“She stepped out of the room to give my OB a call. My mind went crazy. She must’ve been calling for backup. I was crying in complete confusion. Two? TWINS? No one gets pregnant and thinks ‘Yay! I’m going to have babies!’ It’s always, ‘Yay! I’m going to have A baby!’ But I had this strange feeling in my chest.”
‘There’s not just one healthy baby. There’s TWO!’ My husband fell to the floor in shock. I had a huge pit in the bottom of my stomach. ‘There must be some mistake!’
‘Caleb fell off the couch. Something is wrong,’ my babysitter’s boyfriend told me. My heart stopped! ‘I’ll be right there!’ She was holding my son who was NOT crying. His eyes were closed.’
“I went back to work after maternity leave. I felt pretty good about the babysitter I found. She had a baby of her own whom she stayed at home with. I met her boyfriend (father of her baby). For two weeks, I went over on every lunch to check on him. Then I got the phone call.”
‘You’ve asked me where I’ve been. You said, ‘I seem off.’ You’ve told me through texts that you miss my posts. I can’t play that role in your life right now.’
“You’re thinking: ‘How are we supposed to know if you don’t tell us?’ It doesn’t work like that, at least not for me. I haven’t been there recently. Have you noticed? I don’t have it in me.”
‘Somebody stop that dog!’ I was in the right place at the right time. Cars zoomed by. I dove for the dog on asphalt.’: Retired professional Nike distance runner joins selfless community effort to save lost dog
“I spotted a large white, fluffy dog. There was no owner attached to his leash, and the dog was running frantically down the middle of a busy intersection. We ran in dress shoes, heels, and sneakers until we had blisters. The next 3 miles were a blur. We were shouting, but most of all, determined.”
‘We’re going to stay until the courts tell us we can’t keep her. We have to see it through for her, no matter what.’: Foster mom gains custody of little girl after 2 years raising her, ‘Our family is finally complete’
“The Army told Jason it was time to move, but she wasn’t legally free. With tears in his eyes, he wrapped me in his arms and said, ‘We’re ripping our family to shreds trying to keep it together. But we can’t leave her.’ The boys hadn’t even heard what we decided; they simply rallied to their sister. They humbled me right down to my core.”
‘You don’t understand, they will never help your family.’ I was blown away. He was getting worse by the day. ‘I’ve never had an experience like this before,’ the crisis worker apologized.’
“On my way home I received the phone call. It was totally incoherent from all the screaming. I desperately tried to find out what was happening. It was my daughter. ‘It’s Josh,’ I finally heard through the screams.”
‘But you don’t look sick.’ My mom said, ‘There is no way, the chances are so low, it would be very rare.’ She was right. The risk is less than one percent, but I fell into that percentage.’
“They get sad and say, ‘but you’re so young!’ You never truly know what people are going through. I had family members tell me, ‘We’re sorry for not visiting, but it was too hard to see you go through this.’ Or that seeing me would make it ‘all too real.’ It is real.”
‘Why are you wearing a T-shirt?,’ I asked when I picked her up. ‘I had to put something on because I need privacy.’ She started bawling.’: Mom urges daughter’s appearance is ‘not nearly as important as her education’
“‘Yeah, it will be nice out, you can wear a dress.’ It didn’t occur to me an adult would look at my 5-year-old child and think wearing a dress was inappropriate. She was told she needed to leave class and go to the nurse’s office. The nurse told her, ‘She needed to cover her body.'”
‘I awoke from the anesthesia. ‘Is it closed?’ My family nodded. I feared passing it to my kids.’: Sister surrogate births twins in wake of sibling’s infertility battle, ‘I couldn’t be more proud of her!’
“I questioned whether I’d ever have boyfriends, if someone would ever love me enough to marry me. I was weird looking. I was different. I kept telling myself I didn’t need kids. Then, I met a man and my life did a 180. I wanted a family and kids so badly.”
‘I realized my worst nightmare had come true. I was truly alone, ‘white-knuckling’ it. I did a 180 and completely turned my life around. Or, so I thought.’
“I’m now a successful and contributing member of society, with a picture-perfect life. However, looks can be deceiving – because I had a secret.”
‘I was the victim of a rape. I had a professor who propositioned me, a boyfriend who passed away, a stalker, and cancer—twice. I’m no stranger to a painful past.’
“Easter is about waiting. I know, that sounds absurd. This is a holiday about a Friday free from work and fake grass you’ll be finding around your house for the remainder of the year. It’s about Peeps and your people. A guy on a cross and a guy in a (rather scary) bunny suit. Jesus waited 3 days; it took me 33 years.”
‘I blurted out, ‘I think I’m pregnant.’ I’ll never forget her face. She offered no support, wouldn’t hug me, she was ice cold. ‘How was this possible?’ What did I do wrong?’
“Who could I trust to tell? I tried calling my mom, to no avail. She was cold and distant. It hurt. After my appointment, I came home, threw on Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Stay Together,’ and danced around the house with my daughter. I was going to be a mother. I was keeping her.”
‘I lent a friend money. It’s gone.’ I started to feel ill. It turns out, my husband hadn’t lent the money to a friend at all.’: Woman strives to ‘forgive’ husband over ‘camgirl’ porn addiction
“We’re broke. We’re $100 thousand in debt.’ He sent it to an online ‘camgirl.’ He is a porn addict, and has been since before he met me. I sat stunned, staring at him. Today is the one-year anniversary of the day my life fell apart.”
‘It smashed everywhere. Sometimes the smallest thing is the last straw. He messaged me. ‘I have limited time left.’ I recall saying, ‘We will see you next time.’ Looking into his eyes, I wasn’t sure.’
“We walked quietly to the room. We found two seats and moved them close to the bed. You think you will say the right things, but you don’t in those moments. I was speechless.”
‘Oh, my goodness.’ I say out loud. ‘What mommy?’ I look down at my daughter. ‘Oh nothing,’ I say. The last thing I need is for my kindergartner to be afraid to go to school.’
“The hairs on my neck stood up for the first time. After picking my daughter up from school, I got a text message from my husband, a principal. ‘We’re in lockout,’ it said. It was unprecedented. Suddenly, it felt serious.”
‘Why do you want to adopt Shiloh?,’ the judge asked us. I’ll never forget what my husband said. ‘It’s the paperwork catching up to hearts. She IS our daughter,’ he responded.’: Couple elated to officially adopt daughter
“Our normally bouncy Shiloh was quiet and only wanted Daddy. She just wanted to be still. At only 2 years old, she couldn’t verbalize her feelings. We couldn’t help her understand what was happening. She could sense it was something big, and that all eyes were on her.”
‘You grab a baby wipe to get the peanut butter off your leggings and pack it in the pocket on the door with umpteen other tissues and trash. She’s got it made.’
“She’s got it made. That’s what we think as we notice the mom who just parked beside us and got out of her brand new (and clean) SUV, sporting crisp, ironed clothes, coordinating shoes, and an Italian leather handbag.”
‘You are donating your kidney, correct?,’ the nurse asked. ‘That’s what my kidnappers said,’ I cracked. The color was draining from my face.’
“‘Honey, are you sure you want to do this?’ I was terrified. I hadn’t even started a family. What if I got sick in adulthood? What if my husband did? The drugs were kicking in. My husband’s floating head was the last thing I saw.”
‘My son was screaming, ‘That thing on her chest popped!’ Have you ever taken a bandage off a 4-year-old? Like giving a cat a bath.’: Brother ‘never leaving’ little sister alone after dad dies
“My son came in. He knew he had to act. He took a bandage from the counter and presented his little sister with a simple question. ‘If I put this bandage on me, and let you take it off, will you let Mom take off yours?’ She pondered the idea, then nodded in agreement. He was going to protect her forever.”
‘Here I was, a 3-month-old in hand, her father leaving because he couldn’t handle my postpartum depression.’: Young mom overcomes suicide, ‘Bliss lies on the other side of pain’
“On Christmas night, I sat on my empty floor, no tree, no presents, just silence. I saw a kitchen with hardly any food. The only items I had to my name were a bag of clothes and a computer. I looked at my daughter sleeping so sweetly, and something deep inside me broke. I told my daughter that night would be the last night. She didn’t deserve any of this.”
‘Calm down, it’s not like you’re gonna see the guy you robbed.’ Well guess what. I walked up to the church, and guess whose face I saw? The man I had just robbed. He was the greeter.’
“I couldn’t get out. I was terrified. I walked up to him with tears in my eyes, and he gave me a hug. ‘You are in the right place,’ he told me. ‘When I was your age, I was doing the same thing.’ I had no idea he was in recovery. That I was the first time I believed there was hope for me.”
‘We sound like the beginning of a bad joke. A Black, Transracial, Mennonite Adoptee and a White Mennonite Midwesterner walk into a bar…’: Young woman reflects on her unique marriage
“Eight years ago, I got in a car at midnight to eat bad cheese fries at a sketchy truck stop. I took a chance to be vulnerable with someone I didn’t know. And, it changed my life.”
‘We’re sorry. It’s cancer.’ We’ve spent 150+ nights in the hospital. I quit my job. My husband ran out of sick days.’: Mom’s newborn diagnosed with Leukemia, community sacrifices sick days to help
“We noticed a shift in our bubbly girl’s personality. Kinsley stopped sleeping. She had a diaper rash we couldn’t control. She was constantly fussy and the days seemed like years. They continually told me it was average baby things, that she was teething, she was fine, this was normal. There was nothing normal about it. My mom instincts were on high alert.”
‘I bought every plaid skirt I could find, because Cher wore plaid skirts in ‘Clueless.’ I shopped at Express and pretended to like the movie ‘She’s All That.’
“When I was in junior high, I wore Tommy Hilfiger polos, Dr. Martens and I doused myself in CK One perfume, because everyone else was. I had no idea who I was. I became a continual copy-cat, and it continued into adulthood. I didn’t know any other way to be. I was exhausted.”
‘I was still being bullied. I developed a crush on a cute boy. He told me, ‘Here, take this. It will make you feel so much better. You won’t have any pain.’ I immediately felt like I was on cloud nine.’
“‘Momma, can I come back home?’ I remember thinking, ‘You can’t save me, it’s too late, I am slipping away quickly.’ She kissed my forehead. ‘You are stronger than you know.’ I never heard from my ex again.”