“I gently hugged my daughter. To be honest, it’s a question I’ve thought about daily for months. That’s the fear that comes with pregnancy after loss. I looked at her and smiled through tears. ‘She’s very healthy,’ I told my brave little girl. ‘That’s because Parker and Abby sent her to us,’ I said.”
‘Mommy, is this baby going to die?’ It caught me off guard, as if the wind was knocked out of me.’: Mom eases daughter’s mind about this ‘healthy’ baby after losing her brother, sister in NICU as micropreemies
‘She’s going to die soon. I’m just dating her out of pity.’ He had a girlfriend in another state. He was a horrible man.’: Single mom finds courage to leave abusive husband, new fiancé, to be ‘strong, thriving’ for 4-year-old son
“He took me out. We drank too much. I woke up the next morning in shock. I didn’t remember consenting to anything. We found out I was pregnant and I was terrified. Everything inside me was saying to detach from my son’s father. Instead, we did ‘the right thing’ and got married.”
‘It wasn’t like you see in the movies where you walk in a dark ally and get abducted by some stranger. This was my best friend.’: After years of denial, sexual abuse survivor accepts it wasn’t her fault
“I’ll never forget his words. There were no warning signs. No grooming. I remember wanting to scream, but not feeling like I could talk, so I made a mumbling noise. I didn’t want my body. I wanted to take it off like a jacket, but I couldn’t. I woke up the next morning with a huge bump on my head, my underwear backwards. I never wanted to be the girl who was raped.”
‘I held his tiny hand. I knew what was coming. We made the heartbreaking decision and waited for the chaplain arrive.’: Parents ‘devastated’ over loss of son born with Down syndrome, congenital heart defects
“He waited for his dad and I to be able to hold him before he went. I held him as the nurses took the ventilator, with his daddy by his side. I was Saxon’s favorite place to be. I was his safe space. I believe with all my heart, he waited for me.”
‘She’ll march into Kindergarten, without me. I won’t cry.’: Mom realizes the ‘fear’ of her daughter starting school is her own because ‘the world hasn’t gotten to her yet’
“Is she ready for school? Did we do enough? I have first day jitters just thinking about it. But when it comes time to part ways, there will be no tears from either of us.”
‘Girls shouldn’t play baseball. Stick to softball.’ The coach suddenly cut our daughter from the team.’: 7-year-old girl, MVP player gets dropped from baseball team after ‘advanced plays’
“Our daughter Ashlynn was MVP. Shortly after, the coach moved her to the bottom of the batter order. When we showed up at the next tryout, the team had already been selected without her. And the next tryout. It was so unfair what was happening. If we told her, we knew it would change how much she loved baseball.”
‘We had a long-distance marriage, and adopted a teenager. Yes, you heard that right. We adopted a 14-year-old teenage boy when I was 27 and my husband was 31.’
“‘Did we do the right thing?,’ I asked my husband, tears streaming down my face. People thought we were crazy. But he was saving us.”
‘We are critical of women who wear too much makeup. We are critical of women who are bossy.’: Mom insists it’s time to stop ‘constant criticism’ and ‘encourage instead’
“Anyone else exhausted, feeling like no matter how hard you try, you just can’t get it right? Like everyone is watching, waiting to tear them down? It’s time we stop forming cliques that leave people out, and start forming communities.”
‘This woman looks like crap! Want to intervene?,’ I shouted. Silence. I fell to the ground and cried.’: 25-year-old single mom feels like ‘crap’ after divorce, uses son as motivation to ‘stop pretending’
“How did my life land here? I was 24 years old and divorced. I was a college student and a mother, and suddenly, I was alone. ‘But isn’t it better than before you were divorced?’ is not a consolation. We’re afraid to admit the truth. Some days it’s unbearable. But I’m going to stop pretending.”
‘My mom came out of surgery. ‘Everything looks beautiful,’ the nurse said. Just 10 minutes later, my sister called screaming. My little mom was gone.’ Mom passes after heart surgery, brings family closer than ‘ever before’
“I remember my mom stepping into the house. She looked different, weak. She blamed it on eating bad bacon…yes, bacon. I talked to her about the possibility of having had a heart attack. She looked at me stubbornly and said, ‘So?’ We convinced her to go to the hospital. She went only for her ‘little angels,’ her great grandkids. We found ourselves in tidal wave after tidal wave of problems.”
‘We were 11,000 feet above sea level. I wanted to throw up. I instantly regretted this. But we’ve got to get that picture!’: Mom shares terrifying moment she ‘hated’ to encourage others to show their ‘true life’ moments too
“Our GPS was basically like, ‘You guys don’t want to go that way, PLEASE go this other way!,’ but we didn’t listen. Of course we wanted to go this way! I couldn’t get my balance. I was shaking with anxiety. But smile, everyone! Say cheese!”
‘Mom, why did we only get him for 3 years and not for a real, whole life?’: Mom urges parents to know ‘drowning happens, to real people, in seconds’ after son ‘slips away’ to pool 2 floors below
“I asked him for the hundredth time: ‘Do you ever go near the water without me?’ He shook his head adamantly and said: ‘No way, Mama. Then I wouldn’t see you again, and we would be so sad.’ I never imagined these words would come true.”
‘I was called ‘gay’ before I even knew what it meant. I have to be a strong papa to my girls. I can’t let them see I’m hurting.’ Gay father from deep south says he’s just like ‘any other family’, finds confidence after years of bullying
“My cousin called my mom screaming when she found out. ‘How can you be happy for him?!’ In public, we get looked at A LOT. It doesn’t matter if we’re at Olive Garden or Home Depot. It’s hard to turn a blind eye to the glares. As much as I wish I wasn’t bothered by my past, it comes bubbling back up. There’s something that happens to one’s confidence when they grow up in an environment like mine.”
She grabbed my finger and squeezed tight. My husband looked up to the monitor. ‘She has no heartbeat, baby!’: Mom pregnant with twins delivers 1-pound baby premature, brother born 11 days later
“I looked up at her doctor and said, ‘She’s gone, isn’t she?’ With tears in his eyes, he shook his head yes.”
‘I don’t see arms.’ The sonographer takes too long rubbing the wand over my belly. Everything goes silent.’: After ‘repeat miscarriages,’ mom births ‘miracle, rainbow baby’ with TAR Syndrome
“We told our family about Nicholas’ lack of arms. ‘Do you think you should keep him?’ That question BROKE my heart. Having to confront the fact others disagreed with me was as painful as my miscarriages. Was I sentencing him to a painful life? People who didn’t know would talk of all the things he’d accomplish. It all felt like lies.”
‘What? No hands?’ The Universe chose me to be Ivy’s mom.’: Mother learns of daughter’s limb difference, refuses terminating pregnancy because ‘she was ours to love, protect’
“Missing both forearms and hands. This felt like a punch to the gut. It stole my breath. My husband firmly, passionately said to me, ‘I’ll do whatever I have to do to take care of her. I’ll build her anything. I want her. I’ll do whatever it takes. I’ll take care of her for the rest of her life.’ He was right. She saw me and said, ‘Yes. I want her. I want HER to be my mommy.’”
‘My hands were shaking as I gripped my son’s tiny hand in the backseat. ‘Just hurry up and get to the hospital.’: Mom’s confusion after ‘idyllic’ newborn’s rare Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia diagnosis
“Talk about nerves. ‘He’s a calm little guy!,’ my OBGYN assured us as they whisked him away to be washed and weighed. It was love at first sight. Then, just a few days before celebrating one month on this earth with our son, we underwent an intense baptism into a new, unimagined kind of parenthood. Our son was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder.”
‘At 18, I hid an entire pregnancy all the way up to delivery. I refused to tell anyone. I was ashamed and afraid.’: Teen birth mom’s candid lessons learned after choosing adoption for her daughter, reuniting with her 18 years later
“After graduating high school just months prior, with a 5+ month baby belly hidden under my gown, I was rushed into ‘the next chapter.’ The pregnancy was over, and I just wanted to be a ‘good girl.’ No baby in my arms, I cut ties with her father. Then blink! I reunited with my baby days shy of her 18th birthday.”
‘I was holding hands with my boys when a friend shook his head at me. ‘Ya know, you’re raising them to be mama’s boys.’ Every hair on my arm stood up.’ Mom with all-boy tribe criticized for raising ‘mama’s boys’
“It was a neighborhood street, but the darkening sky and numerous curves made me a little nervous. So, I kept my boys close to me. And just like that, the cool air was replaced with hot steam billowing from my ears. He continued to list reasons why raising mama’s boys was a NEGATIVE thing. It was one of those Mama Bear moments you don’t see coming, but hits hard and fast.”
‘He always watched porn because ‘he wasn’t getting any.’ He started pressuring me for sex, belittling me in front of his friends.’: Woman raises sex trafficking awareness after suffering in her own abusive relationship
“I was told to make an effort to look better, dress in a sexy manner. He would show me the kind of pornography he enjoys. I found so many messages he sent to women he claimed were his ‘friends.’ When I confronted him about it, he laughed.”
My 18-Month-Old Was Diagnosed With Childhood Alzheimer’s
“As my daughter was giggling, bursting with love in the next room, I was learning she wouldn’t be growing up at all. I didn’t know diseases like this even existed, not to mention strike children. Our child.”
‘At 6, I learned what pure evil is. I knew something was wrong.’: Abused young woman ‘adopted’ by teacher who ‘actually got to know me’ during traumatic childhood
“My teacher was so nice and friendly. He would talk to me, and actually get to know me. I would go to his office during lunch because I didn’t have friends, money or a lunch to eat. My mom jerked us all the way across the country to live with a man she met on the internet. It took me 2 months to finally save money to go back home, and when I did, I went back to that same high school.”
‘I never thought I’d be calling my husband to inform him ‘it’s cancer.’ I sat on the phone in utter shock.’: 28-year-old woman diagnosed with breast cancer after noticing ‘blood stains in bra’
“I was too young to get cancer. There was no way. I was fit and healthy, currently in the best shape of my life training for a trip to Everest basecamp. I prepared my chemo bag. I was ready for this. But when I walked into the hospital and saw all the elderly ladies around me wearing head scarves, I instantly felt a fear I could not describe.”
‘I can’t breathe!’ The medics tried to calm me down. ‘I don’t want to die!’: Woman overcomes severe anxiety, loses 90 pounds after struggle with PCOS, infertility
“One year ago, I had one of the scariest nights of my life. It changed everything. I waited too long to get help, again. My brain was convinced I was having a heart attack, but the medics reassured me I was just having a panic attack. My chest was on fire and my heart felt like it was going to explode.”
‘Are those REALLY your brothers and sisters?’ She doesn’t miss a beat and proud as can be responds, ‘YES!’: Couple adopt 3 babies from foster care, ‘My house is crazy and so full of love’
“People ask, ‘Where did they come from? How much did you pay?’ They start looking all around, panicked, wondering where their ‘real’ parents. Your babies may not always come to you the way you imagined, but they will come to you in the way they’re meant to.”