‘I got my bags in the car. ‘Don’t worry, I’m NOT going to come home wanting to adopt.’ My husband shook his head. I was so nervous, I was going to puke. I wasn’t sure WHY I was going.’

“It was a normal Tuesday. I looked down to see them calling. ‘They will have his visa ready on THURSDAY!’ I replied, ‘Like in 2 days, THURSDAY?’ Tears started streaming down my face. ‘WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?’ I couldn’t speak. All I heard was, ‘Book your flight. Go get your son.’”

‘People told me to get a second opinion because there was ‘no way’ I could be diabetic. I wasn’t ‘fat’ enough and I didn’t eat enough sugar, so the doctor HAD to be wrong.’: Girl finds out she has Type 1 diabetes after years of feeling sick

“After telling them all my symptoms, they put me on hold. When they picked back up, their voice seemed urgent. ‘Go to University Health Services as soon as they open in the morning. Don’t wait for an appointment. Don’t eat or drink anything for the rest of the night.”

‘He had the Stanford medical degree, not me. I trusted him. Aren’t we supposed to believe the doctor? I was home alone when I got the call.’: Woman receives unexpected cancer diagnosis after colon surgery fallout

“I decided that day I was going to take my life. I knew I couldn’t survive chemotherapy and breast cancer alone, and I was too prideful to really ask for help. I decided killing myself would do my family and friends a favor. I was a liability, not an asset. I had gone from being a thriving mother, model and athlete to a sickly woman needing constant care. My life had crumbled.”

‘My husband was living a double life. I found YEARS of mail in his trunk. He changed the locks, abandoned me in a parking lot.’: Woman re-marries ‘amazing’ man she met on blind date, says ‘love always wins in the end’

“He had another daughter I didn’t know about. I did some digging and found empty pill bottles and beer cans in his car. The car that drove my child to daycare. At 32, I had to move back in to my childhood bedroom, so ashamed of myself. My daughter and I tried to make the best of our ‘vacation’ as I called it. My husband was an addict and con artist, and I got duped.”

‘Is he gone?!,’ I yelled. It wasn’t my husband. He was so excited to be a dad. He was born to be one. I held his hand, telling him how much his unborn son and I loved him.’: Wife loses husband right before giving birth

“Scott just started a new job. We bought a house and were moving. He started not feeling well, but we attributed it to the stress of everything changing in our life. He went to work after getting me settled in the hospital. When he came back, he looked pale. I told him to get some rest, I would be just fine.”

‘At my lowest point, I snapped and bought a gun. I was almost a school shooter.’: Man overcomes abusive childhood, bullying, ‘Kindness stopped me from doing the worst thing imaginable’

“When you’ve been told you’re ‘worthless’ enough times, you’ll believe it. I had no home and often slept outdoors. The isolation and bullying became unbearable. I wanted to feel an emotion other than pain. I wanted to feel, for once, like I was in control. If I’d possessed a rifle, I would have been a killer. If I’d known love, I would have never wanted a rifle.”

‘Are you OK tonight?’ I was in the grocery store bawling my eyes out. ‘This isn’t a forever feeling.’ I’m so grateful to you.’: Mom overcomes severe depressive episode thanks to kindness of strangers

“I was afraid to leave my house without my husband. ‘I know this is hard for you,’ he would say. ‘Can you tell yourself that you’re safe?’ ‘No,’ I would respond. I reached out as a bit of a last-ditch effort, right there in the grocery store, tears running down my face. The response was incredible. Those women saved me.”

‘An older man said to my sister, ‘Let me get a taste of that.’ He was sticking his tongue out and wiggling it. She instantly turned red. She was 12. He laughed and I did, too. I don’t know why, but I did.’

“This is what it REALLY means to be a man. It’s kissing my wife’s stomach and telling her she’s beautiful, even with her c-section scar and stretch marks. It’s telling my daughter ‘Honey, OWN that Jersey’ when she comes home from school crying after a boy told her to take it off because girls ‘don’t play’ sports.”

‘I cried as soon as I saw the tech’s pale face. ‘I feel sick,’ she said. ‘What other choice do we have?’ She looked like she could throw up.’: Twin ‘warrior princesses’ survive ‘fatal’ twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome

“We found out very early on. 7 weeks into the pregnancy, the doctor looked at the sonogram and said, ‘Twins!’ But that’s not all. They were going to share a placenta, but not an amniotic sac. ‘This is a very high-risk pregnancy. This could take the life of your girls.’ It was gut-wrenching news. We would do everything possible to fight, to save my girls. They had a 0% chance of survival.”

‘I really love you,’ he whispers. He hugs me and smiles as I put him to bed. ‘No, buddy. I love you more.’: Dad shares touching glimpses of fatherhood, ‘I will cherish this job forever’

“There’s a curtain. My wife and I on one side, Jude and the hospital staff on the other. I’m reassuring my wife she’s doing a great job. Just when I think she might literally break my hand, I hear it. Jude’s first cry. The nurses quickly rush to get him warm. He’s still crying. A nurse motions for me to come over. I lean in, whisper in his ear. ‘Hey buddy.’ He stops crying, opens his right eye, and we look at each other for the very first time.”