ‘we ARE the new normal’
“I still remember what the room smelled like, I even remember what we were wearing. I couldn’t look away as if I was frozen. I knew instantly, this was the very moment I had prayed for.”
‘Your sister’s been in an accident.’ He broke the news. ‘Where are the kids?!’: Woman adopts long-lost nieces and nephews, ‘Our hearts are so full’
“I called my husband, worried what he’d say. I wanted my nieces and nephews. He responded, ‘Let’s go get our kids.’ We had no idea what we were getting into. We’d never even met them. One by one, they entered the room. I sat there quietly, but inside I was screaming, ‘I am your aunt!’”
‘Only a motherless daughter knows the deafening silence in a delivery room when her mother isn’t there for her grandchild’s first breath.’
“Only a motherless daughter knows the power behind that last ‘I love you.’ Only a motherless daughter knows the difference between ‘I miss my Mom’ because she doesn’t live here, and ‘I miss my Mom’ because she lives in Heaven.”
‘I had one job: protect my children. The next day he was gone and there was no way to get him back. I felt myself slipping away from reality.’
“On my son’s birthday, I laid on the floor, belly-down, with my hands on my chest to force myself not to hyperventilate. Minutes later, I rejoined the party with a smile on my face. ‘I am fine,’ I told myself.”