“When he got off the phone he said, ‘What do you think? Should we do this?’ I asked if he had seen what was on the wall and he said no. I showed him the picture. When he looked back at me, he had big tears streaming down his cheeks.”
‘I remember how dark and frigid the inside was. It was completely empty. Not one piece of furniture. Nothing. I wandered into a room off to the side. I walked towards it, and instantly got chills.’
‘My mother said, ‘Doesn’t it bother you that she won’t keep a cleaner house?’ It was a Saturday. I was working on the dishes. I didn’t know how to respond.’: Man urges ‘our marriage is a partnership’
“I remember my father giving me this advice about picking a wife: ‘Stop by her house unexpected. See how it looks in there. You can tell a lot about a woman by how she keeps her house.’”
‘I was home alone, in a complete panic. So, I flushed. And hoped my toilet wouldn’t clog. I hated myself. I mean, I FLUSHED my baby! And then it happened again.’: Woman goes through multiple miscarriages before having her rainbow babies
“Two days before my boyfriend’s birthday, something told me to check. I had not one single symptom. I got excited! This felt different. I made him sit down and open all of his presents early. He stared at it. Stared at me. And smiled. He was scared, I could see it.”
Behind Every Successful Woman Is A Tribe Of Women Who Could Choose To Compete, But Take The Higher Road Of Collaboration Instead
“A tribe of other women who refuse to get jealous. Who refuse to compare. Who refuse to belittle, or go low. Who refuse to gossip, or leave out, or hurt just to watch her crumble under the pressure.”
‘We started seeing a fertility specialist when I was 33-years-old. My levels were, as my doctor put it, ‘that of a 48-year-old.’ One egg was actually black in color.’
“I’ll never forget the phone call from our doctor. She said, ‘I’m so sorry Victoria, your donor really is like you, even her eggs are like yours.'”
‘If my mom wouldn’t have called the cops on my brother, I would have, without thinking twice. He is on a $10,000 unsecured bond. The person pressing charges—our mom.’: Sister emotionally details brother’s battle with addiction
“He made the decision to uproot his life and move 1,200 miles to become our full-time ‘manny.’ Sadly, today, I wouldn’t DARE leave her in his care.”
‘It was the middle of the night when I got this call. I sat in the basement, frozen and in shock. Please tell me this is just some virus that will go away next week.’
“We also noticed he had a bruise on his back from one of his Nerf gun battles that wasn’t going away. Nothing crazy, nothing that made us extremely worried at the time.”
‘She was always the star student. When the flapping started, we assumed even her excitement was advanced. Everyone thought I was nuts.’: Autistic daughter changes mom’s perspective on autism
“At Easter dinner when Campbell piped up, ‘We’re about to enjoy a beautiful feast with our friends and family,’ I was met with many an eye roll—this girl was fine. But only I knew that line was taken right from a book we had read months ago. You see, Campbell was a tricky one.”
‘There are only 34 cases ever on record. He is as rare as they come.’: Mother shares son’s harrowing journey with congenital heart disease
“I was anxious to make my way to the NICU. I walked into the very room our daughter had been in and instantly knew our situation was much different than before. The doctor didn’t waste a minute of my time trying to sugar coat the situation.”
‘They can’t do anything else? That’s the only option?,’ people asked me shocked, wide eyes. Making the decision to saw off a part of my body wasn’t something I planned on.’
“I took a bad tumble off a horse when I was a kid. My greatest fear was that I’d awaken from anesthesia – and realize with sinking certainty I had made a horrible, irreversible mistake.”
‘I remember the doctor asking, ‘Where’s your husband? He’s not going to be here to pick you up after you faint when I tell you, you’re having twins?!’ ’Wait, WHAT?!’: Mom has triplets after IVF
“Then we saw it up on the ultrasound screen – clear as day. THREE babies. She told us to consider reduction, a thought we couldn’t imagine. I couldn’t believe we had gone through so much to get to this point, and now a doctor was telling me to throw it all away.”
‘I remember that day so vividly. You called me, asked me very calmly to come home so we could talk as a family. I knew.’
“I ran to my best friend down the street, collapsed in their driveway, and part of me never got up.”
‘I dropped my baby into the water and flushed. My baby was gone. It was too late.’: Woman overcomes miscarriages to have beautiful rainbow baby
“It was 2 a.m. I needed to pee. I got out of the bed and knew something wasn’t right. I sat down on the toilet and I felt it. It slipped right out. I didn’t want to look. I knew what had just happened. I had to look. I reached down and picked my baby up out of the water. I panicked.”
‘It appears I have everything under control and life is a breeze. That ‘breeze’ is actually 80 mph hurricane winds, and I’m hanging on for dear life.’
“I cry. I WEEP into my cold coffee. The mom guilt consumes me and I feel like I’m failing my kids. I was also unaware that hemorrhoids can last for months at a time. I’m scared.”
‘I saw you hand over your note with sadness in your eyes. You looked at the pharmacist with fear as she read your details. You replied with the most defeated ‘no’ I’d ever heard.’
“I saw your knuckles turn white on that stroller handle bar. I saw you look down on your baby while it was starting to stir. ‘Please don’t cry,’ you whispered.”
‘It sounded like a freight train coming towards us. I swung open my door and began to run. When I finally broke out of the fire, I saw my crewmates were not behind me. I woke up a month later.’
“I ran up to one of the fire engines to look at myself in the mirror, but a firefighter pulled me away. They wouldn’t allow me to look at myself. I knew right then it must have been bad. Soon after that, it all went black.”
‘Jenn, you can do this!’ He was admitted to the hospital just 3 months before my due date.’: Husband supports wife through twin pregnancy despite cancer battle
“Our goal for that final month was to help him walk longer distances and get his strength up so that he could be at the birth. Even though he was sick and I knew that him dying was a possibility, I never thought it would actually happen.”
‘It’s all in your head. You just need to be happier. Go take a walk, be a ‘normal’ 20-something.’ I had just woken up, still bleary-eyed from anesthesia. These were the words my doctor said to me.’
“I laid there and sobbed, how could it have come back normal? After hearing enough doctors downplay my symptoms, watching them roll their eyes as they told me it was ‘just gas,’ I stopped telling anyone how miserable I was.”
‘For the first 3 months everything seemed fine. At 4 months old, we noticed her soft spot looked different and started bulging from her head. Then, our lives changed forever.’
“One morning, Ellie woke up in extreme pain. We rushed to the ER. The MRI would give us news that would completely devastate our family. It never gets easier to watch her in pain when all you want to do, in your job as a mom, is take their pain away.”
‘I’m worried about him getting this surgery. He doesn’t need to do this.’ I remember them telling me, ‘Just focus on your breathing,’ as they put the mask on me, and I was put to sleep.’
“The doctors said to my mother, ‘It’s time for you to say your goodbyes, there is really nothing else we could do.’ Up until this point, my mom had always been on top of the plans, making sure things were done perfectly. But now in the chaos, she was disorganized and unsure of everything. Then, a miracle happened.”
‘Every couple has fought on the way to a party, only to step out of the car smiling. We post pictures of our kids melting down, but never share photos crying after an ugly argument.’
“We have a wonderful marriage. But we also have bad days where I dread the sound of his car pulling into the garage. When I’m really mad, I imagine what my life would look like as a single mom. This is normal. It’s OK.”
To The Man Who Made Fun Of My Weight, I’m Only Sorry I Couldn’t Take Up More Space
“I think we have all said something unkind at one time or another, and this is just a reminder that we do not know the battles people are fighting and that we just need to be a little kinder to each other.”
‘A boy said I shouldn’t wear shirts that show my scars. He said they are scary,’ she sobbed.’: Mom teaches daughter in cancer remission self-worth with beautiful photo shoot
“On a rushed morning, I threw her a tank top and asked her to get dressed. She quietly asked me for a different shirt. Oblivious and in a hurry, I said, ‘Why? You love that one. Just put it on, we gotta go.’ Tears formed in her eyes.”
Society Needs To Stop Judging Postpartum Bodies So Harshly
“Imagine if we just spent time appreciating all that we can do, the amazing life-creating vessels that we are, instead of trying to scrub, wrap and hide all that we have done.”
‘He said, ‘I know she can’t go home,’ and was quiet the rest of the ride. He sat beside her, so happy to see her, saying how much he loved her.’: Woman shares love story between parents as mom battles dementia
“She was staring straight ahead. That didn’t matter to him. He was back with his Mary Jane. I noticed it was quiet. I look over and Dad is laying on her shoulder sobbing – not crying, sobbing. After my tears started, I went in their bathroom wanted to scream. So these are the golden years?”