“That—it turns out—was the slap in the face I needed. I was a victim of domestic violence. After all, he was a pastor and he never laid a hand on me.”
‘I love you, Mommy. I love you. MOMMY!’ She interrupted her daddy’s beratements. He was a pastor and he ‘never’ laid a hand on me.’: Domestic abuse survivor urges ‘every soul has the power to fight’
‘Why can’t Dad stay with us AND you?’ We’re learning to parent together, now that we aren’t together.’: Ex-couple ‘peacefully’ co-parent, ‘Two happy homes are better than one sad one’
“For years, I questioned if I should stay or go. The first few weeks of ‘sharing’ my kids were awful. I couldn’t sleep. I cried excessively. I felt guilty. But it is so, so worth it. Two happy homes are better than one sad one.”
‘I joined the basketball team in 5th grade. I just wanted to make ONE basket. I had to show I’m not a burden.’: Woman with Dwarfism spreads awareness, ‘I want to teach kindness’
“I never thought I’d get married because no one could like me because of my height. Now I have a husband who is 6’2.”
‘My boyfriend took my virginity during the grayest night of my life. I saw myself as used goods. I couldn.’t find my voice.’: Woman finds ‘self-worth’ after divorce, ‘I’m happy and whole’
“I got off the road after three packed years as a pop artist and found myself not knowing who I should be next. I thought I was ugly. I thought I was broken. I designed my next chapter to become truly happy.”
‘She sent a text: ‘Hey, are you doing that thing where you don’t take my calls?’ I was okay, and I kind of wasn’t.’: Woman struggling with mental health says ‘it’s OK to disappear’
“I disappear a lot. I will be calling my friends, texting my family and the next week… *poof* I’m gone. Last week, friend checked in on me. I was okay, and I kind of wasn’t. ‘Hey you are doing that thing where you don’t take my calls?'”
‘I jumpstarted her car. ‘That’s what I’m talking ‘bout! Y’all don’t need no man!’ Then, my heart broke.’: Woman says ‘there is nothing wrong with needing and wanting your husband’
“I need him to bear the weight of family when my knees are buckling under depression. I need him to lift me up when fear causes me to back down. I need him to be the voice of reason when the chaos is deafening. Not only do I need him, but I want him.”
‘I started bleeding at 6 weeks pregnant. We braced ourselves for familiar bad news. ‘There are TWO heartbeats!’ I immediately burst into tears.’: Mom pregnant with ‘miracle twins’ after 8 pregnancy losses
“We lost 8 babies in a row. Just then, we received an unexpected call from a family member. ‘I’d love to be your surrogate!’ We turned her down. The odds were stacked against us, but we both felt a stirring in our hearts to try again. ‘Well, it’s positive! In fact, it’s VERY positive!’ I immediately burst into tears.”
‘She’ll never be able to do it.’ Doctors didn’t expect much. The win wasn’t just for me. It was for an entire community.’: Woman with Down syndrome becomes ‘Woman of Worth’
“Parents often look at me and say, ‘You’re a role model.’ I know their children will grow up not to be like me, but to be exactly who they are, living their own beautiful purpose.”
‘The letter said, ‘I’m your daughter. Can you meet me?’ She’s the secret that ate away at me for 18 years.’: Birth mom reunites with daughter, shares healing journey
“This amazing human I had given birth to was a complete stranger.”
‘I received a call from my husband’s co-worker. ‘Brittany, hurry, run. Allen is hurt really bad.’ My heart wasn’t prepared for what I was about to witness.’: Widow finds ‘love after loss’
“Allen lay on the dusty barn floor face up. He was foaming out the mouth. ‘Brittany, be careful there is a gun.’ All I could do was cry out loud, ‘No! I am pregnant, he can’t be gone!’ I moved back in with my parents. My world was literally turned upside down.”
‘I had clothes laid out for her. I left my job to be a stay-at-home papa. This hurts, BAD.’: Dads share disrupted adoption story, ‘I couldn’t imagine life any other way’
“We anxiously awaited the phone call. One day led to two days, then three. It was like someone punched me in my stomach 10 times. Our birth mother had disappeared.”
‘Twins?! NO. WAY. Are you sure you’re seeing things correctly on the screen?!’ I was nearly 24 weeks along.’: Mom births twins at home, ‘Nothing went according to plan, and that’s okay’
“I went to poop really quick. To my surprise, I sat down on the toilet and felt a head descending. ‘The baby is coming!!!’ I stood up while my baby’s head was being born into my hands.”
‘My doctor said, ‘It’s just part of being a woman. You have a lower pain tolerance.’ I was nicknamed ‘drama queen.’: Young woman diagnosed with endometriosis after 7 years of pain
“I always looked 6 months pregnant. My friendships dissolved instantaneously. My stomach was filled all the way from my bowels to my intestines, reaching close to my heart. ‘If you went on any longer, you could have died.’ Still, no one believed my pain.”
‘Did he think we abandoned him?’ I was still grieving. He hardly slept day or night. I struggled to feel connection.’: Couple foster to adopt, ‘If you don’t get attached, you’re doing it wrong’
“Within minutes, I was holding him in my arms. It was as if my arms had always been missing something. Him. Grief hit hard when he was reunified with mom.”
‘She’s the kind of girl I would marry.’ We were strangers in Vegas. He turned out to be my best gamble ever.’: Military spouse urges ‘let yourself fall in love’ after long-distance relationship
“After parting ways, I sobbed as I walked back to my room. The morning after we met, I awoke to a voicemail. ‘I changed my flight. I want to see you again.’ Our love carried us while thousands of miles, bodies of water, and continents apart. When you know, you know.”
‘Can you take in 3 siblings? They’ve been in foster care 15 months and need parents.’ We cried tears of joy.’: Couple adopt 4 siblings from foster care, ‘They are our heroes’
“Sitting in traffic, my phone began to ring. My husband said very frankly, ‘Yes…Of course…When do you need us to come?’ He whispered, ‘Another sibling was born yesterday. They want him to join our family.’ He didn’t even have a name. I immediately began to cry and shook my head yes.”
‘We found ourselves unexpectedly pregnant during finals week. I feared shame would follow my baby bump and I on campus.’: Young mom urges ’embrace your reality and its surprises’
“We were long-distance, unmarried, and unprepared. A gaping sinkhole opened up and swallowed the ‘normal’ out of this socially well-adjusted, academically inclined, and on-task college kid. There I was, confused and afraid…with life inside of me.”
‘I asked the nanny, ‘What happened to his eye?’ Doctors assured it was ‘pink eye.’: Mom urges ‘throw them away’ after bath toy nearly blinds toddler
“The redness was spreading down his neck. When he woke at 6 a.m. I screamed to my husband, ‘Get in the car!’ His eye was so swollen the white part was bulging out from between his eyelid and his iris was obscured. He felt hot to the touch. A temperature check revealed a raging fever.”
‘Why are you making me do this?’ My 13-year-old son was helping me install a bathroom sink. ‘Did YOUR your dad make you do stuff like this?’: Dad vows ‘I will teach my son the things my father never did’
“I wasn’t sure how to answer. ‘When I was your age, my dad was in jail. I want to show you how to do the things my father never taught me.’ He thought about what I’d said, and then he asked a question I didn’t expect: ‘Will you show me how to use the caulk gun?'”
‘Where’s their mom?’ She assumed I was kidnapping my son. She didn’t believe me when I said, ‘I’m Dad.’ The suffering of kids in foster care knows no color.’: Single foster, adoptive dad says ‘matching hearts make a family’
“I get strange looks at the grocery store. I don’t fit the stereotype of the absent or minimally involved black father. I am not a weekend dad. I’m here for my kids, always. When questioned about the whereabouts of my children’s mother, I politely say, ‘I am both their mother and their father.’ It’s a big job—but my heart is equipped for this.”
‘We were pregnant, adopting 3 children who didn’t speak our language. We were DOUBLING our family.’: Mom shares ‘crazy, life-changing adventure’ of adoption
“There is nothing sexy about taking SIX kids on a plane or driving a church van, but these are the things that bring us the greatest joy.”
‘She walked into the bar alone. My gut told me she was also in the dead husband club. She asked, ‘Does it ever get easier?’: Suicide widow makes ‘lifelong’ friend, ‘Connection keeps us going’
“’She can’t possibly be ready to date, can she?’ Now 3 years in, I’m asked all the time, ‘Why are you still single?’ It hurts so bad you feel it down to your bones.”
‘My husband threw his cuff links across the room and said, ‘I want an annulment.’ I spent the first night as his wife alone on a hard hotel couch.’: Ex-couple join forces to co-parent after divorce
“Weeks from our wedding I was told, ‘You have cancer.’ He arrived at the hospital reeking of perfume. ‘I found someone. I’m in love. She’s pregnant.’ He left our fairytale for the woman I sat next to at his company dinner. She’d just rubbed my pregnant belly.”
‘You know, you can prevent that.’ We conceived another child out of wed-lock. I don’t have a kid-collecting complex.’: Mom of 9 grateful for ‘the gift of motherhood’
“My water broke at 22 weeks. I spent weeks on bedrest at home with 4 kids under 4. We spent 8 weeks separated, me in a hospital bed, begging God to bring my boy into the world healthy.”
‘You must be sad you will never have a normal life.’ This person had pity for my son. It felt like a shot fired and received.’: Mom to son with autism urges ‘there is only joy and gratitude’
“That one shocked me. It snuck in my comments, buried amongst thousands. This person had pity for my son. Pity for our situation. They saw him and saw sadness.”