“When he finally looked up from his phone, it was too late. I’m sure the message is clear here.”
‘She was at a dead stop in traffic. She looked in her rear-view mirror and saw a car coming full speed behind her. She braced herself.’: Mom warns about the dangers of texting and driving
‘My husband’s heart may have stopped beating, but after he flat-lined, he was revived. ‘How do I cope?,’ I get asked a lot. It really stumped me.’
“My husband has an infamous (and rather annoying) saying he likes to toss around, ‘It could always be worse.’ This is usually met with an exaggerated eyeroll from me, because my realist personality believes the opposite. ‘It could always be better.'”
‘It’s a secret I’ve been holding closely to my heart. Six years after being pregnant with our triplets, and then losing two of them, I am pregnant.’
“The tears have poured down my face, my heart racing as I finally share our news. Being pregnant after child loss is one of the most difficult things I have gone through in my life. To be honest, I was too scared.”
‘He is our wild child. Our rowdy, free spirited, change the world child who I contemplated co-sleeping with well into Jr. High. What would you think of him?’
“First I want to tell you, I didn’t always love you the way I do now.”
‘Good job Mommy. You came just in time.’ I asked her why. She replied, ‘I didn’t want Addison to feel bad that I have two daddies, and she only has one.’
“‘Why would she feel bad?,’ I asked. It was in that moment, I knew I would never have to worry about Emma missing a piece of her heart. It never left her. Unlike her younger siblings, she has two daddies that love her. Her daddy here at home, and her daddy in heaven.”
‘I threw my baby in a dumpster. No goodbyes, no tears.’
“My hands shook as I grabbed a Dixie cup and gently scooped this little piece of flesh, my heart, my blood, from its watery grave. A moment later, I left the bathroom. My little burden wrapped in paper towels, and put it in my purse.”
‘Your eyes were swollen to slits. Your lips looked like they had too much Botox. Your hands were squishy from fluid. I was the silent watcher.’
“‘Were you in a car accident?’ Every single day I get asked how I hurt myself. I usually try to laugh it off by saying, ‘Don’t I wish I got hurt playing sports.’ Sometimes people are okay with this answer. What happens though, when people are a bit more interested, and sincerely want to know what happened to you?”
‘I kept my pregnancy a secret. I knew coming home from the war would be tough, but I expected him to be a better father. He started drinking and blaming me.’
“I was working full time, coming home to a 2-year-old, while his dad played video games. My initial thought was ‘How??’ I saved the test to show their father. But that never happened. So I sent him a message. Straight to the point. ‘I’m pregnant.’ He packed all of his stuff, and was just gone.”
‘That girl wears so much makeup, she must be high maintenance. She’s pretty, so she’s dumb. I see an awful lot of claws out.’
“Growing up, I was often complimented that I was ‘not like other girls’. I loved to play sports, crack jokes and hang out with my brother’s friends. I put my hair in a pony tail and wore blue jeans. And I wasn’t like other girls. Because other girls were… Hmm. I don’t know, exactly.”
‘Our beautifully ‘normal’-looking child just cussed us out and threw a chair. That isn’t your fault any more than it’s mine, or his really. He isn’t a problem, but he is HAVING a problem.’
“When Karen says, ‘Ugh, my kids are so hard! They just called me ‘mean’ in Target. I was so embarrassed!’ I want to shake you and tell you how easy you have it and to hug your kids because they are freaking angels!”
‘Acid from the airbag burned my eyes. My first thought was, ‘Call Mom.’ I climbed out of my window, dripping in blood. ‘Mom, I crashed the car. I see cops coming. I love you.’: Man overcomes addiction, ‘I own my truth today’
“I walked to my church, 5 miles away in the freezing rain, knowing I may have just seen my father and mother for the last time. I sat in the fourth row. I stared down at the ground, tears still running down my face. I wanted to be able to apologize for what I was about to do.”
‘I was looking at my phone when my wife asked me a question. She was obviously irritated. She’d asked me the same question twice already. I’d responded ‘sure’ to a non-yes or no question.’
“I was only half listening, screwing around online. It’d been a long day at work. I wanted a mental break. My wife’s lips were drawn to a tight line, her right hand on her hip. So I put my phone down and tried a different approach.”
‘I felt like a building was collapsing on my chest. I had sharp pains. When I got up to get my screaming baby, I fainted. I couldn’t move, so I just sat until my husband came home.’
“I went to the hospital by ambulance and apologized to the paramedics. She asked me ‘why?’ I told her, ‘Because if I wasn’t having a heart attack, I’d feel bad I was wasting people’s time.’ We both laughed at how ridiculous it sounded. But I continued to apologize to everyone.”
‘I almost didn’t go in. I knew no one. All the women had head-coverings and I didn’t. I parked my car and prayed it was the right thing to do.’
“Tentatively, and with a teary catch in my throat, I asked ‘May I leave this sign?’ ‘Are you a Muslim?’ I said … ‘No, ma’am, Christian.’ To which she said — ‘We are all the same.’ I went in a stranger with a sign, and came out with a friend; hopefully for life.”
‘Okay, so which of you is the mother? There can only be one.’ She made a face when we gave both names.’: LGBT couple urge ‘love is what makes a family’
“The minute we met the daycare director, she asked if we were sisters. I dreaded saying we weren’t. We had our hearts set on this place. It checked all our boxes. After I clarified we were married, she just said, ‘Oh.’ There wasn’t a ‘spot’ for us. Our friends went in later that day and were offered a spot. The only difference? We were gay and they were straight.”
‘My mom went all out. I remember thinking how random it seemed. She tried so hard, wanting to make this nice dinner for us. We made fun of her for it.’
“I feel bad about it to this day. What we brushed off as her ditsy-ness was actually the first signs of the disease. I hate myself for the way I acted that day. I feel so bad and so guilty. It kills me.”
‘There are police officers in the hall. ‘I want them to hurt me, mommy! I want them to kill me with their guns!’ He started crying and hitting himself in the head.’
“‘I think he’s manic,’ I say. ‘His moods are rally erratic and I’m worried.’ The nurse looks at me skeptically. Who am I to know about ‘mania?’ It was stupid to bring him here. He has been through hell.”
‘After 15 years, the phone rang on a Friday morning. It was the case worker saying she had not one, but TWO babies. 6-week-old twins. ‘Would you take two babies instead of one?’
“An even bigger surprise was in store, a few years after we were put up for adoption, our birth parents, who were not together at the time of our birth, had reunited and later married.”
‘How could this be? My ultrasound nurse told me the baby DID NOT have Down syndrome. The nurse looked at me and asked, ‘Are you going to keep her?’
“I wanted to do the whole thing by myself. No doctor, no ultrasound, no hospital, no midwife. So I did. My close friends and family were definitely not fans. My husband went along with it knowing when I make up my mind to do something, that’s it. It’s done.”
‘I found out my marriage was a lie. He was unfaithful. I had been lied to for months. I spewed venomous hate towards him. I was numb. Then, I found out I was having a miscarriage.’
“We got married! I was so happy, I truly thought we were going to be okay. I had two amazing daughters, a rocking career, a husband who wasn’t perfect, but he tried. Then my world fell apart.”
‘As soon as she checked with the doppler she knew. And deep down I knew. I just prayed I was wrong. All I could get out is ‘why isn’t it flickering?’ They just said ‘we are trying to figure that out.’ Woman shares life after stillbirth
“I screamed, asking if it was her cord that caused it over and over.”
‘He slipped something in my drink. He had a razor blade. He ‘accidentally’ sliced my thigh. I took photos of the blood dripping down my leg. When I woke up, the photos were deleted.’Woman’s powerful story of overcoming sexual assault
“I met someone new. Someone who made me feel alive again. Six months later, I found out I was pregnant. Then I received devastating news.”
‘My husband and I met at Dixie Chicken. My neighbor thought he was cute, so I agreed to talk to him for her. Oops.’: Wife says ‘It was luck we got together, but it’s not luck we’ve stayed together’
“I was older. I was over the college scene. I’d been burned a few times. I had zero interest in boys, but my neighbor thought he was cute, so I agreed to go talk to him for her. Oops.”
‘Signing that consent form is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I lost my 8th child and my hope of ever conceiving naturally again.’: Woman strives to move forward after devastating pregnancy news
“The doctor told us ‘everything looks perfect!’ I went home expecting things to be OK.”
‘Is it normal to hate your baby?’ I was desperately begging for God to kill her. What’s wrong with me? I was terrified of what I would do to her.’: Woman overcomes ‘debilitating’ postpartum depression
“I decided I would talk to my OBGYN when I went for my next check up. Little did I know, I wouldn’t be able to make it until then. My mom was going to leave to go home and I begged her not to. I was terrified of what I would do.”