“‘Have you been notified of that boy’s roommate at the group home?,’ he asked. ‘We have not,’ I replied. ‘Would you be willing to meet him?’ 3 months later, he was moving in with us hours before his first day of high school. We found out I was pregnant by surprise. ‘This is crazy. We can’t do this, right?’ We were going to have 2 babies and a teenager with PTSD. Less than a year ago, we had no kids.”
‘His mom delivered another baby. She abandoned him at the hospital.’ It was a call we never expected.’: Woman adopts teen, his younger sibling born addicted to drugs, ‘Does this sound crazy? I think it does too’
‘Sweetie, you do that far too often. Stop apologizing for your family.’ Wait.’: Mom shocked by elderly woman’s reassuring kind gesture out in public
“When I’m in public, I’m constantly apologizing for our family. I whisper, ‘Shh, baby. No shouting please.’ But yesterday, a grandmother-type woman stopped me in my tracks.”
‘When’s the baby coming?’ My face turns red. I’m not pregnant. I miscarried back to back and gained 40 pounds in grief weight.’: Woman battling infertility reminds us ‘words have weight’
“I’m in Starbucks. I manage a smile and lie. ‘Soon.’ I rush out the door, no coffee in hand, and cry in my jeep. ‘When are you having kids?’ ‘Have kids already!’ ‘I’m ready to be a grandma. The clock is ticking!’ they say. But when I stillbirth? No questions, words. Just silence. My husband battles silent resent. ‘No baby, no marriage.’ These weren’t the vows I signed up for.”
‘Who’s that in the picture?’ A question that knocks the wind out of me every single time.’: Grieving daughter explains to young son that’s ‘Nana in Heaven,’ promises ‘she’s always there’
“I can’t ever prepare myself for the times my son will find her picture and ask who she is. It’s someone he should know. Once I catch my breath, I tell him the same story I tell him every time.”
‘You can bring your newborn to class,’ my Dean emails me. I was relieved, but afraid. Will he cry all the time?’: Mom takes newborn to law school classes, does ‘everything in my power’ to give children ‘opportunity to be successful’
“On the last trimester of my pregnancy, I talked with the Dean. ‘I don’t have any support system near me, my husband works full time and takes night courses. I’m supposed to graduate next year. I don’t want to fall behind.’ She looked me in the eyes and said, ‘Tell me who your professors are next semester. I will talk with them personally.’”
‘What if she doesn’t make it?’ Her life was spinning out of control. She was holding on for one more day.’: Man takes in sister’s kids after diet-related death, loses 125 pounds to extend lifespan to parent them
“If Rachel did not survive this battle, I had to be there for her children—Sophia and Henry—who meant the world to her. I had no choice but to be healthy. While my sister could not control her cancer diagnosis, I could control the food I was putting in my body every day.”
‘I found out devastating news. She’s in jail, permanently lost custody because she’s an addict. Crystal meth.’: Mom too wrapped up in her own ‘self-loathing’ to see past friend’s ‘mask’ of why she was so thin
“I walked in the door of their beautiful, suburban dream house. I looked up to see a woman whose body would’ve made Heidi Klum look like a hobo. She was so thin. She looked tired, as you would expect, but there wasn’t an ounce of baby weight left on her barely a few months postpartum. I instantly judged myself.”
‘I loved my older cousin. At 8, I learned the only way to be friends with him was to have sex with him.’: Daughter and mother in addiction recovery together after years of childhood trauma, ‘If that isn’t wonderful, I don’t know what is’
“I remember the bright red carpet in his closet. This ongoing ‘event’ became our secret, I held onto this secret for close to 15 years. I never got over what happened to me, I stuffed it so far down. This has been the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life. I finally surrendered. I had enough. I needed to give myself a chance to live.”
My Phone Fell Into A Manhole, And A Chick-Fil-A Employee Voluntarily Rescued It
“Service with a smile. Just another day at Chick-fil-A.”
‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ Shizzing yourself at your job interview. That’s what.’: Woman hilariously shares ‘mortifying’ accident, hopes it can ‘make someone smile’
“I felt a bead of sweat roll down my face. My stomach started making beastly growls. I got to my feet to rush to the bathroom when I heard a knock. ‘Hello, Mrs. O? It’s so nice to meet you.’ Shiz. Shiz. Holy shiz. It was too late. I was trapped! Suddenly, I felt hot flashes and bubbles. My body was going to DO THE DAMN THING. Needless to say, I didn’t get the job.”
‘Are we still getting married?,’ she looked at me in tears. She wanted to protect me.’: Man loses wife to stage 4 cancer months after wedding, ‘I have a huge hole in my heart’
“We had already chosen our wedding date. We had booked our venue, sent out save-the-dates. The doctors encouraged us to move it up, fearing the worst. But we decided no matter what, we weren’t changing it. 3 weeks before, she lost her hair again. ‘I fell in love with you when you were bald,’ I told her. She was absolutely stunning walking down the aisle. I felt like the luckiest person in the world. Right before her 30th birthday, we decided to give up all treatment and enjoy the time we had left.”
‘It’s not where the work happens. It’s just our rest stop and place to refuel.’: Woman encourages others to realize church is not where Christians really need to be
“It’s in striving to understand and love those who see the world differently, and believe different things than we do. It’s in inviting those who are standing alone into our conversation, even if it makes you feel sweaty and awkward. It’s in standing up for what is good and noble and true.”
‘I’ve read your letter. Don’t worry, we’ll get through this.’ It actually meant, we’ll try to ‘fix’ you.’: Young trans man finds ‘strength’ and ‘identity’ while transitioning from female to male
“‘I am upset I won’t be able to walk my daughter down the aisle like I’d always hoped.’ They asked, ‘Why can’t you just be a butch lesbian?’ My great grandmother’s response when I walked in was, ‘Oh isn’t he handsome!’ All she wanted was to make sure I was happy. I can’t tell you how much that meant to me.”
‘Stop telling moms they ‘have no excuse’ to not be skinny. Being in shape doesn’t mean I’m a better person.’: Mom claims we shouldn’t ‘feel pressured to punish our bodies’
“Oh, you lost all your baby weight and started exercising 2 weeks after giving birth? Great, but I just gave birth and my vagina in still swollen and bleeding. You have 3 kids and wake up at 4 a.m. to exercise? Impressive, but sometimes depression means I’m just trying to get through the day without giving up on life.”
‘Is this meal for a boy or a girl?’ My son is rough and tumble. But he also likes Barbies.’: Mom shocked by gender bias in McDonald’s Happy Meals, ‘Let the child choose’
“On our way home from the ER, I stopped to get my children lunch. The attendant asked me the usual questions. I have a child of each gender. Boys get Hot Wheels, girls get Barbies. My bruised-eye boy likes Barbies and playing with them doesn’t make him less of a man.”
‘You’ll never have to bury our kid’s father again. You can get through this.’ Little did I know.’: Woman loses 2 lovers to tragic accidents, says ‘becoming a mom’ is the best thing she’s ever done to carry on their legacy
“James called to tell me he would be a while longer, it was already getting dark. He said, ‘I love you kitty, I’ll be home late.’ I can see myself standing in the kitchen on the phone with him, I can feel the emotion like it’s happening now. When the phone rang around 11 p.m., I knew he was dead. It was happening all over again.”
‘I can’t do this,’ I muttered to myself. I was only 22, unmarried. I didn’t want my boyfriend to feel trapped.’: Young mother doesn’t believe she’ll be ‘punished’ for ‘having a baby out of wedlock’
“I was terrified, ashamed. I cared too much about walking around with a large stomach and no ring on my finger. My boyfriend and I had only been dating a little over a year. I’d been indoctrinated with the belief that what was happening to me was a sin that would tarnish me for the rest of my life.”
‘Oh my Gosh! I’m crying in Aldi’s! Please judgy cashier, keep walking past. Screw these bags.’: Mom caught off guard, brought to tears in grocery store after realizing she was ‘missing my partner’
“Clearly, I was not mentally prepared to grocery shop this morning. Something wasn’t right. The drive was short and quiet. I quickly got out of my car with everything I needed. Really, it was an Aldi shopping success…. until I reached the bagging counter. That’s when it struck me, why I was so off. For the first time in 9 years, I was missing my partner.”
‘By the time I was 3 months pregnant, I had enough, and he moved out. I was so mad at him.’: Woman admits she ‘wasn’t prepared for this’ after unexpected pregnancy, but has now ‘fallen more in love’ with her fiancé every day
“A crazy pregnancy monster entered my body and took over my brain. I felt suffocated. I didn’t like the changes that come with having a significant other around all the time. I missed my peace and quiet. I certainly didn’t like all the new ‘friends’ I was supposed to now have. I was having an out of body experience. Saying I didn’t love him, and I couldn’t do this anymore.”
‘I’m not scared to die. I’m scared to be forgotten.’ I had no words, just tears.’: 28-year-old widow gets sign from husband in heaven, ‘I’m okay Mama Bear, I made it, I’m now pain free’
“He was slowly beginning to wake. I couldn’t wait to see his big brown eyes. I wasn’t expecting the first thing out of his mouth to be, ‘So, how did things go?’ I still hadn’t come up with the best way to tell him. I knew I wouldn’t be able to lie. The room once again was silent. ‘Kyle, I love you. We will get through this together.’”
‘I’m a teacher. I’m his mother. How did I not know?’ I saw him crying at his desk.’: Mom shocked to learn her son is ‘profoundly dyslexic,’ urges other parents to ‘trust your instincts’
“I sat in the waiting room hoping a pair of glasses would be my silver bullet fix. Unfortunately, what I was met with is something I’m embarrassed to retell. Aiden wiped away tears. ‘You mean my brain isn’t broken?,’ he asked. ‘No buddy. Far from it.'”
‘I had a hard time clothing her. I was sure I’d break her neck.’: New mom recalls ‘mean, vicious cold days’ in throes of postpartum anxiety
“I had been placed in a small, windowless hospital room that was 80 degrees. I was rotating between sweating because I was warm to shivering from having cold sweats. The medicines from labor were messing with me. I tried to keep it together but whenever a nurse left my room, I burst out crying. There was so much paperwork to fill out. I was alone.”
‘The cancer unit? How’d this go from ‘Hawaii 5-0’ to ‘Fighting-4-Life’ in 24 hours? This can’t be right.’: Dad insists he’ll be ‘taking my family to the top, whatever it takes’ despite infant daughter’s Down syndrome diagnosis, then cancer battle
“‘I will not be leaving her side,’ I responded in the clearest daddy-bear tone I had. Dad’s on guard. It was the look in the new doctor’s eyes that told me, I needed to go. I kissed my perfect baby girl goodbye. I’m the bug being drawn into the glowing light of the bug-zapper. Like a true ‘lamb-to-the-slaughter’ walk.”
‘Prepare to say goodbye to at least 1 of your children.’ It’s inconceivable.’: Twin mom feels both ‘joy’ and ‘pain’ after 1 twin dies and the other survives
“It was the only time we had with her. We were able to hold her and see her sweet face, it was beautiful. ‘Everything happens for a reason. At least you have one.’ They are poking the wound. The gravity of what happened to us is too hard for people to imagine.”
‘You know mom, teachers should never be mean like that. It’s so bad.’: Mom shocked by young son’s ‘super tender heart’ after revealing her teacher bullied her
“I said, ‘You’re so lucky to have such a nice teacher. When I was in third grade my teacher didn’t like me. When my desk would get really messy, she would take my desk in front of the whole room and dump it upside down and make me clean it all back up.’ I thought he’d be shocked or mad on my behalf, but nope. ‘That’s just so sad mom.'”