“‘I’m taking our son,’ he said. It was snowing and he was wasted. ‘He will not take my child like this.’ My grandmother walked in from church. ‘Take my son and lock yourself in your room!,’ I screamed. He got in his car and sped off, fish-tailing down the snow-covered road. Hours later, he returned.”
‘You catch this baby, or I will.’ My son’s father fainted. He woke up, saw our newborn, then left to smoke. He returned smelling of cheap beer and cigarettes.’
‘My girlfriend of 9 months was pregnant. ‘I need to tell you something.’ I opened it, saw pink and cried. My relationship was beyond repair. I had to leave, I had to be a single dad.’
“My heart was thumping. ‘Yeah, we are having a baby too.’ Nobody spoke. Everyone looked at each other dumbfounded. Finally, my sister broke the painful silence. ‘Are you serious?,’ she asked. I was serious. Everyone knew my relationship was vulnerable.”
‘I was sitting in a hotel room. I had on a tight black dress, listening to my client say what ‘he wants to do.’ My gut was screaming to leave, but if I left, there is no money, and my ‘boss’ will be upset.’
“I begged my loving and supportive parents to please take me home. I begged and pleaded with my dad and promised I’d be good. But there were 11 charges, and a few were felonies. Bail was set at a million dollars.”
‘I spontaneously booked a hotel room and drove 5 hours to meet a stranger. ‘What the hell am I doing here?!,’ I wrote to my friend. I felt absolutely crazy, but I was on top of the WORLD.’
“We went back to his apartment. I was hesitant, because, what would happen next?! It was getting into the early morning hours, so I thought to myself, now or never. What was happening to me?!”
‘He went from leaving his phone out and unlocked to taking it to the bathroom with him when he’d shower and keeping it in his pocket when we were home.’
“My fiancé came home around 2 A.M. from ‘ice fishing’ with an undisclosed ‘buddy.’ By this time I knew he was having an affair as I had seen adulterous texts on his phone. I had a dress, the church, the bridesmaids, etc. The wedding was already planned.”
‘No one will ever want a single mom with 2 kids, by 2 different men,’ he said. I loved him in a very dark and twisted way. Not following his rules would unleash what I began to call, Satan.’
“One day I woke up and everything was different. He quit touching my belly, quit kissing me, quit showing any form of affection period. I made the mistake of asking him what was wrong, and that was the first time he snapped.”
‘If she says mama, I won’t be able to go through with it.’ I never would have imagined the child we adopted would be my own cousin.’
“She never told him she was pregnant with me. To this day, he has absolutely no idea I exist.”
‘I spent nearly 12 years with a man I never should’ve married. He never touched me. We fought about my weight. I was immune to anything but pain. And then I met Adam.’
“He works midnights. He came home at 8 a.m. I woke to see him singing our baby to sleep with county music.”
‘When my son was 10 months old, I fell in love with a guy who I thought was the one. The one I was positive I was going to marry. Everything was so great – or so it seemed.’
“Motherhood for me wasn’t the typical falling in love and making a baby. In my case, I was a 20-year-old living in a new city, who got drugged, sexually assaulted and pregnant. ‘Why did you keep the baby?’ Well, let me tell you… This baby was a MIRACLE.”
‘He screamed horrible things at me, broke my wall mirror, cornered me and told me he’d murder my family if I left him as he shook a butcher knife in my face.’
“I realized I couldn’t remember when I last had a period. I took a pregnancy test when I got home. It was positive. I was pregnant. I was freaking out.”
