‘The doctor said, ‘It’s just teenage girl stuff.’ I was living with everyday pain as if it were normal, forced to accept feeling this way forever.’: Young woman shares journey to Ulcerative Colitis diagnosis, ‘My life is just beginning’

“I was 21, almost done with my senior year of college. These were supposed to be the best years of my life, yet every day I felt sick and exhausted and no doctor could tell me why. I was told it was ‘all in my head.’ I lost friends because no one could understand. Soon, I was withdrawing from my semester from a hospital bed.”

‘I could feel in my soul something was off about this pregnancy. ‘We can’t find anything worrisome.’ They were missing something, and I knew it.’: Couple uproot themselves for son’s Angelman Syndrome diagnosis, ‘He is our little angel’

“‘He doesn’t have it.’ We hit a dead end. Knowing we needed to be exposed to new doctors, we put a poll on Instagram with three different states. We put our home on the market, sold it and all our furniture with it within 24 hours, and moved from Utah to Texas.”

‘As a bereaved mother of a medically-fragile, premature twin, I can finally say I’ve met my ‘people.’ And the funny thing is, I’ve never actually met any of them.’: Mom thanks ‘Insta-Village’ for ‘being my source of strength’

“I turned to Instagram. Right before my eyes was a ready-made group of soulmates. Women who advocate with such ferocity for their children, who live on 3 hours of sleep, who know reference numbers and caloric values and fio2 conversions off the top of their heads. My people.”

‘If you tell anyone about this, you won’t live.’ I was determined to break the generational curses and trauma. Survival mode kicked in.’: Abuse survivor shares journey to healing and self-love

“At 3 years old, I was forced to drink raw eggs and smoke half of a cigarette by my mom’s boyfriend. The court system failed me. At 19, I became homeless. I tried to leave my relationship but found myself fighting an uphill battle. By the time I had my second daughter, I knew I needed to find a way out.”

‘Would you be open to picking up a 2-day-old baby girl?’ I’ll never forget my husband’s response. ‘I think this is the baby we’ve been praying for.’: Pregnant mom opens heart to fostering, adopts after ‘humbling’ 798 days

“If you asked me if I’d care for a newborn while 30 weeks pregnant, I’d have thought you were crazy. I’d sit at night, feeding our foster daughter while feeling our little girl wiggling around in my belly. We’d been praying for her years before she was even born.”