“When Erica didn’t act a certain way, she ‘punished’ her by showing favoritism to her other grandchildren and leaving Erica and Chris’ kids out.”
‘Chris came with baggage, his mother. To put it bluntly, she was toxic. From the moment Erica got serious with Chris, his mother was mad.’: Mom promises to never punish or mistreat son’s partners
‘I didn’t know who the father was. I continued to use drugs, until I received life-changing news. I was not expecting one baby, or two.’: Woman overcomes addiction, gives birth to triplets
“I began prostituting, and living out of hotels. When my daughter was 1-year-old, I left my 5th rehab facility and began getting sick. I assumed this was related to my hepatitis C. It wasn’t.”
‘My son has until this Tuesday to turn himself in. I love you, Josh. But the DEVIL returned this year. I made the decision to send my son to jail.’: Mom makes difficult choice to call police on son battling addiction
“Yesterday he called. He wanted to come home. He even gave me the address where he was staying. I made the most difficult decision; I called the police to let them know where he was.”
‘The neck of my womb was open and was 100% effaced. I locked myself in my bathroom and refused to talk to my partner, the midwives or doctors.’
“My baby was struggling through contractions and distorting her head trying to get out. I screamed, cried, swore and kicked as I couldn’t understand what was going on.”
‘When you hear, ‘twin one is fine, but…’ your life is about to change. When I finally saw him after his birth, I could hardly process the absence. It was a blank, featureless canvas.’
“When I woke hours later, my partner and I were met by the serious face of one of the pediatricians. There is no way to explain how I felt at that moment, other than devastated. I was convinced I must have done something during my pregnancy to cause this.”
‘His eyes would shake back and forth. He started throwing his head back, screaming at the top of his lungs. Something was terribly wrong with my bundle of joy.’: Baby’s brave fight against ‘worst brain cancer ever’
“Three doctors came in. They told us we needed to sit down and relax. Nothing could ever have prepared us for what they were about to say. I just sat there, blank. He’s just a baby.”
‘If she says mama, I can’t go through with it.’ I never would’ve imagined the child we adopted would be my own cousin.’: Young mom adopts cousin after being inspired by her own intrafamily adoption, ‘I want my daughter to know her roots’
“She never told him she was pregnant with me. To this day, he has absolutely no idea I exist.”
‘Mom! You’re white and I’m brown. That means MLK made it so you could adopt me!’ He grabbed his little brother’s hand. ‘Look! Martin’s dream came true.’: Mom with bi-racial family claims ‘different is beautiful in everyone’
“He was 4 the first time kids told him he couldn’t play with them on the playground because he was black. I wasn’t prepared for any of it.”
‘This was our secret. How do you tell people something this big, but also tell them in the same breath it’s not a thing anymore, and also that you have no answers or explanations? So, we didn’t.’
“He instructed me to go home, and come back in a week to find out. There are no words to describe what it is like to drive around, go to the grocery store, go to work, etc. and wonder if today will be the day.”
‘We talked about meeting all year. In a perfect world, they could have both been saved, but that isn’t our story.’: Parents donate daughter’s heart after infant loss, meet recipient family
“It was different with them — almost as if he’s known them for ages. We would give anything to have our baby back.”
‘He said, ‘If I die. Nathan is the only person allowed to raise my daughter.’ What I didn’t know was how serious he took that statement.’
“I left the courtroom that day and did not see him for 9 months. He never showed up at the court ordered pick up. He never called. He had disappeared.”
‘I’ll leave if you have sex with me. He pushed his way in. ‘Sit on the couch!’: Woman overcomes abusive relationship, encourages others to ‘ask for help’
“‘No. I don’t want to. I’ll do anything else. Please!’ When he was finished, he uttered the words, ‘You didn’t think I was actually going to leave, did you? All I could ask myself when looking back was, ‘Why did I go back to him?! Kate, what were you thinking?’”
‘When I say my daughter died, people will often respond: ‘I’m sorry I didn’t know.’ Their response makes me smile.’
“I didn’t know there were so many excuses for avoiding a person just because their baby died. I didn’t know how hard it would be to watch them leave in a nurse’s arms, knowing they would never come back.”
‘Momma, your baby died?’ Cue my heart sinking into the earth. Bury me now. How do I explain this to my son? How. It was supposed to be quick, in and out in 10 minutes.’
“He grabbed me. He held me up as my body threatened to give out on me. I sobbed. Loudly. Unabashedly. In the middle of the parking lot. I climbed into the car, and after driving for a time, a little voice piped up.”
‘She turned the screen towards us. ‘Here is baby number 1, here is baby number 2…’ ‘PLEASE STOP COUNTING!,’ is all I could manage to say. The room fell quiet.’
“How could this be happening? How could we possibly be expecting TWO more babies just 4 MONTHS after the birth of our son? But it was. It was a punch in a gut. The kind of news that took your breath away.”
‘Then came the call. ‘Come to NYC and get your daughter. She’ll land in 3 days!’ We immediately jumped on the plane, but then a hiccup.’
“Just 2 days later we got a text in our agency group. ‘Who was the family that was interested in a deaf child?’ Well that was us, and now we are going to adopt 2 girls?! No, we couldn’t do that. So we had a HUGE decision to make.”
‘Fifteen days after this picture was taken, this sweet girl’s dad – her best friend, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She would only have him 18 more months.’
“What you see in this picture, and what I see in this picture, are two very different things. You might see a little girl in a hotel room, preparing for a gymnastics meet in Las Vegas, looking out on the world from her hotel room. But, I see something different.”
‘I’m impatient. And they’re insane. They’ve behaved their little hearts out for teachers and friends. They wanna cut loose, and so they do. There are tears every day.’
“In the still quiet of the night, I don’t watch Netflix or do dishes or take luxurious baths. Nah, I stare at the ceiling and replay all of my parenting mistakes, over and over again in my head. Guilt comes flooding in. Doubt.”
‘I heard my name. ‘Are you Suzanne?’ A woman approached me. I was confused, even scared I had done something wrong. ‘Yes?,’ I said nervously.’
“He cried for what felt like 24 straight hours. He felt like an idiot for believing. I didn’t have all the answers. I didn’t really have any.”
‘The best course of action will be to do a total hysterectomy,’ the doctor said, staring at me. ‘But I’m only 29!,’ I gasped in disbelief.’
“Well, unfortunately we have to do it now. I’d call your husband. If he starts now, he might get here just in time. Now hop in the shower and give yourself a good scrub with this soap.”
‘He’s the kid who never listens the first time. Or even the tenth. His heart breaks because he’s not always sure why what he’s doing is so wrong.’: Mom says her energetic son ‘needs you to hear him’
“He is smart as a whip, yet school isn’t always his jam. He’d rather talk about why Sally is giving away 24 of her apples instead of solving the story problems in math. He can read your emotions on your face, and will always know who is lonely on the playground.”
‘Less than 10 seconds changed everything. I was unable to get up, despite how hard I tried. Shock settled in. I overheard the words of some hospital tech, ‘SHATTERED!’ What did that mean?’
“I am not a fan of public restrooms but knew I would be on the road. That ‘smart’ decision changed my life forever.”
‘None of them had seen a case like Dominic’s. The amount of birthmarks was shocking.’: Mom gives birth to son with rare skin condition
“I willed my legs awake from the spinal tap, like Uma Thurman in ‘Kill Bill,’ and then I physically dragged myself from my bed to a wheelchair to see him. I demanded a nurse take me to him. He was blue, his skin covered with deep purple spots. He wasn’t crying. The whole room was especially quiet. They had no clue what was going on with his skin.”
‘You’re 12 weeks along, but it looks like the baby hasn’t grown since the 8-week mark.’ I blurted out, ‘Oh, well that’s a bummer.’ I felt like monster.’
“It was hard for my husband to look at me. We had to call our family and tell them the news. They took it much harder than I did. All my mom wanted to do was hug me. It was very smothering.”
‘He was gentle, humble and funny. But he perfected deceit. The counselor urgently told me to take my kids and ‘get out while you still can.’
“I sat on the stairs thinking, ‘surely he will get sick of yelling at me at some point.’ He didn’t. So I locked myself in the bathroom. He broke the door down.”