‘We will love you no matter what, even if you decide not to stick around.’ I was scared of losing her. I finally reached my breaking point.’: Gay mom suffers postpartum anxiety after struggling with infertility, ‘I desperately wanted to be understood’

“I finally reached my breaking point. My wife was getting ready to leave town for work. I had a panic attack and Brittany had to cancel her trip. It was hard for her. She didn’t know how to help me. It hurt her to see me struggling, I could see it in her eyes. I was embarrassed. I wanted someone to say, ‘You’re not alone, it happened to me too.’”

‘I’m so scared to be trans. I don’t want it to be true.’ I’d stare at myself and ask, ‘Who are you?’: Young man goes through coming out process, learns he’s transgender, ‘I finally feel free in my body’

“I was extremely scared to tell my mom. After I sent the text, I held my head over the toilet because I thought I’d puke. It was a whole day before my mom finally answered. My girlfriend texted her, ‘Please answer him, he needs your love and support.’ My mom did not like it and refused to call me her son. ‘You should dress more like a girl.’ I told her, ‘This doesn’t change who I am, this is who I’ve always been.’”

‘I was single, broken, and had no money. I didn’t plan on loving anybody. Then, I met ‘her.’ I froze.’: Man shares happy ending with wife after chance meeting, ‘she is my greatest gift’

“When I met her, I froze. I felt like I’d known her forever, how could I have? I was broken, with nothing to offer any woman. I prayed fervently, ‘Please, get her OUT of my life.’ I was afraid. Collectively, we drove over 50,000 miles to get to one another. I rented cars, took a bus, borrowed cars, and even tried to take the train. She chiseled me out of myself, out of my hurt, out of my fear.”

‘He was only 2-years-old. She was only 5-months-old. It was as if they knew. I never witnessed anything like it.’: 47-year-old mother fosters, then adopts siblings, celebrates ‘resiliency’ of children

“We received a call from a very desperate young man named Jonathan. ‘My wife is not properly caring for our 4-month-old son.’ He very was concerned about the welfare of his baby and convinced his wife to allow us to help. My husband and I are 47-years-old, we are sometimes mistaken as the grandparents. We know we probably won’t have an empty nest and that’s just fine with us.”

‘I’m bisexual.’ My husband looked at me. ‘Yeah, I figured.’: Couple realizes their mixed-orientation marriage has given them more ‘love, acceptance, intimacy’ than many couples

“When my husband and I got married, he thought he was marrying a heterosexual woman. I thought that, too. ‘Is this weirding you out?’ I had a streak of fear. I ordered my first chest binder, a vest, and slacks. My husband saw me trying it on in our bedroom. ‘Oh cool, you remembered to leave the bottom button of the vest undone!’ He exclaimed. ‘Can I borrow the tie you wore at our wedding?’ He helped me tie the tie. ‘You look good,’ he winked. That night, he helped me buzz my hair.”

‘He got cold feet on our wedding day. ‘You aren’t worthy of me.’: Woman takes ‘leap of faith’ and escapes domestic violence, re-marries ‘amazing man, father’

“He said, ‘I made you a mother and nobody else would ever marry you.’ He spit on my face. I worried about how others saw divorce. I looked at my life and my innocent girls who didn’t deserve the hand I dealt them, and suddenly I saw the reality of our situation. I chose to JUMP! My daughters were better off with a divorced, living mother, than a dead, married one.”

‘You’re stupid, and you’re worthless, and you’re a failure, and you should just die.’: College graduate discusses battles with Depression and PTSD

“My own self-worth was now completely dependent on how well I was doing in school. I turned to binge drinking and partying on the weekends to cope with the immense pressure I felt throughout the week. I did not know how to express my pain or ask for help, I only knew to bottle things up and press on, and so I did. I felt dead inside already, I’d hit my rock bottom. I decided I was going to get serious help.”

‘She gets no sleep at all. She has no time for herself. She intentionally loses herself in him so he knows he is loved.’: Husband pens sweet mom appreciation letter to ‘fierce’ wife

“Labor pains, breastfeeding, postpartum hormones. She looks at herself in the mirror, wondering if her body will ever look the same again. I thought I knew what motherhood entailed. Like most new dads, I only experienced it as an outsider. I saw my mother, sister, and friends do it. I got the gist of it. Or at least I thought I did. But what I didn’t know was how little I really knew.”

‘We won’t have a little voice waking us up Christmas morning, no opening presents. We put up lights, even though they can’t express their excitement.’: Special needs mom shares reality of Christmas season, ‘Our babies are the gift’

“Our Christmas is different than yours. We get no excited screams when they see what Santa brought. It’s struggling with gift ideas. What do you get a non-mobile, non-verbal child? It’s walking past all the cool toys at the front of every store, wishing our child could play with them. Our Christmas is different, but it’s still so magical.”

‘We can’t do anything else.’ I was 18 with a deceased baby. They pulled a drain tube out and her little belly filled with blood.’: Teen loses daughter to congenital heart disease, donates 455 oz. of breast milk to save sick NICU babies

“She had open heart surgery at just 1 day old. I was terrified. My little girl was on full life support. ‘Why would God give me a sick baby?’ She was bleeding out. I decided to turn something so painful into something beautiful. Even though I couldn’t save my baby, I decided I could save others.”

‘Wait. Is this normal?’ He turned his neck. My first thought, as a mama of 10, was lymph node. Then, I touched it. I knew.’: Mom admires 11-year-old son’s tenacity during cancer battle, ‘Told you I’d live’

“My husband and I decided to stop fooling around. I loaded up 10 kids, rented a house in another state, and we hit the road. I waited for the final lab reports. I was making sandwiches. I’ll never forget which step I was on, because that’s how they stayed. Pregnant with our 11th baby, the surgeon’s number popped up on my phone. He asked me to walk away from the children. My heart screamed, ‘NOT MY BABY.’”

‘I didn’t need his permission. I closed my eyes, clicked a button, and finally put an end to my pretending.’: It’s been one year since I stopped faking it on social media

“I posted our most recent family photos, and the comments poured in about how ‘perfect’ my family was. I knew things needed to change. I didn’t want people to just like my photos, I wanted them to like me, all of me—even the painful, grieving parts. I am a child who was abused by her father at 3 years old. A teenager who was the victim of statutory rape. I found my husband unresponsive on the floor with a failing heart.”

‘Yes, Meg. The baby is healthy, stop worrying.’ Coward. She knew. I saw it and felt sick. I didn’t want to hold her.’: Mom unknowingly births baby with Down syndrome, ‘I want to shout her worth to the world!’

“I grabbed a nurse’s arm as she walked by. ‘What’s wrong, is she okay?’ Stumbling over her words, she responded with, ‘Congratulations, she’s beautiful!’ Coward. She handed her to me before quickly walking out of the room, like she was some kind of damaged goods. Her tongue could barely fit in her mouth. I didn’t want to hold her, feed her, or even look at her. I was furious. All I could hear was that damn whispering.”

‘Your wife had a serious head trauma. She may not make it.’ I was covered with tubes and he lost it.’: Woman survives horrific car accident, gets married the same date of accident a year later to ‘redeem the day’

“3 weeks after getting engaged, I was T-boned by a Mac truck. ‘If this continues, we’ll lose her.’ He lost it. As he entered the room, he noticed my engagement ring had been removed. I was covered with tubes. He expected to recognize me. He didn’t. He held my hand and told me I was beautiful. ‘I want to marry you today more than I did the day I proposed,’ he told me.”

‘You’re too young to be so serious.’ ‘It won’t last.’ I ignored it all. I knew deep down it wasn’t just puppy love.’: Teen mom marries young, births 2 kids despite criticism, ‘When you meet the love of your life, you’ll know’

“I met and started dating my husband at 16. I was infatuated with this boy I met at the mall, with Justin Bieber hair. ‘You’re 16. It won’t last forever.’ ‘Be prepared to do this on your own. Babies are hard on couples, especially so young.’ ‘We’re very happy for you, but do you think this is a good idea? To get married? You’re too young.’ Whether you’re 15, or 50, when you meet the love of your life, you will know right away. I’m so glad I didn’t listen.”

‘My mom loves to decorate at Christmas. It’s a big deal to her. She begged me to go outside to make sure they were ‘just right.’ I didn’t want to.’: Daughter ‘couldn’t care less’ about holidays, but realizes ‘there’s always a reason to share genuine human spirit’

“Christmas? Forget it. It’s not for me. I like the quiet. For a girl like me, holidays are overwhelming. But my mom loves to decorate. She puts up 5 Christmas trees. She goes all out. She begged me to go outside with her to look at them. I didn’t want to. I couldn’t care less. Just then it hit me. She cares. It’s important to her.”